Help daughter with final 4 choices: UConn vs BU vs NEU vs CWRU for Engineering/Data Science

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Good morning. My daughter has reduced her college options to four choices. She is have a difficult time deciding between them, partly due to the fact that she has two main interests (Engineering and Data Science).

All of the schools that she has been accepted at are good schools and we are very proud of her. They are:

Uconn (Storrs): Honors College and Engineering. She is curious about their International Engineering Program. Some merit scholarships were given by the school. She would prefer an urban campus, but likes the school spirit.

Boston University: Honors College and Data Science. She likes being in Boston. Loves the dorms and buildings (especially the new Data Science building). Dislikes the total lack of campus. She was awarded a merit scholarship at this university as well. Flexible curriculum (could switch to Engineering). Most prestigious??

Northeastern University: Data Science/International Studies joint degree. She was not awarded any merit scholarships or honors. Probably my daughter’s current favorite. She likes the campus, co-op program and the vibe. My wife and I dislike the school because of the housing/overpopulation problems. Seems to be a lack of infrastructure (only one library, not many dining halls, etc). Flexible curriculum/majors.

Case Western Reserve University: Engineering. She was awarded a merit scholarship. My daughter likes the variety of engineering majors, the amazing makerspace, campus is fine. Does not like Cleveland as much as Boston. The co-op program seems small, but well run.

We know that money is a factor. However, we would like some opinions from people familiar with these schools. How would you rank them? How important are Honors Colleges (I like the early class registration and the nicer dorms).

Your thoughts are greatly appreciated!!

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If she wants to consider engineering, she needs to start in that department. Very, very few would transfer into it.

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Honors college differ by kids and student - so check what they bring both from a living and curriculum POV and see if that works for your student.

In other words, my kids applied to some but not all because not all worked for them.

What I don’t think they’ll get you - is a better look on the resume. You may get connections or better resources at school but I can validate there is no place to add them in the online job apps that people use.

Many majors are quantitative today - so I’d be less concerned about data science and more with engineering. Engineering is often hard to transfer into but not to transfer out of (it has the highest drop out/change major rates, depending on the study at between 40-60%). Check your schools for their policy if you choose a non engineering program. I put BUs below for you.

She wants urban and the other three (outside UCONN) are to varying degrees.

CWRU is noted as very flexible so you might talk to them about your daughter’s interests. It might be a good sub for NEU - depending on the amount of merit and delta x 4 years. btw - in engineering - name your school - and they have co ops - if the student wants them and a company wants to hire them. Even UCONN has a page on them.

The international aspect is interesting. I like how there are some programs set up for this; otherwise academically it might take longer.

What type of engineering is she planning to do - you want to ensure the school is ABET accredited (for most disciplines).

To me, I’d choose amongst the schools that not just you can afford - but you want to afford.

We were full pay but had a budget and I wasn’t spending a nickel over. You are not me - but you have to decide - do you want to pay for Northeastern which is really expensive vs. Case which is x $ less.

I would not choose BU - for simple reason that you don’t have engineering. But if you do end up there, here are the requirements to transfer including classes needed.

Best of luck to you.

As you noted, these are four great schools!!

Best of luck.

Intra-University Transfer in and out of Engineering | College of Engineering (bu.edu)

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Case seems like a great choice. the Case name always seems recognized to people who matter. it’s in a good part of Cleveland and has a nice campus too. not saying I’d pay more for it but if they gave you merit, it’s got a lot to offer.

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Any of these are great schools (which I know doesn’t help much!). Not sure there is a reason to pay full price at Northeastern over a discount at the others.

I would have her look at what kind of opportunities and research the department of interest are doing, what opportunities there are for undergrads to do research, if that is an area of interest. She probably needs to decide on whether she wants to do engineering or not at this time, since the engineering curriculum is usually quite specific, starting with freshman year.

My youngest was very interested in a smaller college that supposedly had his major but once he reviewed the research interests, found out nobody was doing the kind of research he was interested in. He turned down BU and living in Boston as he agreed that the extra cost was not worth it. While loving where you live is good, most of college life revolves around the school and your friends so the city is not as important in most cases.

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Thank you very much for the advise. I was not as aware of the difficulties of switching into Engineering. She is honestly not sure which major she wants yet.

