Reviewed on Jul 4, 2025(Enrolled 2019)
What Students Say
Likes
- Free food a lot of times
- University Police Department's service dogs
- Good university infrastructure
Dislikes
- Ridiculously high university fees
- Sub standard education
- Too many students meant too much competition
Course Curriculum
6
- I would say in terms of difficulty, the program was about 5/10. The teaching was almost entirely practical, which I really liked.
- The most positive aspect was that someone not exactly from a CS background could take it and compete with former CS students.
- Almost every class had around a hundred students. The class timings and days depend on the courses you take each semester.
- There were 98% Indian students in my course.
Admission Experience
-
I applied to the following universities:
- Stevens Institute of Technology - Rejected
- New Jersey Institute of Technology - Rejected
- UT Arlington - Accepted
- San Diego State University - Rejected
- I think the primary reason I got rejected from these colleges was the fact that I was trying to switch my stream from Mechanical Engineering to Software Engineering/ Computer Science. It may also be down to the fact that I came from a not-so-famous university in India.
- I chose Northeastern over my other admits because this was where I got to study my desired stream. I had also heard good things about the co-op program at Northeastern. So, that was also a big part of my decision.
- I just applied with the required documents and got admitted.
- The only required exam is IELTS/TOEFL. The minimum score for IELTS is 6.0.
- Once you do receive an admit, they take a lot of time to release your admit, because of which your scheduling for your visa interviews might get delayed.
- I applied for the Fall 2023 intake. I think I applied some time around February/March of that year. I applied to multiple programs at Northeastern. So, I don't remember exactly which program I applied to and when. I might also have applied sometime in the previous year to a program.
- I received the admit that I wanted to go for in April 2023, so it took around 4-5 months.
Faculty
4
- Almost every class has over a hundred students. You can't really interact one-on-one with the professor because there are just too many students. It makes for a substandard education.
- I liked that the teaching was all technical and that there was no real use for the old pen and paper method of teaching.
- The faculty members hardly ever assist students in finding jobs.
Campus Life
10
- Northeastern has a bunch of campuses worldwide. They have multiple in the US such as Seattle, Portland, Oakland, Charlotte and Boston. There are also campuses in London and a few other places.
- The campus has a library and health and recreation services such as video games, sports complexes, gyms and so on.
- There weren't many campus festivals happening for graduate students. There was an Indian students association that used to organize multiple events for all major festivals.
Part Time Jobs
- There are a total of a hundred students in each class. Out of which, there are about 4 or 5 positions for teaching assistants. So, it is extremely difficult to get a TA/RA.
- TAs are paid 18$ for every hour of their work. They work 20 hours each week. The salary for RAs depends on the position.
- The minimum wage is 15$. So, each job must be paying that much or more. There are other jobs like Office Assistants, Sports Organisers, Resident Proctors, etc
- It is nearly impossible to get on campus at Northeastern.
- For students working part-time on campus, not permitted on an F1 visa, they usually earn less than the minimum state wage. Since these jobs are off the books, they really have no rights. I would not advise anyone to work any of these jobs. I'm not entirely sure as to what the process is to apply for these jobs and to get these jobs. I have heard of people working at restaurants or gas stations, though.
Placement
2
- Full-time jobs and internships are very hard to get in the current job market. Getting interviews has become incredibly hard.
- From my course, if anyone did get good jobs, they can expect a salary of over 100K mostly.
- Most people apply to jobs on LinkedIn, Indeed, Glassdoor and various other such platforms. They also get in touch with recruiters/hiring managers.
Accommodation
Off Campus
4
- I was staying off-campus from the moment I landed in the US. There are no on-campus dorms for graduate students at Northeastern University.
- I paid somewhere around $530-$560 at each of the places I stayed at. The heat and hot water were mostly included. You always had to pay for the electricity and WiFi.
- I stayed around 15-20 minutes away from campus. I used to walk to campus. I stayed in the area where most Indian students stayed, the Longwood Medical Area.
Exams
- The only required exams are the English proficiency exams, i.e., IELTS, TOEFL, etc.
- The necessary documents that you would need to get from your university are your professors' letters of recommendation, your statement of purpose and your resume. Apart from this, the requirement for other documents depends on the program you're going to pursue.
- I didn't have any interviews prior to my admission.
Fees
- Tuition fees - 70000$ USD
- This also includes the various other kinds of fees you had to pay, such as the health insurance, recreation fees, admin fees, etc.
- Fees are charged each semester depending on the number of credits you take for that particular semester.
- My monthly costs were around $800, including everything such as rent, utilities, groceries, etc.
Scholarship
- There are no scholarships for Master's students. Therefore, I did not receive any scholarship. You could only get a scholarship if you're a bachelor's student, which is again, too expensive.
- Nobody from my batch received any scholarship since we were all graduate students. Some people did, but they were part of a different school, so I can't really say much about them.
