Northeastern University Seattle — Attraction in Seattle

I was apart of this program in 2016 so take my review and be sure to ask the right questions.

I came into this program with enough of a Computer Science background to get by but, from what I saw, it doesn't matter. This school is COMPLETELY unprepared and during the time I was there everything was unorganized.

1: My Discreet Math and Data Structures course was taught by two gentlemen and, by all appearances, appeared that they were friends of "so and so" and were asked before the semester started, "hey, do you wanna teach this class?" Halfway through the course, they switched things up because more than half of the class wasn't doing well. At the end of the semester, the two teachers basically gave everybody A's and B's. How do I know this? They announced it before the final. What a joke.

2: This school isn't a full blown University but just a sister location with the same name as the college in Boston. It's a two story building. I personally enjoyed the building as there are plenty of places to sit and code with wall to wall white boards. There's definitely plenty of room for students to interact and code.

3: I honestly feel bad for anybody who is at this school now and wasn't there for one of the teachers named Theo. He was, by far, the greatest teacher and mentor I've ever known. He knew exactly what he was teaching, how to teach it, and every day was planned and well thought out. He was tough, direct, and could be a little intimidating, but I found him to be amazing and the only reason I stayed as long as I did was because of him. I honestly felt that he genuinely cared about his students and if you were one of the ones trying your hardest (like me), then he would do the same for you. His methodology for teaching and how he would hammer into us the idea that you shouldn't just write code, you should design it, influences how I code today and I'm so thankful that I was able to meet him and enjoy two grueling classes with him. I hear he's not there any more and again, I feel bad for any students taking the program that won't be able to benefit from his teaching.

4: Parking isn't fun and when I was there they didn't have a section for you to park if you were a student. I'm a veteran and they didn't even have any sort of hook up for me in the parking department. Either you got there early (like me), you got lucky, or you lived in the area and you just rode a bus.

5: For transparency, I ended up leaving the program because I knew I wouldn't be able to complete it. The material goes by so fast and I just wasn't ready to handle it all. There's a huge vibe in MSCS program to "get you in and get you out to a job" and I didn't like the idea of be churned in and out like a bunch of robots on a factory belt. I wanted to actually understand and know how to do well in my field....not just get experience and a piece of paper. Most of the other students were either a lot smarter than me or didn't care about that aspect. When I left, the school tried to put on the transcript that I was kicked off the program...probably for tax reasons as veterans give colleges special perks.

All in all, I left the school mentally exhausted, displeased, and feeling like the entire thing was a scam. I was kind of happy to find out that Theo had left the program and I sincerely hope he's doing well as well as the classmates I left behind.

If you were to ask me, "Should I do this program?" I would...

I recently graduated from Northeastern University - Seattle, with an MSCS. I was in the first ALIGN cohort for the computer science program, which began in the Fall 2013 semester. The ALIGN program is tailored for individuals with non-CS undergraduate majors. In my case, I was a mechanical engineer with a background in the aerospace industry. The Seattle graduate campus encompasses two buildings in the South Lake Union neighborhood of the city so does not have the traditional large university feel. However, for me, the relatively small size promoted a friendly, almost family atmosphere between the staff and the students, which I really enjoyed. The staff were always incredibly responsive and helpful throughout my time there.

Having been part of the first cohort, I witnessed some initial teething problems with our program and also how the university addressed those problems. Northeastern listened to student feedback and made improvements in every area while I was studying. Those initial issues mainly surrounded transitioning to a greater number of onsite faculty and TAs (i.e. a reduction in the reliance on Boston based resources), and improvements in the scope and focus of the ALIGN foundation courses. At this point, most, if not all classes are taught by an "on-the-ground" faculty member in Seattle. To be clear, this was mostly the case at the start but the situation has only improved. On the other hand, having the Boston campus as a resource benefitted several courses that I took, as there was a lot of mature, well developed material available from existing Boston classes. I should also mention that the breadth of availability of classes is also constantly growing.

The faculty in general are mostly, but not exclusively, professionals from industry (there are also classes taught by full-time faculty) and are typically highly qualified (often PhD) and abreast of current trends. The downside to this, at times, was access to the instructors but they generally put in a major effort to make time for office hours and to help students online. I believe that, as more TAs, become available as the program matures, that issue is easing. The quality of education I received was very high and I'm very satisfied with what I learned.

If the small campus feel is for you, I'd certainly recommend considering...

Received my graduate application decision three weeks after the start of the term. Despite the fact that all my materials arrived by the application deadline. Engaged multiple departments throughout the University leading up to the last day for add/drop. Received no responses. As a highly qualified applicant and veteran I find this lack of professionalism in a university to be mind boggling. Quite simply the worst experience I’ve ever had, with any institution of higher learning, in my life. I cannot encourage people enough to...