<p>Hey everyone! I am an international student from Barcelona, Spain. I don't have much information and knowledge regarding college selection since I hadn't even thought about university until a week before the application deadline. Anyway... I have been accepted in the following, among others, and I'd like to know people's opinions on which one to go to:
-RIT with 15000$/year. (Rochester Institute of Technology)
-U of R no scholarship (University of Rochester)
-Northeastern University - no scholarship
Well these are my top choices. I have been accepted to others but I didn't like them when I went to visit.
The scholarships and money issues don't really matter to my parents so the scholarships don't have much weight on my decision-making process.
I am, obviously, intending to study engineering: most probably Mechanical or Electrical. I wanna be involved in educational clubs, like automotive club or aerospace (RIT is strong at these). I wanna be involved in research. Co-ops are certainly helpful since, as an international, it can help me a lot when I apply to jobs (more than to national students). Note: I want to stay in the US after college.</p>
<p>If the scholarships don’t matter, then of those 3 I know 2 very well. UR is a much better school than Northeastern. I assume it’s also a much better school than RIT, which has a different emphasis in general than either of the other 2.</p>
<p>congrats on your acceptances! university of rochester enjoys the best academic reputation of the three schools and there are great opportunities for research.</p>
<p>I agree that UR is probably the best school and is more renowned academically than the other two, but in my view the above is somewhat misleading. Northeastern has risen markedly in prominence in recent years and is still very much rising. I know kids who have been 2nd or 3rd in their high school classes who have chosen Northeastern, and I would say at this point Northeastern is just as hard to get in as UR. I think the most recent admit rates would support this. In 10 years, I think Northeastern will be very prominent, so a degree from Northeastern over time will have even more cachet. It is even with or has already passed by Boston University (which is probably still a more familiar name nationally). Northeastern also has Boston. Tough to beat. I guess my point is that I could see some kids choosing Northeastern and never thinking twice about it. It’s a great choice with excellent opportunities in one of the best college cities in the world, even though my own personal preference would still be UR.</p>
<p>I look at the results from my local Boston high school and the scores and gpa’s of the kids going to Northeastern are quite a bit lower than what I see as the averages for UR. I agree Northeastern has improved a lot - largely dumping the vast extension school was a huge step (though they still misleadingly advertise the number of Northeastern grads using those figures). I know faculty there. But on the major metrics, including out of state students and a bunch more, they aren’t BU by the numbers (or BC or UR). I do think the co-op program has become much more attractive as people worry more about jobs and that has had an effect. And they aggressively market. I’m always interested in how our supposedly more savvy world still responds to obvious marketing. </p>
<p>As for future prestige, who knows? But UR’s prestige is rising fast as well.</p>
<p>As an aside, I am amused by prestige concerns. The evidence is the prestige of your grad program matters - if you are going into academics. Beyond that? What matters is the quality and capability of the person. I believe people should go where they fit, where they can afford and where they feel comfortable.</p>
<p>Obviously some of this is anecdoctal.</p>
<p>NU says it’s more than marketing. They say they have a model for the future, sort of like UR with the curriculum freedom thing.</p>
<p>At our MA high school about 35 kids (mostly all higher end) applied to NU early action. Only 5 got in. Those 5 were very high end students. Some very good students did not get in. Just 2 years ago my S got in and was offered 16K in merit. This year my D with marginally higher stats got in but was offered no merit (and was offered merit at UR).</p>
<p>The NU admit rate I believe has hovered below 35% the past few years, and NU and UR are seeing apps rise yearly.</p>
<p>I just read on another thread that a kid feels NU is more prestigious than Brandeis. I wouldn’t think that, but some of these things are more fluid than most would think.</p>
<p>I guess my point is that I would vote for UR as “better” (whatever that means), but the margin is pretty slim (and for some Boston would be a dealmaker).</p>
<p>And Lergnom I’m assuming your high school had far fewer apps to UR than NU, so there maybe was a broader range of applicants to NU due to increased numbers and proximity?</p>
<p>One other consideration: RIT and Northeastern both offer a co-op option where a student will work at paid employment in their major as part of their degree program. UR does not. </p>
<p>Co-op degrees typically take 5 years to complete instead of 4, but the costs of the additional year’s living expenses are usually fully offset (or more) by co-op earnings.</p>
<p>Co-ops offer engineering students a chance to gain meaningful, real world on-the-job work experience. As an international student, your ability to work in the US will be sharply limited by your visa restrictions. However, since co-op internships may be required as part of your educational program at RIT and Northeastern, those restriction could be circumvented.</p>
<p>It’s something I would definitely ask the International Student Office at both RIT and Northeastern about before making a decision. (Ask the International Student Office because the co-op director may not be full informed about the international work issues.)</p>