Anyone with personal experience with these schools? I am really hesitant about Northeastern…it seems a little too slick and the housing seems awful.
BU seems like a good option. Still need to attend our UConn Admitted Student day. I like Case, but it seems lower on my daughter’s list.

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Bump

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Some thoughts. You can get a good education at any of these. I’d suggest broader questions.

  1. what if they leave engineering?? First, Going to a school with diverse options is smart and all of these do that. But does one school have better programs or easier entry? For example, if they hated the calculus would they go into business or and can they get into the B school easily as a sophomore? Etc. My S16 at UConn entered as elec eng but dropped it and he didn’t get into the business school on his first try so he switched to Econ.

  2. which school is most flexible mixing data and engineering? data science plus engineering is very powerful. It’s a growing trend to add some data skills into engineering curriculum and many engineers we hire end up doing data analytics anyway. a dual major might be too intense in 4 years but perhaps an engineering degree with a minor in data science might be an option? Or a major in data science and dual major or minor in a hard physical science, Eng minor, or math. Both would open doors.

  3. is the student a person who is more about the journey or the destination?? Northeastern’s co-op is both a great opportunity but also very disjointed compared to a traditional 4-yr program. If the goal is to go directly to industry particularly in NYC or Boston, they are very goal oriented, or to earn some money to offset tuition, or work in travel, then NEU can help with that. If grad school is in the plan, or the student really would have an hard time if friends vanish for months at a time, then less so. Really depends on the student. Also, we found some kids stayed closer to school than we expected partly because of internships and partly because they liked the city-area. What if they stayed in Cleveland or Boston?

  4. Are they the kind of student that makes their own fun or do they need to be in a larger social circle? UConn is out in the sticks and the other three are in very busy cities. In very demanding majors like CS, data science, and engineering, the student may be ‘nose to the grind stone’ and rarely leave campus (from personal experience). So, it may not matter. But my S16 was more introverted and had to join a fraternity to get some social life at UConn. My S18 at Pitt (similar to BU,NEU,CWRU) had plenty to keep him busy.

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Definitely go to the Accepted Students Days. They will see if the kids around them are “their people”

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We looked with my oldest for BME(biomedical Eng) at 3 of your four. (I know nothing about UConn).
My DD and I ranked it as BU>CSWR>NE.
We felt that NE is overrated and dropped NE from the application list (Coop. Coop… Coop so what?)
DD is in GaTech but would probably go to BU in a heart beat if it would be affordable. BU has tendency for yearld protection, and rejects many top students (we got nice letter suggesting to transfer in a year. Thanks she had enough great options!)
DD loved Case and got big merit there.

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I think Case would be a fantastic choice for these reasons:

• Their aid (both merit and need-based) is typically generous. Is it one of your cheaper options?

• Case has total flexibility with majors. Your daughter would have complete freedom to choose whatever she wants (except nursing). She can change her mind, she can do double majors, minors, whatever. It gets complicated when you’re trying to cram in all your required courses, but she will have total freedom of choice there and doesn’t have to declare a major for quite some time. They have a wide variety of majors in her areas of interest and it’s a very well-respected school across the board.

• It’s urban but has a defined campus.

• While all of the schools offer study abroad, Case is a member of the Global E3 consortium. Studying engineering abroad can be tricky, and this program is a great way to do it. https://globale3.studioabroad.com

• College prestige in engineering and similar fields isn’t very important. These schools are all excellent and will be viewed favorably (for example, an employer won’t view an engineering or data science degree from BU as “better” than CWRU).

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Since she isn’t sure, I would pick the universities with the most flexibility- in this case, Case and BU. Switching into Engineering can be difficult because it is sequential so look at the ways the 1st semester or 1st year Data Science and Engineering curricula intersect. No such problem at Case.
For Engineering, Case is as prestigious (some might even say more) than BU so that shouldn’t be factor imho. :+1:

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One of my former employers hired a lot of NE coops both as coops and staff. For every 6 months for many years I met 5-8 new NE students. There were very very few I wasn’t incredibly impressed by and they all loved the school. That said I do not know todays housing situation, etc and switched jobs a couple years ago (not many). It is also a “hot school” right now as you have gleaned…

By reputation, I would definitely put UConn a notch below the others… beyond school spirit I really have never heard anyone rave about it.

