<p>My S is very interested in Northeastern but is undecided on his major.</p>
<p>The school has a strong reputation in engineering and some sciences but not as strong in the liberal arts.</p>
<p>He literally could end up wanting to major in anything from Engineering to English so this is an important part of his decision.</p>
<p>He has not received an acceptance yet although I would imagine he would be accepted to Honors-he is a NMF and I would also expect he would get a good merit award.</p>
<p>I would welcome any experiences you have with this-and I also would welcome feedback on if the Honors Program offers the kind a guidance someone like him will need in finding his major.</p>
<p>I have heard that the number of students in Honors has gotten much larger and the program may not be what it once was-again just what I have heard through the grapevine so any solid feedback would be very helpful.</p>
<p>That’s a good question, Pepper03. NEU seems well suited for a students who have selected their major and are looking forward to a related co-op. So I was surprised when my NEU freshman son mentioned that several of his friends are Undecided. Not sure if they are totally Undecided or already have several choices in mind. </p>
<p>The very large Honors group this year may be the reason that class scheduling this summer was tough. Perhaps this year they will adjust formulas for making Honors acceptances.</p>
<p>Hopefully someone knows more about being undecided (I know we have a poster who came in as undeclared, blinkangel maybe?), but I think undeclared freshman just take a variety of courses that interest them, as well as a math course and writing course (required for all freshman). All freshman also take an “into to college” class for their major, and for undeclared this will be for them to learn about different majors and start thinking about what to do. There are also events like “meet the majors” where freshman can talk to upperclassmen and faculty. So there’s definitely guidance and plenty of time to try out different things. </p>
<p>As far as co-op, it’s not going to matter. I was a social studies major as a freshman and then switched to behavioral neuroscience, and the semester/year that I spent in social studies classes didn’t put me very far behind. I was still able to go out on co-op in time, take all the bio classes I needed, and am graduating in time with no problem.</p>
<p>Most kids here are declared as freshman, but it’s not uncommon or weird to be undecided, and it’s also pretty common to switch majors after you get here (I did it, neuchimie did it, tons of my friends have done it). </p>
<p>Obviously NEU has a reputation for being more “professionally” minded than other schools, but I think that comes into play much more once students hit their 3rd year or so. NEU freshman are just as clueless about what they want to do with themselves as any other 18-year-old, and we do the same shuffling around and changing our minds too.</p>
<p>Yup, I came in as undeclared (honors too!).</p>
<p>The “intro to college” 1-credit course that undeclared freshmen take is called Connections & Decisions. I was in the section of C&D focused on International Affairs, because I was pretty sure that was what I was going to end up declaring (and did). However, some other people in my class ended up going into health sciences, physics, and a few other things. But since I knew I was leaning towards Intl Affairs, I really gained a lot from being in that section, since all the other Intro to IAF classes were learning about the ins and outs of IAF and study/co-op abroad and Dialogues, etc. So I wasn’t really less informed than the declared IAF majors. But then again, there are sections for people who really have no idea what they want to do and it’s not like these people are really all that far “behind” people who declared. </p>
<p>So first semester freshman year, I took Enhancing Honors (1-credit course required for all honors freshmen) and two other honors classes (a First Year Inquiry about Global Climate Change for my core science requirement and Macroeconomics which was an IAF req), as well as Globalization (the intro level IAF course with Denise Horn-- single most inspiring class I’ve taken at NU… Prof. Horn is absolutely amaaaazing… I remember Emily talking about the course here before I even decided to go to NU and it/she really lives up to the hype!) and Advanced Spanish. </p>
<p>People who don’t know what they want to do I think take two core classes and then one class each in what they’re thinking about declaring (sometimes the core classes are what they’re interested in though). Oh and I didn’t take College Writing since I had AP credit.</p>
<p>I’m guessing your son will have some AP/IB credit going into college if he’s an NMF, right?</p>
<p>Let me know if you have any specific questions about being undeclared and/or being in honors!</p>
