Northeastern University

I often say that my education at Northeastern University wasn't the typical college experience: I felt like it was more like BootCamp for life beyond college because I spent 1.5 years working full-time thanks to Northeastern's Co-Op Program. Although at the time I felt like I was missing out on what TV portrays as the 'typical college experience' I've realized in hindsight just how unique and incredible the Northeastern experience truly is. The Co-Op program allowed me to come out of undergraduate university with an impressive resume and opened the doors to a wealth of opportunities for me!

It doesn't have that 'typical college feel' that you might find at a state school or a school that isn't located right in the middle of a major city. This can make the college experience a bit isolating and difficult in a strange way, however, I'm a firm believer that the person and not the location makes the experience.

The co-op program is excellent and provides great opportunities.

Prospective students should be aware of the experiential learning opportunities available to them.

Northeastern is a diverse, accepting community with tons of student organizations that you can be a part of. The food is decent, the dorms are decent, and the buildings are pretty decent.

The administration communication and mental health services at Northeastern could be better.

I really liked the Northeastern community. Especially during COVID, Protect the Pack was a great initiative coined to connect students with the desire to stay safe and wear masks to prevent spread. While the mandates have started to fade, I still feel deeply attached to the community and connected to the students for endeavoring this past year and making our community of tight-knit huskies even tighter!

Be aware of FUNDIES 1 and the dining halls. The dorms are what you make of it, but the dining halls fill up pretty quickly if you're not prepared and this class is meant to break students who aren't fully committed to computer science as a major or minor requirement.

Honestly, I love the diversity of people attending Northeastern. A lot of my friends aren't in the same major I am or even the same field, so it's fun seeing diverse perspectives and hanging out with people who you don't attend class with. I also really love the professors who teach here. There are some bad apples, but for the most part, professors really do care about their students and want students to pass their courses with flying colors. The research here is also amazing. In my two years, I have worked in four different research labs and have loved every single one. It's really easy to get started as a freshman and start doing research that you love.

Getting financial aid can be tricky. Personally, I didn't have any trouble with it, but I have heard things from others that make me a bit upset.

I like how approachable and caring most professors are. It really helps decrease the magnitude of pressure from assignments and exams. I also love how some lectures like philosophy lectures are very fun, captivating, and engaging. However, lectures such as the mathematics of data models and fundamentals of computer science can be extremely boring, hard to understand, and sometimes contain unnecessary content. A few classes rush through their syllabuses so it can be quite difficult to keep up.

I don't like expensive tuition and housing, as well as how some professors are indifferent towards technical problems when doing work and personal issues ongoing outside of lectures that affect our ability to get work done.