<p>Could use some help from parents with S or D at Northeastern. S is seriously considering applying to NU for music industry/business programs. He likes their Co-op model, loves the location, thinks the campus is really nice. Here's the issue. S is a very strong student, and would be competitive to get into "higher rated schools." I know, I know, I know that happiness and success at a school depend on a lot of factors. BUT... what's the story with the quality of pure academics at NU? Are there a lot of serious students there? What is the quality of the faculty like? Does getting into Honors College make a substantive difference other than providing access to a nice dorm? Honest inside perspectives would be very helpful. I have an old bias of this as being a "B" school... fair? unfair???</p>
<p>I know exactly what you mean, but the two kids I know who have gone there apparently really liked it. One was a very bright kid, NMF, who did not have grades to match. He is in computer science, and has had an internship at Goldman Sachs, which even if you do not admire the company (and I don’t) would be counted as a significant placement. The other was a strong student who didn’t get into the reachier schools. He’s in computer graphics/art/game development, and has worked steadily in the field, starting through one of his professors.</p>
<p>I think that your S has solid reasons fro being interested in the school. I think that it would be perfectly reasonable for your S to apply there, as well as to reachier schools, especially given his interests. (If he aspired to be a philosophy professor, it would not be my #1 suggestion. 
) Applying simply keeps the option open.</p>
<p>One of my sisters graduated from Northeastern with a degree in nursing and it has served her well in her career. My manager has a student at Northeastern and likes it there. One of my sisters has a daughter at Northeastern (she’s in Australia right now at Swinburn which has some kind of funny deal with Northeastern for study abroad).</p>
<p>I also chatted with a co-worker whose husband has interviewed many NU grads for software engineering. He was disappointed with their graduates in that they weren’t exposed to a lot of theory. Apparently they had a lot of programming courses which is what is in demand from industry but they didn’t have what many of us consider the heavy theory courses that some companys require.</p>
<p>So there are a few data points.</p>
<p>In general, I think well of Northeastern and its co-op model in terms of finding work.</p>
<p>I should add that when I used the term “computer science” it was loosely. He may well be in software engineering instead.</p>
<p>No one can give you an objective assessment. </p>
<p>I know some NEU faculty. They’re nice people, mostly in engineering, but I don’t know how they are as teachers. Our high school has a lot of applicants and students at all the Boston schools. Considering the usual suspects - and excluding Harvard and MIT - the data for our school (meaning from Naviance) is students with higher grades and scores apply to Tufts, then to BU & BC (essentially even, though the BU numbers are spread over a wider range) and then to NEU. There is a fairly substantial difference in the steps. That’s the only actual data I have. </p>
<p>To give NEU credit, they have built a campus. They cut the number of students dramatically: used to be they had “50k” or “60k” because they trumpeted - on ads everywhere - their extension and night courses. They do sometimes still use that material to advertise how many NEU grads there are in Boston, but the reality is they’ve refocused the school on undergrads. They have been focusing on raising the number of out-of-state kids.</p>
<p>In the Boston area NE used to be (20 or 30 years ago) everyone’s safety school. But under the leadership of some of the past few presidents, they have really transformed themselves. I saw a segment on a locally produced news show that talked about all the changes and I was really surprised. It is now harder to get into than B.U… Their ranking has climbed steadily higher, and more and more really good students go there…</p>
<p>Here’s a quote from the Wikipedia article <a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeastern_University:[/url]”>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeastern_University:</a>
"From 1996 to 2006, President Richard Freeland led an institutional change; average SAT scores increased more than 200 points, retention rates rose dramatically, and applications doubled. President Freeland oversaw Northeastern’s largest expansion ever, opening $485 million in new facilities, including residence halls, academic and research facilities, and athletic centers. The institution also became substantially more selective, leading to a more academically talented student body.During the transition, students experienced a re-organization of the co-operative education system to better integrate classroom learning with workplace experience. The university also switched its full-time undergraduate and graduate programs to a new academic calendar comprising two traditional semesters and two summer “minimesters”, replacing the four-quarter system. This new calendar allowed students to delve more deeply into their academic courses and to experience longer, more substantive co-op placements.</p>
<p>Throughout the transformation, President Freeland’s oft-repeated goal was to crack the Top 100 of the U.S. News rankings[citation needed], which was accomplished in 2005. With this goal accomplished and the transformation from commuting school to national research university complete, he stepped down from the presidency on August 15, 2006. His successor is Dr. Joseph Aoun, formerly a dean at University of Southern California. Since coming into office in the fall of 2006, President Aoun has implemented a decentralized management model, giving the academic deans of the university more control over their own budgets, faculty hiring decisions, and fundraising.</p>
<p>As part of Northeastern’s five-year, $75 million Academic Investment Plan, the University is concentrating on three areas: undergraduate education, core graduate professional programs, and centers of research excellence. The Plan centers around the addition of 100 tenured and tenure-track professors between 2004 and 2009. This plan was recently expanded to provide for the hiring of an additional 300 tenure and tenure-track faculty in interdisciplinary fields. Aoun has also placed more emphasis on improving town relations by reaching out to leaders of the communities surrounding the university.In addition, Aoun has created more academic partnerships with other institutions in the Boston area including Tufts, Hebrew College and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts."
