Hi! So I was recently admitted into these two universities, but am having a hard time choosing between the two. The two have equal pros and cons. I am going into Physics and Philosophy (NEU has this major, Rochester doesn’t) and am hoping to do research when I graduate (Rochester is a research university, NEU isn’t). Another factor is that Rochester has an open curriculum, but NEU has coop. Anyone wanna help me decide?
Just realized I posted this under College Admissions … although it isn’t admissions related, hopefully you all could still help.
Honestly, when you choose Northeastern, you’re choosing a coop-centric, pre-professional school. Yes, it may have philosophy, but most of the students there are professionally oriented. Coops dominate the school vibe, with a large percentage of your friends disappearing off campus for months at a time while on coop. If you’re OK with that – and look forward to working full time in your field for parts of the academic year – you’ll do great at NEU. But if you want a more traditional college experience, NEU may be a bit of a disappointment.
You’ll have to do some research for this to mean anything, but the University of Rochester seems more like Patrick Henry University than Northeastern. For your majors of interest, then, UR might make a better choice. Objectivism is optional.
Do you have interest in optics and laser physics? Then Rochester is the best choice. See the latest Nobel Prize in Physics, a Rochester graduate. Rochester is really a good school for learning physics and optics. Xerox and Kodak labs used to be located in Rochester and thus U of Rochester and RIT both got very strong in optics.
So the major Physics and Philosophy is actually an interdisciplinary major. I’m planning on doing quantum mechanics or something close later in life. @Coloradomama part of the reason I like Rochester is because of Donna Strickland, thank you for your insight.
I don’t know about Northeastern, but I do know that at Rochester you won’t have to wait until grad school to do research. For your goals, I wouldn’t think a coop university would be quite as good a fit.
I think generally it sounds like Rochester is a better fit, but Northeastern certainly is a research university (the highest classification, in the same category as UR in fact). It’s also undergrad focused generally and many undergrads get involved in research as freshman year. I do think for your subjects and goals UR does sound like the better fit. Would you do co-op’s at Northeastern even?
For what it’s worth, I actually love the philosophy department at Northeastern (I have an ethics minor). It is more focused on ethics than things like metaphysics though if that’s helpful info.
I love Northeastern’s combined majors, but I wouldn’t weight the lack of a specific physics/philosophy combined major at Rochester very heavily in your assessment, at all. UR’s curriculum requires that you choose concentrations outside your major, so at minimum you could major in one and make the other one of your concentrations. From there, upgrading a concentration to a minor doesn’t require many more courses, and taking it further to do a full double-major would be more than doable. Some of Northeastern’s combined majors would be harder to replicate at another school (for example, the CS+Design major that my kid considered), but physics+philosophy? There’s zero reason you couldn’t do that at Rochester. Given your focus on research and the fact that your interest in Northeastern isn’t specifically focused on the co-op opportunities, Rochester sounds like a better fit IMHO.
Double majors seem to be the rule rather than the exception at Rochester. The flexible curriculum makes it easy to accomplish, especially for two majors that would be in different cluster groups. Combinations like anthropology/microbiology or engineering/economics are typical. I think a physics/philosophy double major would be easy to accomplish at URoch to create a program similar to the one offered at NEU.