I would vote Case Western because of many of the reasons mentioned by others. The Boston Northeastern campus is great but that is not where you are starting. My son opted not to apply. One of the reasons I was glad he did not is the lack of guaranteed housing and the high rent in Boston. I would be careful when you estimate how much you would spend over 4 years considering this. Best of luck!
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This is a great point
@brl2006, how much do you think the co-ops will pay? And have you taken into account the cost of rent and food during the co-op?
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I included everything (housing, meal plan, etc) and only removed a semester of tuition from the cost. Co-ops on average pay around $25-30/hour for 35-40 hours a week, which comes out to be around $16,000 per co-op semester.
Everyone’s been saying CW would be a better fit so I think I’ll just wait for their official ED2 deicions to release and go there. I’ve heard it’s not impossible to get Co-ops, so my plan is to hopefully do a semester of Co-op.
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You could go to Ole Miss and get a co op.
Companies want co ops.
Kids don’t want to do them.
So your equation is off in that regard.
If you want to co op, and assuming you interview ok, you’ll be able to co op most likely.
Co-ops and summer jobs or internships do depend on economic and industry conditions at the time. NEU and other schools do not guarantee that students will find co-op jobs.
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If we are voting, I vote CWRU.
My thinking:
- Engineering and STEM are what they do – it looks fantastic there.
- Oakland start – we investigated this well ourselves and it was not a great experience for most of the people we asked.
- Co-ops can be done from anywhere.
- Cost of living in Boston is so much higher that I think you will eat up any co-op savings you are counting on in your calculation.
- I think Northeastern punches below its rejective stats indicate. (Note that none of their extra campuses are included in their admit stats, so their admit rate reports way lower than it actually is.) Not that admit rates translate straight to quality, of course.
That said, if your heart is set on Northeastern and having a very urban, non-college-campusy vibe, then of course that makes more sense! I’m confident a good education can be had at either!
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I was just talking this weekend with a friend/mom who has a freshman D at Case engineering and she is absolutely loving it. She loves her profs, small class size, other engineering students, the student support services (she’s got adhd) and is finding lots to do in Cleveland. She already has a summer internship near home and is having a fabulous time in the Think Box. At least two of my S’s high-stats engineering friends had ED’d Case and a few do every year.
My son was about to go there but got into Berkeley at the last minute, which he chose for a number of reasons, but not after weighing all the factors and it was a close call. I think that he would have been very happy at Case. As parents, we were very happy with the merit aid (you may even get more once you get your final decision). We were also very happy with the student support services they say they offer on the website, as well as in conversations with other students. Oh and we went to a fabulous French restaurant right on campus. The cost of living is much lower at Case than at NEU.
My only issue with Case was it wasn’t so easy to get to Cleveland from the west coast (only one direct flight from my city there and back and at horrible times, so we ended up switching planes, which is something I wanted to avoid). Other things to look at are male to female ratio in engineering, # of engineers in each program, # of core classes you’ll need to take in addition to your engineering courses, and graduation rates/# of years it takes to graduate as an engineer.
Congrats on two fabulous choices!
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This is an important point, and it’s the reason my S23 crossed off Northeastern after receiving acceptance to NUin. My S would not have been able to make meaningful progress in his engineering major at a NUin campus, because he already had first year math and science done. He would have been limited to taking breadth requirements. So it would have delayed his engineering degree progress.
@brl2006 I would try to get a specific course listing for Northeastern Oakland for next year and check what courses would apply to your major. For example, here is one that I found online for 2024-25 (link), but it may not be up to date. I see computer science courses and first-year science and math courses, but I don’t see mechanical engineering courses. Not sure what you would plan to take in that first year, unless they are adding courses for 2025-26.
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Thanks all, I’ve decided to wait out the ED2 for Case and commit there. It seems like it’ll be a better fit for my preferences and it’s also quite cheaper.
Thanks for all of the suggestions and help! I really appreciate it 
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You can also use this link to check course listings. I do not see any mech engg courses.
https://globalscholars.northeastern.edu/global-scholars-program-curriculum/
nothing against oakland as I live nearby, but if you are going to be doing only gen ed, I suggest switching to london and having fun travelling europe.
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Case!
Everyone I know who went to Case loved it
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I’d also be wary of counting on your APs to cover first year engineering courses, the rigor at engineering schools can be significantly higher than AP courses and you may find that you’d actually like to take those foundation classes at your university to avoid struggling in the next level of classes.
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Case would be a fantastic outcome! Congrats!
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CWRU.
Your cost neutral seems contingent on graduating sooner which I don’t think you should count on or even want as a goal. Your plans may change once you are there taking classes. And honestly college is a great time. You won’t want to rush out the door. At least that is the experience for the strong majority so odd on…
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Case does aggressively market to EA deferrals that they should switch to ED2 if they truly want to go. But in my experience it is largely a bluff. I know many people who held out and almost all ended up accepted in RD anyway.
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I guess they and NEU use the same playbook
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I had one graduate a year early, another who could’ve graduated last May but even though she’s off campus is a full time student this fall and spring. I was under the impression that engineering programs are very tight with a lot of mandatory classes. I don’t know if any of my kids AP credits counted towards their majors.
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Have you visited both schools? Which one did you like better? Personally I would chose Case between the two because (1) I like it better, (2), it’s cheaper, and (3) you could spend all 4 years there. I would not be a fan really of the Oakland option, but maybe there is still a chance of doing all 4 years at NE or asking for the international option for your first year?
@brl2006, for your convenience, here’s the tally of votes thus far:
In favor of choosing Case Western over Northeastern: 14
In favor of choosing Northeastern over Case Western: 0
(I skipped over those who seemed to lean one way but didn’t explicitly pick a side)
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