Can't pick between Northeastern and NYU CAS

PengsPhils
Sat, 19 Mar 2016 06:10:30 +0000

Hi! I chose between the two (and others) a few years ago for CS - I chose NEU and have been incredibly happy there. That said, fit is a big factor as the schools do have some significant differences.

How do you feel about the co-op model? Especially for CS, the co-op model is both very beneficial and prevalent - do you see that as an advantage or disadvantage? Personally, I love the co-op program, and CS has some of the best co-ops at NEU by far as well as the generally best pay and job prospects.

Some other factors that came into play personally:

At Northeastern, CS is it’s own college (CCIS) - the program was developed specifically for teaching CS and has a unique approach, the college advisors for academics and co-op are specifically for CCIS only. When I looked into the specific CS curriculums both now and then, I prefer Northeastern.

NEU requires 14 CS courses in addition to 4 Math courses. NYU only requires at most 10 CS courses, with as few as 8 needed. They require 2 Math courses with as many as four. While you can take more CS courses at NYU to get the same amount as NYU, there’s a difference in approach - I actually like the relaxed math requirements at NYU, but the cost of the number of CS courses seems a bit odd for me.

Here’s the degree requirements at both - note that NEU includes the core on the page while NYU does not - I would suggest finding their core curriculum. NYU has a very extensive and comprehensive core curriculum - for me, it was a bit too rigid, but if you want more liberal arts style, NYU beats NEU for sure. Both also offer sample curriculums.

NEU: http://www.northeastern.edu/rasala/data/ug2014/CSBS2014.htm
NYU: https://cs.nyu.edu/home/undergrad/major_programs.html

Boston and NYC are both great, but I also slightly preferred Boston as a city - it’s not as tall as NYC nor open as late generally, but it is very clean and has a unique feeling - it’s also an academic city more than a professional one - NYC swings a bit in the opposite direction - again, it’s a matter of preference.

Overall, both are great schools that offer a great mix of majors in their student body, great cities to explore, a focus on both research and good career services (NEU’s career services is ranked #1 nationally on many lists, NYU is usually up there as well), and high-quality academics. You can’t go wrong with either.

If you have any specific questions, let me know! I inherently know more about NEU, but I still have a good deal of memory of a lot of the details on NYU. Best of luck!