<p>Any of the three schools can be good. Go to the one you feel provides you with the best fit (esp since you visited all three). You could also check to see where recent grads in your major (esp any international grads) got hired after graduation. That would be important info to factor in.</p>
<p>I know RIT and UR grads who are happy with their schools. I don’t (personally) know any from Northeastern, so can’t compare them.</p>
<p>I feel no need to discuss Northeastern in any detail. Sorry.</p>
<p>lergnom said:
Yet you made the general statement that
You are expressing your personal and biased opinion in advising a poster about a very important decision in his life based on your anecdotal experience, without discussion.</p>
<p>No prob. You said you were “amused by prestige concerns” immediately after drawing the comparison to begin with by stating as fact that UR is a “much better school.” Just sayin.</p>
<p>Finalchild, u mich and roch, wonder where else we’ll intersect. Anyhow, my response was worded carefully for what it said and didn’t say. While I agree nu has become more selective due to the deserved popularity of its co-op program, does that make it a better school? Taken to the extreme, if a sc</p>
<p>computer crashed and by the time I logged back on, I couldn’t edit post. anyhow, the point I was making, selectivity <> better school has been made many times. we can debate the better school and I’m sure get no where.</p>
<p>From our school, average accepted:
rochester - avg gpa 94.75, sat 2100
Nu - avg gpa 91.74, sat 1936</p>
<p>this is from naviance over the last eight years. while it would be nice to see the last couple of years, naviance does show the highest sat score for anyone applying to NU is 2100 while the majority of people applying to rochester had an sat > 2100.</p>
<p>It is interesting watching folks live and dies on a thread waiting for the very momentous decision, and then 2 days later you seem them just as anxious about the next school on the list. And the amount of crossover here I think actually points to a serious problem. Everyone worried about getting in a good enough school and after hearing your own horror stories about high end kids getting shut out, the same types of kids apply to even more schools to cover themselves.</p>
<p>Anyway, my issue right here is that if the kid who started thread ends up choosing NU for whatever reason I wanted him/her to know that NU is a very good school in its own right with a rapidly rising profile and reputation. </p>
<p>The anecdotal high school stuff can vary quite a bit. We have had salutatorians with 2200+ choose NU, and I’ve seen quite a few kids in top 5% in the 1950-2100 range get waitlisted. The selectivity is definitely moving up and the reach of the school is really broadening. Just heard about a kid yesterday who didn’t get offered Honors at NU who was accepted at MIT. I also know some college counseling people in other parts of the country who have said NU has become an “iffy” admit for some of their higher end students. BTW, these same people in the field love UR. I think both are underrated and less widely well-known than they should be.</p>
<p>And here’s the other part. Every kid I know who has gone there (sort of like UMass Honors) LOVES NU.</p>
<p>Like I said originally, I personally prefer and give a marginal edge to UR, but it’s closer than most think and I do not agree that UR is “much better.” Do UR fans think or concede that Wash U or Emory or wherever is “much better” than UR?</p>
<p>This is a problem on CC: people pop up when a thread mentions a school about which they post and they interject. I really can’t stand that. Makes me want to stop participating. This isn’t a debate. This isn’t an argument. Get my point?</p>
<p>The UR forum is almost devoid of arguments about this versus that and all that associated garbage. And then people flow in to argue. I sometimes think they’re part of the marketing team and there is a search running in the background to identify threads that mention this or that school. And I wish they’d go away. </p>
<p>The posters in the UR forum talk about UR. They try to give some sense of how UR compares but little more because, it seems, there is an understanding that people make decisions for a variety of reasons and the rest is noise. And much of that noise is contributed by people who swoop in to argue when a school is mentioned. Again, do you work for that school? Are you part of their alumni association? </p>
<p>I don’t put anything past schools now. We know they lie about the information presented on surveys. We know they distort their marketing materials. Why wouldn’t they engage here?</p>
<p>personally, I don’t understand your post:</p>
<br>
<br>
<p>you were the 2nd poster, isn’t this precisely what you did?</p>
<p>edit:
saw your edit. you’re very positive about u of r, do you work for them in some fashion? :)</p>
<p>The only issue here would be if I/we was scammed by the OP, the international student. Doesn’t seem like that to me. Would be an odd 3some of schools to be playing that game.</p>
<p>As I have suggested, my kid will choose UR over NU, and right now UR is the pick barring a surprise big reach admission. I am a huge UR fan. </p>
<p>I do not have any affiliation with any of these schools other than my kid applying to both.</p>
<p>Thanks for everything. But I think you are disregarding RIT completely. Despite its general ranking, some rankings consider it one of the best in the world for engineering (like the businessinsider rank for engineering universities). Also, I appreciate your comments but it is clear to any reader that each of you is very biased: one towards UR and the other NU. When I went there I met people in RIT that was accepted into UR and NU and chose to go to RIT. People who graduate from RIT have a much better chance of getting a good job acforsing to statistics and rankings. Idk… what I am saying is that both of you are being very baised and you are not taking into account many aspects. Anyway I am thankful for all the comments.</p>
<p>One last thing… the fact that a university is hard to get into doesnt mean it is good or any better than another.</p>