Hey, I’m unsure of which school to attend. Hoping to major in either marine biology, ecology, political science, or some combination thereof. I’m also very passionate about foreign languages and music, and I’d like to continue my study of those in college in some form.
I know WashU has phenomenal student life and is the most elite of my options, but I honestly never imagined myself attending school there or living in St. Louis. I have a special attachment to the city because I have a lot of family there, and I honestly never thought I’d end up living there at some point. Whenever I think about committing to and actually attending WashU, I just feel all wrong.
Apart from that, WashU doesn’t have a specific marine biology department, although they have a killer East Asian library and a fantastic polisci program. Everyone I’ve talked to says that WashU would give me the best path to grad school, a job, etc.
I’m a fan of Northeastern’s co-op program and their dual program for Biology and political science. I don’t know too much about their marine biology program. I also don’t know a lot about the student life, the food, etc, but I would love to go to school in Boston.
Brandeis is a bit of a distant third, but it seems to have a very strong social justice presence which is appealing.
Are there any other pros/cons I should take into consideration?
If you don’t mind, can you detail this more? I think WashU sounds like the clear best option here beyond this, so I think trying to understand this more (for us and yourself) would be useful.
I a Northeastern student and would happily answer specific questions on Northeastern you have
St. Louis is my favorite city in the whole wide world. I don’t want anything bad to happen while I’m at college that would compromise my attachment to that city. I don’t want it to lose it’s magic by spending too much time there.
I actually just finished visiting Northeastern, and it seems impeccable. I lovelovelove all the opportunities students are given to travel and work and have substantial impacts before graduation–I’ve found myself frustrated and impatient when I’m holed up at school because I feel like I’m not doing anything meaningful, I’m just completing assignments. The co-op program seems like it would be really refreshing, can you attest to that at all?
I’m a city lover myself. If you can’t spend time in the city because you’re too worried about spoiling it, what’s the point? A good city will hold up to years and years spent in it. What exactly are you saving it for? If 4 years in a city taints it, you’re going to taint it at some point anyways in the future. What are you saving it for?
This is pretty much exactly why I’m here. As early as sophomore year of high school, I too was incredibly frustrated with the drag of meaningless assignments, constant busy work, and a lack of control over my studies. The co-op program is the real deal time and time again for me. Not only that, but the student body is very practically focused and relatively mature as a result. I’d consider myself an academic that would stay in school forever if I could, but I couldn’t do it in an academic bubble type of feel, so Northeastern was the perfect fit. Boston is an amazing city, and one of my favorites I have been to or lived in by far.
The co-op program does a great job of breaking up academics so you don’t get burned out too. Right now, I’m on co-op in LA near the beach, missing a Boston winter (I love Boston even in winter, but the weather here is refreshing), working, and then coming back in July for classes in the summer in Boston (as well as Fall), which I’m super excited for. Another advantage of co-op is that you can try out different fields and professions, and adjust your academics based on what you liked or didn’t like.
It sounds like you’d have an amazing time at Northeastern, and I would recommend it highly, but I want to highlight the differences with WUSTL, because there’s a pretty decent cultural difference.
The reason I first suggested WUSTL as the best fit was because of the way you described your interests. To generalize, it screamed “academic interested in everything and wanting to explore”, which I understand fully. While Northeastern certainly allows you to do that (the flexibility in choosing courses and flexible core curriculum is a big part of what first put it on the radar for me), WUSTL’s culture is more in line with that, with Northeastern’s practical spin means that in general you won’t find as many super academic peers, though still enough once you find them. Northeastern is relatively STEM-focused as well and has a bit less depth in the humanities, though there’s still plenty of fun and interesting classes (enough to fill a minor in any of those listed above).
Based on all this, I would make a few conclusions/recommendations:
Don't reject WUSTL because you're trying to save St. Lious, for the reasons above.
It sounds like Northeastern would be a great fit, as would WUSTL. Based on that "wrong" feeling for WUSTL and how well Northeastern fits, I say go NEU (so long as the other stuff above is good with you).
If you like cities, I think you'll like Boston more than STL personally from what I know of each :P
Good luck! Again, either would be a great choice and I’m happy to answer more questions!
Thank you so much for your detailed and thorough response! This is definitely helpful.
When I visited Northeastern I noticed a huge emphasis on the “entrepreneurial spirit” and the practical applications of learning, which is fine and dandy, but I was wondering if there was also a similar emphasis on learning for its own sake.
You definitely got me with the “academic interested in everything and wanting to explore”!! How academically rigorous is Northeastern, and how narrowly focused are the students/programs?
If you “just feel all wrong” when thinking about attending a school, do not attend it. All three of your schools are great colleges, with strong professors and smart students and good reputations, and the difference in ‘ranking’ should not matter enough to make you pick a school that doesn’t feel like a good fit for you.
It sounds like you really want to go to Northeastern. If that is the case, then do it!
Northeastern is an interesting school because of its strong preprofessional focus. Some people would prefer it for that reason, while others would avoid it for precisely that reason. It really is a matter of “fit.” It sounds like it fits you!
I think that those in it for learning for its own sake are certainly a minority (I would guesstimate 10-20% of students), but that certainly doesn’t stop people from having broad interests here. To use an example from my department, you can do a CS combined major with 25 different subjects, ranging from Math to Philosophy to Journalism to Cognitive Science. Some of the programs were specifically created for 1-2 students at first. Combined majors across colleges are incredibly common.
You can easily take classes in any college here except for a very select few restricted to major only, and they usually offer non-major sections of those. While I’m in CS, I have a minor in ethics and my next semester is 1 CS course, 2 philosophy courses, and a sociology course. Getting the breadth here is very easy to do, but it’s also easy to do a strong concentration in one area, dealers choice.
As far as rigor, I think you’ll find the humanities a bit easier here than at WUSTL, but I think they will be just as interesting. Browse some of the course listings in areas of interest (select a department and search, will get all classes for a given semester - select Fall 2017 for a good sample).
You get out what you put in is very true here. If you want to take a philosophy course just to say you did and get an A, I don’t think it’d be very hard. But a student taking the exact same class could get a ton more out of it just by engaging more, not just for the grade. For me personally, I like that, as it allows me to learn on my terms. That’s really the theme of Northeastern for the most part.
I consider myself very much an academic as said before, and while it’s not all my peers, I’m very happy to have both the practical/academic and still have my academic friends here who would be in school forever with me as well.
WUSTL will offer a lower student to faculty ratio (though I’ve found every professor at NEU accessible in every subject), a campus with a culture of more academics similar to you, and more depth in a lot of the humanities with a bit more challenge. Northeastern will offer Boston, the more practical spin, but still the freedom to take a similar breadth sampling of academia at the level you please. I think that if you’re okay with the cultural difference as described, Northeastern would be my recommendation.