Bottom line, I wouldn’t discourage your student from applying. Just expose him to other schools you and your GC think are a good fit. Depending on where you are in the search process, he may find some other school he likes better. I will say that if he is interested in the music industry, have co-op experience is likely to be a HUGE benefit.</p>
<p>Visited Northeastern and BC last week. Surprised as to the changes at Northeastern since my student days elsewhere in Boston many decades ago. The area is much nicer and there is actually a campus. It also a much more residential University where once it appeared to be mostly commuter. The Co-op program might give students an advantage in looking for work and perhaps allow one to decide what one wants to do. My impression was quite positive and I think of the school as being in the same class as BU. The University is in Boston and therefore a great place IMHO to spend four years. If your son likes the school, it’s city vibe and like the potential courses of study I certainly would consider it. USNR just rated the school somewhere in the 50’s for National Universities and I think it is a pretty fair assessment.</p>
<p>Daughter graduated from NEU two years ago. My - and her - impression of NEU then and now is that it’s a terrific school for professionally oriented students. The coop program does give them a valuable entry into the work place, and the school is increasingly competitive for admissions. That said, I think the more intellectual, learning-for-learning’s-sake student who’s also deeply interested in the humanities may feel more at home in a more traditional university. Doesn’t mean that NEU wouldn’t work for your D: she could do business and take advantage of the rich music scene around the campus. But I think she’d find more academic/intellectual peers at different type of school.</p>
<p>It appears as if they are attracting many “A” type students now a days…I think it’s so important to visit the school, even more than once if possible, and really get a feel for the campus vibe by sitting in on classes, meeting with professors (arranged ahead of time), having lunch in cafeteria, talking to students and faculty…asking lots of questions.</p>
<p>Being in Boston, maybe he could take a class or two at Berklee…</p>
<p>Also, two other terrific schools for music/business at a bit “higher” level would be Univ. of Rochester and Vanderbilt.</p>
<p>Don’t worry about there not being enough intellectual kids…he will definitely find his niche of friends to hang out with…he’s got thousands to choose from there, not a problem!</p>
<p>NEU was widely regarded as the “Safety school” along with BU for -B/C level students in my HS looking to study in the Boston area. NEU tended to give out generous first-year scholarships for such students as well per the experiences of a few classmates who took them up. Unfortunately, they also substantially reduced such scholarships in the second year prompting both to transfer out…one to Brooklyn Polytechnic(Now NYU-Poly). Was well regarded for engineering, pharmacy, criminal justice, and business. </p>
<p>General assessment from HS classmates and friends who attended/graduated from NEU: Great place to go if you major in one of their stronger departments and/or your main interest is to get a job. </p>
<p>If you need more than extreme pre-professionalism and dislike being regarded as weird by classmates because you exhibit any “learning for learning sake” attitudes, you’re better off going elsewhere. </p>
<p>Earlier '90’s attendees/alums also reported there was a lot of heavy drinking/rowdiness among students in non-honors dorms, but that started mellowing out in the late '90s as they raised admissions standards, closed down some local campus bars, and eliminated a program to admit remedial students who didn’t meet even the much lower admissions standards of the '80s and early '90s. </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>In the '90s, the general pattern of students applying to Boston area schools other than Harvard and MIT was Tufts, Brandeis*, BC, and then BU/NEU in order from highest to lowest perceived prestige. For female students, Wellesley tended to be on par or slightly ahead of Tufts. </p>
<ul>
<li>My GC and many HS classmates’ parents had a high degree of respect for Brandeis which matched or among some, exceeded that of Tufts.</li>
</ul>
<p>For the music industry business program, I would give serious consideration to NYU over Northeastern as you indicate he is a very good student. If internships and co ops are what is attracting you take time to see where the students are placed.</p>
