Northeastern University

Responses from the Student Interview

From a student  who identifies as Major: Nursing; on the pre-med track.
Minor: None
Student Self Identifies as: Hispanic Straight Female

Summary

Red Cross Club and a Co-op Communications Club

Background

Gender Identity: Female
Race/Ethnicity: Hispanic
Sexual Orientation: Straight

High School Experience: Public high school in a suburb of Boston with a graduating class of about 400 students. There was a culture of going to college.
First Generation College Student: No
Major: Nursing; on the pre-med track.
Minor: None

Extracurricular Activities: Red Cross Club and a Co-op Communications Club.
Did any of your extracurricular activities have a particularly big impact on your experience?
They’ve been a good way to connect with other people, especially because being on co-op is difficult because you don’t see as many students. I’m on co-op now.

Academic Experience

Can you describe your weekly coursework for Nursing?
Every week I have a full schedule from around 9AM to 2PM or later every day, except Friday. I have two labs a week which are three hours each. For Nursing specifically we have Clinical Placements as well, so the weekly course load will change because we’ll then have a six-hour hospital clinical once a week.
Is there anything that you feel the Nursing department does especially well or especially poorly?
It’s very, very good at job placement just because there is a high demand for nursing majors.
How would you describe the learning environment? Do you think it’s particularly competitive or collaborative?
The learning environment in Nursing is especially collaborative just because the job itself is based off of teamwork, so they teach us from the start that everything we do needs to be together.
How accessible have the professors in your department been?
They’re fairly good. Their standard office hours sometimes are at the same times as classes so I can’t meet with them.
Why did you choose your major? Are you happy with your choice?
I picked my major because I thought it was a good undergraduate path for going pre-med as opposed to just doing a Biology major. I don’t regret it at all because I’ve been able to work at a hospital starting freshman year.

Reasons to Attend

1) Co-op because it really helps you after you graduate. It’s so easy to find jobs after you come here because you already have a year or year and a half of work experience, which is a lot more than most people. [The Bouvé College of Health Sciences requires undergraduates to complete two 6-month co-ops.]
2) You’re surrounded by so many people of different nationalities and ethnicities, so you learn a lot through that.
3) The location itself. It’s so good for entertainment reasons, exploring, and really anything. It’s especially good because Boston is a college city so you can meet other college students.
4) The school is accommodating with transfer credits. For me, it was important to get credit from dual enrollment and AP credits accepted, and it was the only school that told me I had the possibility of getting those credits accepted. [See information on transferring credit at Northeastern here.]

Reasons Not to Attend

1) It’s very expensive unless you get good financial aid.
2) It’s a very big school, so if that scares you then that is something to consider. [There are about 18,100 undergraduates at Northeastern.]
3) The cost of living in Boston is high.

Around Campus

Where have you lived on campus?
Freshman: Smith Hall with one roommate
Sophomore: The Fairwoods at 319 Huntington Ave. with one roommate.
What was your favorite living situation?
Fairwoods is better because, for the most part, all the sophomore housing options have kitchens, so this has a kitchen. It’s a studio, so it doesn’t have a living room but that’s fine. Smith was too small.
How was transitioning from your hometown outside of Boston to the city of Boston?
It was very easy because I live about 40 minutes away from Boston.
Can you describe the level of safety you’ve experienced on and around campus?
It’s very safe during the day. It gets more unsafe at night if you go past the border of our campus which is very common because that’s where people will go at night. There are services here where you can be picked up by campus safety and brought anywhere on campus.

Social Opportunities

What kind of nightlife or weekend activities do you like to participate in?
I mainly go out to parties at fraternities in Cambridge or here on campus. I usually just go out on Friday and Saturday night.
What’s an alternative to going to a party or a bar that you like for a night out?
Sometimes we go to the movies and sometimes we’ll just stay in and hang out.
How happy were you with the weekend options at Northeastern? Is there anything you would change if you could?
I’m fairly happy. I wish that Northeastern had a little more team spirit so it would be better have more games other than hockey games to go to.

Campus Culture

How did you meet your closest friends?
At orientation and through my classes.
How would you describe the overall social scene at Northeastern?
There are so many people from so many different places that you’re bound to find someone that you have something in common with just because of the amount of people that we have here and also the number of countries that people are from. That being said, it can be a little bit difficult to make close friends. The paradox is that the more people you’re around, the harder it is to meet a core group. [20% of undergraduates at Northeastern are international students.]
To what extent do you feel people of different races and sexual orientation mix socially?
I see a lot of different races and ethnicities mixing here a lot. In terms of sexual orientation, that’s not something I would know until I spoke with them. I think people here are very open to anything. I have never encountered an instance where people were reluctant to interact because of those factors. The school is very diverse overall. [The undergraduate population is about 16% Asian, 8% Hispanic, and 6% Black, and 1% Native American.]
Do you ever feel that you are more so a resident of Boston than the school?
Yes and no because I’m still kind of in the Northeastern bubble. At the same time, I feel a lot of people around here are non-students so I feel well integrated into Boston.
To what extent do people inside and outside of Greek life mix socially?
I think they mix very well with people in their classes. At the same time, they are a very tight-knit community so they spend a lot of time together. [About 10% of undergraduates are involved in Greek life.]
How do you like the size of Northeastern? How does it impact your social experience? [There are about 18,100 undergraduates at Northeastern.]
I like the size because it comes with a lot of diversity, but I also feel that people here are very independent so sometimes I feel like it’s a little bit difficult to meet people.

Careers

Has the alumni network helps you find internships or jobs?
At Northeastern, it’s not really through alumni that we find jobs, it’s more through our co-op advisors. [I have not reached out to the alumni network.]
To what extent have you used the career office? How helpful have they been?
I have not used it. I have just used the co-op website but I haven’t
How has co-op impacted your experience?
It’s made it really easy to find co-op opportunities and jobs because there are so many options for nursing majors to apply to medial positions, like being a patient care technician or something like that. We also have a class for co-op that helps us finish our resume and everything by October 1st.
Have you learned any computer programs or computer languages that will be helpful to you professionally?
I work at a medical center and we have to learn how to use the medical website they use for patients, so that has prepared me well if I decide to work there again.

Financial Aid

Have you used financial aid? If so, accommodating was the office to your needs? Were they responsive to your questions?
I use financial aid and they were very accommodating. I don’t have to deal with them very much and my aid package has never changed. Northeastern has the Northeastern Promise, and part of that guarantees your aid will increase with tuition.