Northeastern [CS+business, first semester in London] vs. BU [CS+economics, first semester abroad]

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Hi all and thank you in advance.

I’m between BU and NEU – CS+Business Admin at NEU and CS+Econ at BU. Both are about the same cost. I also have to go abroad first year for both

I feel like BU is more prestigious and a lot of people hate on NEU for the weird ranking things that they do (even though Northeastern seems to operate more like a business and their yield strategy makes a lot of sense).

Here’s my pros and cons for each:

BU - Abroad First Year (get to choose between 5 locations)

  • Slightly more prestigious
  • Better alumni network
  • Really like the campus area
  • Great housing and guaranteed 4 years
  • Abroad first year, much smaller program (worried about meeting other BU students)
  • Grade deflation (not sure how much GPA matters in CS)

Northeastern - London Scholars (first year)

  • Really like interdisciplinary approach and double major
  • Classes are very applicable to real-life
  • Great co-ops
  • Very modern/innovative (just partnered with claude ai, newer majors/concentrations, etc)
  • Supposed grade inflation for STEM majors
  • Might take 5 years to graduate (if 3 co-ops)
  • Weird reputation
  • London sounds great but soooo far away
  • Maybe less social than BU? Not sure

I’ve already had a few businesses in HS and def plan on continuing in college, so not sure which school is better for supporting startups too. I also might want to participate in Greek life and don’t know anything about it for either school but I’m a social person so that’s also a pretty big aspect

Thanks !

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As might relate to relative prestige, it’s pretty easy to find a ranking in which Northeastern places more highly than Boston University, such as this one:

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Personally I disagree. Prestige is sort of a personal thing. I think they are both solid schools.

Yes, NEU is a machine as you note - in some ways, I’d be impressed as a student since I was going to learn.

Taking school names out of it - the first thing I saw was at one school you’d be in business and one in Econ.

Two very different majors. One is a pre professional, nor task or transactional while the other is a social science. Which do you prefer?

So at BU - when you go abroad - are you actually accepted at BU or you have the guaranteed transfer and going through U New Haven?

As for your first two BU points, how are you calculating more prestige and better alumni network - or are you simply declaring this as your opinion.

NU - Co ops aren’t assured - but yes if you take 5 years, it’s longer but you were working and making money - just as you would after.

What’s a werid reputation - again, how are you determining this.

As for as London is so far away - well BU is also abroad - so how is that better?

Are these your only two schools? There’s many schools here where you can study CS and perhaps you got into them.

You can look at greek life at each school. As for who is better for entrepreneurial - probably neither or both, etc. Babson is the Boston school known for that area.

At BU, CS appears to be in the Arts and Science school and no career outcome data is provided by the major. NU shows 98% of class of 2022 was employed within 6 months of graduation in CS. in CS/Bus Admin it was 97%.

As for salaries, they show everyone in CS or CS Bus over $70K - they don’t give specifics - except 1% of CS only that was under $70K.

Neither provides great data but NU people are getting jobs based on what they report.

I think first thing - figure out what you want to study - that would be telling.

But I’d take prestige off the table for both - and prestige doesn’t get you employed.

btw - on the Brown Open Source Computer Ranking, NU is 37 and BU 65.

Good luck.

computer science open rankings

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Two things to consider:

  1. CS plus business versus economics. Which of business and economics interests you more?
  2. Would you prefer a curriculum built around co-ops or not?