Northeastern University

Date: Aug 18 2007
Major: Design Arts - Industrial Design/Graphic Design/etc (This Major's Salary over time)
Coming from Texas I was really nervous about going to a school so far away, and I was especially worried about my choice. I had gotten in to better Design Programs at Carnegie Mellon, Rochester Institute of Technology and I even got waitlisted/into NYU and Cornell. To be honest I really just fell in love with the school when I first walked on campus. I knew that the 5 year program was a bit of a stretch but if you have the work ethic those co-ops are really going to put you out there on the job market.

If Northeastern does one thing right, it's setting you up for a job after college. Of course you can graduate with a great degree from a prestigious school, but all you're going to have is THEORY. No application experience… whatsoever.

Boston is a great town—some of the other comments have been right that a lot of the students drink, but that's to be expected at any college. If you don't want to you don't have to and there's plenty of stuff to do on a friday night that'll keep you distracted.

Winter is cold but not unbearable. The food in the caf is good- they can't be criticized for lack of diversity, or taste but I'd definitely be wary of the freshman 15 - not all of it is healthy!

Dorms freshman year really aren't all that bad, it's pretty much what you'd get at any other college. Just get through the year knowing this: your housing as an upperclassman, is really going to kick butt!

There's plenty of extracurriculars available. I personally had my own radio show as a freshman and had a lot of fun with it, there's also a really fun outdoors club that goes on great trips and has a lodge up on the NH/Maine border. But, if you have other stuff you're interested in, there's still something for you to do! I even had a friend join the sailing team even though he'd never done it in his life…

The professors I got were good, you just have to be assertive in your classes. If you need help ask for it or else you're just going to struggle. Don't come in thinking that everything is going to be a cakewalk, yes some classes are kind of easy but no class is a blow off class.

The people here are all very nice, it's easy to make friends and everyone is pretty genuine. College is your chance to start off with a blank slate—and there's such a diverse array of students with so many different backgrounds there's no way anyone should have problems making friends.