<p>I would tell a current high school student to go visit. In response particularly to cobrat, Northeastern has changed a lot since the 80s and 90s. It has a nice campus vibe and sort-of a campus center (much more of one than BU.) I like BU as well – I have attended both BU and Northeastern spread out far in time. I have also worked at Brandeis. Brandeis is an entirely different kettle of fish. I found the facilities and infrastructure to be really dilapidated/falling apart there! In the early 2000s, Brandeis still had the same furniture as BU had in the 1980s! I don’t know how much has changed there in the last 5-10 years in that regard, but Brandeis is an entirely different experience, being that it is out in Waltham, a train+T ride to Boston. BU and Northeastern are right in the city. While I like the Northeastern campus a little better as a campus, I like the BU location better. Northeastern is right next to a rough area and right in the city. BU is just in a slightly nicer part of the city, in my opinion, though it is more spread out along Comm Ave. I feel safer on the BU campus, though both being in the city, you can’t really make assumptions.</p>
<p>Regarding music, I know nothing of Northeastern’s music industry program other than that it has one, and I have met students doing things like sound engineering, etc. I have no idea how it compares, but it is located right adjacent to both the Boston Conservatory and Berkelee School of Music, also right next to Symphony Hall and a whole bunch of other venues and clubs. I guess it all comes down to where the coop placements are, but geographically speaking, Northeastern has a lot going for it when it comes to music.</p>
<p>Oh, and the best professor I have ever had or have ever taught with – hands down – is at Northeastern. Mike Epstein. Engineering/Communication Disorders. He is also in a pop band!!</p>
<p>Here is a link to You Tube’s channel for Northeastern’s Music Industry program. The first video is a good overview:
[northeasternmusic351</a> - YouTube](<a href=“northeasternmusic351 - YouTube”>northeasternmusic351 - YouTube)</p>
<p>The vast majority of students are “intellectual” in the sense that they value their education and where it will lead them. If by intellectual you mean wanting to spend four years debating theories and ideas, then not so much so. Northeastern is not a place for someone wanting a classical liberal arts education. In fact they do not even have a Classics department.</p>
<p>BTW, last week Northeastern received a $60 million donation from two alumni (from the old days) for its School of Business. The money will be used for program support not bricks and mortar.</p>
<p>As for financial aid, merit scholarships are guaranteed for the duration of the degree program subject to meeting minumum requirements. Need based grants may change (+/-) depending on changes in the family’s financial situation.</p>
<p>Finally, whenever I read NYU and intern in the same paragraph as ‘flyaround’ wrote, I think of the Seinfeld episode when Kramer hired an NYU intern. Just my opinion</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I agree. All of the later students (1999-later) reported the atmosphere at NEU is far less rowdy/heavy partying and it was a better atmosphere for more serious intellectual students. </p>
<p>I’ve also visited the campus both just before and after the renovations in the mid-90s…great contrast and yes, it is a great campus. On the other hand, there’s still a heavily pre-professional atmosphere and a disdain for “learning for learning’s sake” among many students even after the late '90s…though it has been substantially dampened compared with what I saw in the mid’90s. </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>While the above sounds right if were talking early-mid '90s or earlier IME and those of older NEU alums I know, I felt safe there during my time in Boston and none of the later NEU alums had any complaints/issues. </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I’ve heard from several NEU alum friends, especially the post 1999 grads. </p>
<p>That’s got to be a good bit of comeuppance for some BU alums/students I’ve encountered in the Boston area who used to be such jerks about disdaining NEU students back in the '90s and early '00s. </p>
<p>It was weird since everyone…including many Boston locals I’ve encountered viewed them as on the same level back then.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>There must have been a change since the mid’90s. Both HS classmates who transferred out of NEU felt they were subjected to a scholarship bait-and-switch. </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>When I see NYU, first things which come to my mind are “Where are they going to get the money” as they’re very stingy with FA/scholarships unless you have Ivy-level stats and they don’t run out.</p>
<p>My freshman daughter chose the honors program at Northeastern over Tufts. Only a few weeks in- I know she made the right choice. The campus is very city (she can walk to the MFA etc.) but yet is definitely a campus (quad, trees, Frisbee, etc.). The honors kids are treated very well - nice dorm (my daughter ended up with a single and there are plenty of them), wonderful cafeteria in their dorm, etc. Already she has found many kids like her - serious students who have fun (but don’t drink or take drugs). One thing to consider is that the head of co-op at Northeastern is also the person who does the music industry co-op placements and he is a powerhouse. I have heard the guy speak twice and he is the guy you want to get your child an internship and then a job! That would be a huge plus for your son. This past year was very competitive and kids who thought they might have a chance at the honors college did not even get in. Plus, you can get merit money at Northeastern (my daughter got a nice deans scholarship) and that won’t happen at places like Tufts.</p>
