<p>The university made a conscious decision that it wanted to change from a commuter school into a national research university, and they made decisions accordingly.
They are hiring a lot of new tenured and tenure track professors, making an investment in scholarships to recruit top students, improving the academics, and branding themselves as the university they want to become. But they are not abandoning the co-op roots, and that’s what makes the university unique. Co-op was originally a necessity to pay for school, and provided practical experience for the practical careers for which the university was training its students. It would be hard to quantify the role of co-op in Northeastern’s rise, but I personally feel that it has played a role. It gives students a unique experience that I think is really beneficial, not only in helping to find jobs after graduation, but also in becoming better students who can integrate theory and practice.</p>