<p>Well perhaps-he is taking three AP exams this spring but only one is directly from an AP class-his school offers a different college credit system and he has 6 credits from last year under that one-NEU has to review those before we know if they would accept them.</p>
<p>No IB here either. I guess my questions are how much counseling do undecided students get and what exactly are the differences between NEU and “Honors” NEU? </p>
<p>He just told me yesterday he thinks he might want to go to Law School so I wonder how NEU would work if that is what he ends up doing-I would think with co-op and law school that might not work out? </p>
<p>I have heard the Liberal Arts are the weak part of the school-it would help hearing from people actually there what the story is on that.</p>
<p>I know people who have come in as undecided majors. I also know people who have changed their majors and had it work out fine with coop (try business to physical therapy…take all the hard PT classes…and then back to business…completed three coops and graduated on time).</p>
<p>I actually think that coop is a good thing for people who aren’t 100% sure of their career path. Let’s say that your son does his first coop in a law firm. By the end of it, he might be thinking, ‘I love this, no more coops, I’m graduating ASAP and applying straight to law school’ or he might be thinking, ‘I hate this, I never want to see another legal office again’ in which case he still has time to change his major and maybe try a coop in a different field without wasting time going to law school for a career that he’d hate. I feel like people I know graduating from NU have a very strong sense of what they are going into career wise and what it will actually entail.</p>
<p>Just a quick question, but can undecided majors eventually enter the school of business? I know a lot of people say it’s difficult to switch in from sciences or art/humanities, etc. Is it any easier if you start out with no major?</p>
<p>Why wouldn’t co-op and pre-law work? Even a student who is undecided will probablybe able to get all the reqs in, on time, and with 3 co-ops (unless they want to do less). I was a soc studies major who switched to science, so I was way behind in classes–I still am graduating on time and did co-op. It shouldn’t be a problem.</p>
<p>As far as law school, co-op will provide good experience for a law school resume and provide valuable letters of recommendation. As any graduating senior will tell you, LORs are a hassle… with co-op, you already have up to 3 supervisors who can write you a great rec. It’s also just good to have work experience on school apps. A lot of college kids wind up working for a year or two after undergrad to strengthen their applications (and get LORs!), but we’ve already got that built in to our education.</p>
<p>Coming into NEU undeclared is seriously not a big deal. There’s plenty of guidance and opportunities that will help students figure out what to do.</p>
<p>I was accepted to Northeastern EA this year and just attended “Welcome Day for Undeclared Students” this past Friday. I really love science, but I’m not sure what I want to do. At welcome day, there was an overall presentation that introduced us to what Northeastern has to offer and then there were smaller presentations about entering college, study abroad, and career services. I went to the presentation about career services and the representative that spoke showed us all the resources the university supplies to help you decide what you want to do, what skills you possess, and how to get internships. There are separate advisors for undecided students, and then as you decide and choose a school and a major, you get more specific advisors. </p>
<p>I’ve been really nervous about being undecided, but there were so many admitted students at the undecided welcome day that I didn’t feel alone anymore. The people made me feel more comfortable about being undecided and I feel that if I do end up going to Northeastern I will have a lot of guidance.</p>
<p>The only thing that made me nervous was that the presenters kept referring to Northeastern as a 5 year school and I’ve been thinking about med school, but when I asked one of the representatives about this, he said that you don’t have to do 3 co-ops, you can do 1 or 2 and still graduate in 4 calendar years, rather than 4 academic years. Plus, internships are offered and they aren’t usually as intense as co-ops, so you can take classes while interning if you still want experience in a certain field.</p>
<p>I hope I helped and good luck! The only other piece of advice I can think of is that they mention that if you know you want to do, for example, engineering, but aren’t sure if you want to do mechanical/chemical/etc, you should still be in the engineering school. So if your son is really set on law, maybe he should be undecided within whichever school offers that major?</p>