<p>I know 3 graduates from NEU and all have landed excellent jobs. All three had a great college experience. The 3 were all very good students coming out of HS and had opportunity to go to a wide selection of universities.</p>
<p>I live near Boston and know several students at NEU. They are bright kids and love it.</p>
<p>My D toured there 3 years ago and I was completely taken off guard by how much I liked it. An actual residential campus in the heart of Boston. Buildings were new or renovated. Students seemed more serious/pre-professional/driven than students at more “traditional” colleges with football and lots of grass. The co-op program is the original and still the best - lots of schools trumpet “internships,” but NEU wrote the book and they do it better than anyone. They have connections around the country and the world.</p>
<p>The kids from our hs who go there are top students. </p>
<p>Point of note - cobrat’s previous post seems at least 25 years out of date. In no way, shape or form is the NEU of today a “safety school” for B-/C students. That was NEU in the 1970s and 80s. Not any more. They received more applications than BU (for fewer spots), and for good reason. Their post-graduation employment numbers are as good or better than pretty much any other national university.</p>
<p>I agree with a few other comments:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>NEU has become generous with FA to high achieving students, and is guaranteed for all 4 years.</p></li>
<li><p>The school is building geographic diversity among its students, so being from out of the northeast in particular may be an added bonus for getting good FA</p></li>
<li><p>The Honors program is very good, and attracts very interesting kids. </p></li>
<li><p>It’s no longer the automatic “safety” that it used to be. Matriculating freshman stats are rising constantly and are considerably higher now than even 5 years ago.</p></li>
<li><p>And, yes, its grads do get good jobs even right after graduation.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>One final point: NEU seems to be very well run, and constantly rises in rankings and regional/national recognition. If its ambitious plans for attracting ever-more accomplished students, increased faculty hiring and program expansion come to fruition (they have so far) NEU may well begin outranking both BU and BC.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>The safety school bit was still applicable in the mid’90s before President Freeland came in. The older NEU grads I knew who attended in the late '80s/early-late '90s…including 2 HS friends in my year were mostly B/C students. </p>
<p>While I acknowledge that this aspect is out of date, it was still applicable as of 15+ years ago. I also recalled the '90s grads mentioning that NEU admitted many remedial students through a program and their orientations included the “look to the left, look to the right, half of you won’t be here in 5 years at graduation.” type speech. </p>
<p>According to the post-1999 NEU alums, NEU drastically reduced admissions class sizes by increasing selectivity, eliminating that remedial admissions program, hiring more faculty to strengthen various programs, adding more buildings/facilities/equipment, adding more merit scholarships, etc.</p>
<p>President Freeland is held in high regard by most NEU alums as a result of what his administration has accomplished during his tenure. Only complaints I’ve heard were from a couple of alums who were concerned the elimination of the remedial students program may have shut the door on underprivileged students from underperforming Boston and rural Massachusetts public schools.</p>
<p>To the OP mshapiro:</p>
<p>Hopefully these posts have been of assistance to you. You appear to be new to CC so be aware that when you start a thread there is a tendency for it to veer off topic frequently.</p>
<p>One comment about how Northeastern has “improved” in the past 15 years or so. What has changed most is admissions selectivity. Back in my day (early 70’s) admissions standards were not particularly high. NU served primarily the working class student from the Boston area. As a freshman I remember hearing the “look to your left, look to your right…” speech. NU was an “easy to get into, hard to graduate from” school. The freshman retention and six year graduation rates, whatever they were, were low. Those of us who made it through and graduated could hold our own with today’s students however. The quality of the education we received was excellent. </p>
<p>Veering off topic: Other colleges in the Boston area have changed a lot too. In the early '70’s Boston College was admitting 80% of its applicants and was facing bankruptcy. Talk about a change! Tufts was nowhere near the highly selective school it is today. Only Boston University has not changed fundamentally, although BU President Brown is beginning to implement many changes there.</p>