Northeastern has done it all. In the past 30 years faculty salaries have been brought up to match its peers, they have invested about $650 million to build ISEC and EXP, two stunning academic/research buildings. Other new facilities have been built and the once drab campus has become a registered arboretum. And of course, they have marketed all this.
Some parents have posted on here that they have a preconceived dislike for Northeastern for a variety of reasons. They bring their student for a campus tour and, no surprise, the student doesn’t like it. Northeastern has never been a traditional college. And it is still not a good school for someone looking for a traditional college experience, especially in the humanities or a theoretical approach to the social sciences. It never will be. Williams or Bowdoin would be a better choice.
My kids have had no interest in northeastern but I know three people who have students graduate there in the past couple of years. All loved their experiences and all graduated with job offers in hand - two of which were very good and the third a highly coveted position in the student’s field of study.
Yeah, to me if you put aside the marketing, what is left is . . . a pretty good school for what it does. Not something my S24 was interested in, and of course if it is not comfortably affordable that is a good reason to strike it too. But our HS regularly sends some kids there and it seems to work out.
Did the Boston Globe article finally disclose the acceptance rate for the alternate entry programs? Or is the single digit Boston campus rate touted as the average for all locations?
Northeastern has always stated that the 5% acceptance rate is for the Boston campus. There was no mention of acceptance rates for the alternative entry options.
Another article featuring Northeastern, among other schools. This time from the Wall Street Journal. Behind a paywall that I have not been able to penetrate. If someone has a subscription and could provide a gift link, it would be appreciated.
I have no issue with what Northeastern has done…but I can’t even put it on the list because we can’t afford off campus housing in Boston, I’d love to see similar a similar concept in a less expensive market.
For those who can’t see this article: It mentions Drexel also —and it mentions that a few other colleges are looking at more robust coop programs. But it wasn’t an extensive list.
I’m curious as to how a “formal” co-op program works. We didn’t look at Northeastern so I didn’t learn about it. How does it differ from a program in which a student can get college course credit for an internship (which many colleges offer)?
They have always had coop. In fact, U Cincinnati originated the concept of coop in 1909, four years before Northeastern adopted it.
Here is where marketing comes in. A few years ago, I read that Drexel had a yield in the single digits, indicating that it was everyone’s favorite safety school. Granted, Drexel has the handicap of being in Philadelphia.
If a student gets course credit for an internship, the internship is likely unpaid AND the student pays tuition for the credits.
The vast majority of coop jobs are paid. Coop jobs do not earn academic credit and tuition is not paid while on coop. Coop jobs normally run 4-6 months.
Thank you. Does it delay graduation or are the graduation credit requirements taking into account that most students have coops that don’t earn academic credit? My D had an unpaid internship in college for which she received course credit. I think there was a max number of quarters you could have an internship and receive course credit (and you’re correct that we paid for the credits, but they counted toward her graduation and she graduated on time).
At Northeastern a student can do two six-month coop periods and graduate in 4 years in most programs. It would require one or two summer sessions depending on how many AP credits the student has. Other than the summer after freshman year, there will be no summer vacations which seems to be a turn off for some potential students.
This sounds like a great program–a terrific way to build confidence and competence (and connections!) outside the classroom. That said, it seems like whether its a formal coop program or not, the key to a better employment outcome is having an internship. I noticed on the page you linked to NU’s coop page (thank you!) that “…93% of NU graduates are employed or enrolled in graduate school nine months after graduation (multi-year average).” This is fantastic, although I would wonder if similar results exist for students who had one or more internships at a college that doesn’t have a coop program. My D’s college (Santa Clara) had a rate of 83% for jobs or grad school 6 months post graduation for class of '22 – which isn’t quite apples to apples because NU is measuring after 9 months and they do a multi-year average.
A co-op which includes a fall or spring semester working instead of taking classes can delay graduation if the student does not (a) take classes during non-co-op summer sessions, (b) take greater than the usual number of credits worth of courses, and/or (c) bring in enough useful AP/IB/DE/etc. credit on entry. You can see (a) and (b) in these examples: Computer Science, BSCS < Northeastern University Academic Catalog and English, BA < Northeastern University Academic Catalog .
However, even if a student does none of the above, the student doing one co-op may graduate in nine semesters, but only eight of which are tuition-paying school semesters. I.e. the “extra” semester working at a co-op job is not a tuition-paying school semester.
Taking summer session classes has been a part of Northeastern forever. At Northeastern summer sessions are not like summer terms at other colleges. They are for Northeastern students only and are taught by Northeastern faculty. As I stated earlier, having to take summer classes are a turn off for some students. For those who attend it is just part pf the experience.
