Hello! I have been admitted into both USC and NEU for computer science and I’m having a hard time choosing between the two schools. I got into Northeastern’s honors program, however, I did not get into USC’s honors program. I know USC has a higher ranking for computer science, but I don’t know if I’d be passing up a better opportunity at Northeastern with their honors program. Also, Northeastern’s co-ops seem like another pretty good opportunity as well. So my question is, is USC worth it over NEU’s honors program for CS?
The honors program at Northeastern is generally perks rather than a significantly different academic experience. This is typical at most high caliber universities and I wouldn’t make it a big part of your decision.
Are you looking at the US News graduate rankings? If so, those are based on a single survey of other schools (unclear who even fills them out), are asking about the graduate program only, and have an under 40% response rate from schools. If you wanted to actually look at graduate CS strength, research is a pretty good proxy for that, and USC and Northeastern are very much peers in that respect.
You can find that data here: http://csrankings.org/#/index?all
All that said, you’re going to undergrad, not graduate. They generally both do have very good reputations and industry connections though, so generally I don’t think ranking really separates the two here.
I’m a bit biased here as a Northeastern CS student, but I would highly recommend its teaching approach detailed here which is worth a read: http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/matthias/Thoughts/Developing_Developers.html
I’d recommend choosing here based on fit, cost, and location. USC has LA a very traditionally sports/greek campus scene. Northeastern has Boston and more of a city school feel with social life focusing on Boston and then of course the big difference of co-op. Which do you prefer? What about cost?
Congrats on two great options! As long as both are affordable there really isn’t a bad choice here 