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One factor in my son’s choosing NU over BU was more generous merit aid. It sounds like you didn’t get that, so I can understand BU being more appealing. Regarding the housing, it’s true that my son lived in old, non-luxurious dorms at NU and my other child at a southern college had much bigger and nicer dorm rooms. It didn’t seem to bother my son. He lived in a shared off-campus apartment for his last two years and cooked for himself.
Anyway, good luck with the decision.

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IMO, Honors Colleges are important in leveling the playing field between large public U’s, where there’s a wider range of academic seriousness in the student population and greater competition for resources, and smaller/more-competitive private U’s. So, on your list, the Honors College helps to put UConn in the running, but in my opinion, it doesn’t catapult UConn ahead of the others.

As a BU grad myself, I do not think BU is more prestigious than CWRU. I think it’s more in demand, because it’s in Boston. It’s easy to conflate demand with prestige, but reputationally I think it’s splitting hairs to say that one is better than the other.

As a parent for whom Northeastern made one kid’s top 3, I agree with the crowding concerns. The more we looked into it, the more we found detailed advice about things like a particular mid-afternoon half-hour window when a particular on-campus food vendor is less crowded. I thought about my kid having to wait in long lines for every meal, and what her outside-food budget would quickly start to look like… :grimacing:… on top of the school’s already pushing the budget envelope. She loved the campus when we visited, but it’s really quite small for the number of students. I do feel that the crowding would get old quickly. And you’re right that while NEU does co-op well, they don’t corner that market - your daughter could co-op at the other schools, too. We liked the flexibility of the combined majors, but for your daughter’s interests, it’s similar to the co-op issue: Northeastern packages things really well, but when push comes to shove, you can do the same thing at other schools too. I feel your pain on the no-merit acceptance; my kid was offered 10K/year starting in the second year, so no merit until year 2. (Weird, right?) If it had been the merit package that National Merit Scholars get, she might have ended up there. (Sorry test prep was anathema to you, kiddo!) At full price, I don’t see how it wins over your other choices with merit, even though I understand the appeal.

The one that stands out to me here in Case.

  • It has a nice “urban but defined” campus, more like NEU’s than like BU’s

  • Data Science is in the Engineering school, and the first-year programs vary only incrementally. She could ultimately do:

    • The Data Science BS

    • A double-major: Data Science + International Studies (in Arts & Sciences), or an International Studies major with a Data Science minor. (Which is to say she could replicate her proposed NEU major if desired.)

    • The ABET-accredited Engineering Physics degree with Data Science as her chosen concentration

    • Another Engineering discipline, with a data science minor if desired

    For your daughter’s interests, I think having DS and CS in the engineering school, vs. having the computational programs in their own silo as they are at BU and NEU, or just having data science in Arts & Sciences as it is at UConn, can only be a good thing. As BoroDad said, it makes for the best engineering+DS blending opportunities. And the “open door policy” at CWRU makes exploration easy, even beyond engineering.

  • CWRU is more manageably-sized than BU or NEU, but still big enough to have all the resources she could hope for. It’s legitimately small enough that there’s no need for an honors college, whereas BU and NEU are in that weird in-between space where practically everyone would have been in Honors at a UConn-like school, yet they still have honors programs that she wouldn’t be in.

  • Cleveland doesn’t have the mystique that Boston has for college students, but it has lots to offer, culturally and recreationally. She can always look for summer internships or co-ops in the Boston area! But there are also advantages to a lower-COL city!!

  • You didn’t mention whether she’s interested in Greek life, but IMHO the modestly-sized Greek system at CWRU is ideal. It doesn’t loom so large that students who aren’t interested feel left out. But it’s also very fun and inclusive for those who are into it. It can be particularly good for women, as the more “nerdy-vibe” type sororities that exist at schools like CWRU, CMU, and MIT, can be a terrific way of balancing out the male-dominated culture in many STEM majors, and making lifelong friends. But at the same time, there are plenty of ways of being social outside of the Greek system too.

  • As ColdWombat pointed out, the engineering-specific study abroad structures are excellent.

Just my opinion, but I see Case as your best-of-all-worlds option here. The sticking point, presumably, is Cleveland… but I still think it hits the sweet spot - it’s at least a city, unlike Storrs, and it does have its charms.

Good luck with the decision process!

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