Orientation Process – It was August 18th 2014, I remember the day very vividly. Our entering year of around 4,000 students for the year of 2014 all gathered in the University’s amphitheater / hall and we were briefed by President Joseph Aoun about how the rest of our lives were to begin now. We were then split into groups based on our seating arrangement and then broke off into different units of students with 1 leading instructor (who was also a student). From here, they would give us the tour of the school along with the tips and tricks of how to succeed here as a student. After that we were broken off into smaller groups to have icebreakers and then lead into our dorms, which helped a lot to make friends and have a good smooth transition into your surroundings. The orientation filled us with everything we needed to know, and where we needed to go for certain things or who we needed to see if we wanted answers to certain things

Campus – The campus itself is one of the sole major reasons why I applied here. I think it is vital for a college student to go on a “study tour” first before finalizing their decision to go to school to a certain university. It is not mandatory, but helps a lot in the long run to what a student can envision their whole 4 year experience to be like. As an 18-year old, your decision-making process isn’t that great, hence, you tend to make decisions based on what you know, surface level information of things you like, things that intrigue you, etc. I for one, wanted to apply and get into BU (Boston University). However, upon visiting BU and Northeastern, I decided that Northeastern was a much more perfect fit for me. BU’s campus was odd, it was a long straight line of 1 street, there was no “central” section, the university felt like it didn’t have a heart or a core. Sure, education is important, but for Freshman year, what’s most important for a student to excel is not only academically, but mentally. A good portion of freshman students, especially international ones, get homesick fairly quickly, and therefore have a good rate of turnover after the first year, due to them not feeling at home. Northeastern helped me combat just that. All the dorms were nearby each other, as so were the dining halls. There was a lot of community areas and the gym itself was nearby class. The University felt alive and felt like it had a core. Which drew me a lot to my experiences there. Whether it be studying on the quad outside, or having lunch in different places of the unique facilities we had, the campus definitely was a big factor

Program – The second main reason I was “sold” on Northeastern was the education program. They had a special program called the “Co-op” Program. Which allowed any student, of any nationality, to professionally partake in a semi-long internship in which they will be paid for, and is part of the curricullum. Every student has to go through this, it is mandatory, if not, they don’t graduate. I felt like this was a great opportunity to learn and dive into the “real world” before graduating, and really evaluate where you want to start in your career, whether you are on the right track or not, whether what you thought your interests were when you were 18, were still your interests, when you were 20. I wanted to be in Sports and Fashion. I Co-op’ed at PUMA North America HQ. Although I had a great time and learned a lot, I did also learn that I didn’t want to be in that industry as much I thought I would have. This program saved me so much time in understanding what mattered to me, in my professional life, and allowed me to realign and reprioritize what I thought was important, during that stage of my life as a student.

Student Body – Northeastern won an award for being one of the most international and diverse student body of universities in the US. This really helped in making friends and lifelong connections throughout university. As an 18-year old student from Asia, you would always feel a certain fear that perhaps you were inferior, or perhaps they wouldn’t accept you as much etc. Although you know all of those thoughts are insecure lies, it is still a valid fear. Northeastern did a great job in combining all these different cultures, races and ethnicities and blended all of them in together in a way that we all felt comfortable in our own skin and could express ourselves freely. Everybody was helpful, friendly and intellegint. It was the perfect environment to learn.

All in all – I had an amazing experience in Northeastern. That’s not to say that there was its drawbacks, of course. The reality is that Boston is very cold, and has harsh winters, so that wasn’t the best. It’s also very pricy and expensive, so your options could be very limited if your finances aren’t in the right place. As well as tough competition for grades and classes, having an intellgient student body doesn’t make up for you having all-star performances all the time. All of the cons of this place still made me who I am today though.

Overall, I am passionate person when it comes to college applications and reviews, as I myself was quite intrigued by the whole process and the decision making factors that came into it, when I was experiencing it myself through a college consultant back in High School. I would love for me to be able to do it for a living along with guiding and helping students from everywhere find what they need. I understand what they are going through and have the skills to identify and decipher each student’s personality trait to see what is in line for what University they are looking for.

Awesome facilities. Looks like a college from American movies. Really great opportunities to move from one degree to another, counting credits. Not really many classes, but homeworks take all the time!