Hey Guys,
I recently got accepted to purdue university and northeastern university and I am having trouble deciding between the two colleges. I did not receive any aid from Northeastern so if I go there I will be paying full price. I live in Mass. Also, money is not a big problem for me, as my parents will cover it for both universities. So my question to you is which college should I go to and which college has the better CS program overall?
Did you get into Purdue’s W. Lafayette campus?
yes
I’ll change the tag for you!
Both great schools so congrats on wonderful choices!
Purdue is ranked a bit higher for CS but IMO, not enough for that to be the driving factor. Think about what kind of environment you want - city vs rural, co-op structure differences (and the flexibility to not co-op at all if you prefer summer internships), big 10 sports, etc…
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what rankings should I use, CSrankings, or us news
I pulled the US news ranking, but I think the CSrankings has Northeastern and Purdue back to back at 12 and 13. IMO, that isn’t a meaningful difference which is why I said not to worry about the ranking and look at other factors when making your decision.
oh ok, thanks for you response. I have another question. Do you know why northeastern is ranked 35 in usnews but 12 for CS rankings.
Personally I prefer Purdue given that’s it’s been highly regarded in tech circles for a long time and enjoys a better reputation IMO. It would be helpful to know how costs and locations compare from your perspective.
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All rankings have different methodologies. You’d have to look up the specifics.
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Do you prefer a co-op focused school (Northeastern) or a school where co-ops are optional (Purdue)?
I think that co-ops would be more beneficial since its hard to find a CS job nowadays
For location wise, I live in the suburbs of Boston, so Northeastern would be an hour away from home. For costs, Northeastern wouldn’t be a huge problem to my family.
You can’t really go wrong with either of these two choices, if they’re both affordable - congrats!! 
You can do a co-op plan at either school, so the question is not whether you want to be able to do co-op, but whether you want it to be normalized and baked into the culture and curriculum of the school. Northeastern’s curriculum does front-load a strong set of programming skills so that its students are able to be useful to employers on their first co-op; I don’t know whether Purdue’s curriculum is noticeably different in this regard, but it could be a point of comparison.
Are you pretty focused on CS exclusively, or might you be interested in blending it with another area of interests? If the latter, Northeastern’s range of combined CS+X majors might be a selling point. If straight-CS, you can get that at either school, and both schools have an accelerated BS/MS option, although doing this at Purdue would mean an additional year of cost savings.
It sounds as if you prefer Northeastern a little, but are questioning whether it’s worth full-pay (which is a pretty breathtaking amount of money) over Purdue. I don’t think you’ll find any objective reason why Northeastern is $120K+ better than Purdue for a CS degree; if anything, Purdue’s reputation is historically stronger, although Northeastern has built a strong program that is well-regarded too. It will really come down to “fit factors” and cost-benefit analysis around those factors.
One thing to weigh is what you and your family might do with that $120+ (could be quite a bit more, as NEU goes up every year, and even though you won’t pay for co-op semesters, you’ll pay another year’s increase if you do a 5 year plan; whereas Purdue is famous for its tuition freeze). That much money can buy some pretty great experiences, or a good start on buying a home, etc. So rather than think of it as just Northeastern vs. Purdue, think of it as Northeastern vs. “Purdue+X” where X is your most appealing plan for the leftover cash. If you do that analysis and Northeastern still wins, then, go Huskies 
Purdue.
But consider all the other factors as well as suggested by posters above.
You mean 53, not 35 (unless you’re looking at an older ranking)
Rankings are only one factor. I think the main pros for Northeastern would be location (Boston) and the co-op program. But remember - NEU does not guarantee you’ll get a co-op program. They have good connections and industry partnerships, but it’s ultimately up to you to get through the interviews and land a co-op.
Speaking of rankings, this aggregated ranking table is commonly used for CS.
You have two great options so you can’t go wrong either way. Congratulations!
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City vs. suburbs.
Big flagship with all sports vs. not.
You can co op at both but you will co op at NEU.
Your family can cover - but you’re still talking about $175K difference over four years - so if you are going to NEU, you should make sure you love it that much more.
Could your parents use that money for retirement or to help you in grad school or after graduation if you need their help.
I acknowledge you note your family could pay - but could the savings be used for something else that will benefit them in retirement or you later?
Personally, unless you visited Purdue and hated it, I’d be hard pressed to find, for CS, the value in Northeastern vs. a stalwart in Purdue that is so reasonably priced and produces so well over and over again.
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