<p>Northeastern students don’t HAVE to “take an extra year.” Many do, to maximize co-ops. But plenty do the program in 4, including a co-op, by taking extra classes or a summer session. You only pay for 4 years of tuition, by the way: no tuition while you’re co-oping. Also, graduating in 4 years from UCLA can be tricky. Many students are forced to do a summer session/take extra classes because it’s increasingly hard to get into certain popular courses. That’s not something Northeastern students have to deal with. </p>
<p>Does ‘rank’ matter? That’s the million dollar question on CC and a lot of the answer depends on your major and interests. </p>
<p>At Northeastern, you will be doing a job while still a student, and graduate with experience you can parlay into a full time job right away, sometimes at the same place where you co-oped. There is no doubt, however, that UCLA is the higher ranked school overall, and has a national/international reputation that NEU doesn’t. You could argue that the hands-on experience of Northeastern will even out/exceed whatever bump you’d get from UCLA’s higher ranking. But, again, that depends on your field. For example, if you’re into liberal arts/humanities, I’d say UCLA is the way to go. If you’re pre-professional in orientation NEU might offer more of a ‘guarantee’ that you’re a highly competitive job candidate after graduation.</p>