Northeastern University (NU, formerly NEU) is a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts, established in 1898. It is categorized as an R1 institution (Doctoral Universities: Highest Research Activity) by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. The university offers undergraduate and graduate programs on its main campus in the Fenway-Kenmore, Roxbury, South End, and Back Bay neighborhoods of Boston. The university has satellite campus in Charlotte, North Carolina, Seattle, Washington, and San Jose, California that exclusively offer graduate degrees. An additional satellite campus opened in Toronto, Ontario, Canada in late 2016. The university's enrollment is approximately 18,000 undergraduate students and 7,000 graduate students.
Northeastern features a cooperative education program that integrates classroom study with professional experience on seven continents and a comprehensive study abroad program. In 2011, the university opened the George J. Kostas Research Institute for Homeland Security. The Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Complex opened in early 2017.
Northeastern is a large, highly residential university. Most students choose to live on campus but upperclassmen have the option to live off campus. More than 75% of Northeastern students receive some form of financial aid. In the 2016-17 school year, the university offered $253.8 million in grant and scholarship assistance.
The university's sports teams, the Northeastern Huskies, compete in NCAA Division I as members of the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) in 18 varsity sports. The men's and women's hockey teams compete in Hockey East, while the men's and women's rowing teams compete in the Eastern Association of Rowing Colleges (EARC) and Eastern Association of Women's Rowing Colleges (EAWRC), respectively. Men's Track and Field has won the CAA back to back years in 2015 and 2016. In 2013, men's basketball won its first CAA regular season championship, men's soccer won the CAA title for the first time, and women's ice hockey won a record 16th Beanpot championship.
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History
The Evening Institute for Younger Men, located at the Huntington Avenue YMCA, held its first class on October 3, 1898, starting what would transform into Northeastern University over the course of four decades. The School of Law was formally established that year with the assistance of an Advisory Committee, consisting of Dean James Barr Ames of the Harvard University School of Law, Dean Samuel Bennett of the Boston University School of Law, and Judge James R. Dunbar. In 1903, the first Automobile Engineering School in the country was established followed by the School of Commerce and Finance in 1907. Day classes began in 1909. In 1916, a bill was introduced into the Massachusetts Legislature to incorporate the institute as Northeastern College. After considerable debate and investigation it was passed in March 1916.
On March 30, 1917, Frank Palmer Speare was inaugurated as the new College's first President. Five years later the school changed its name to Northeastern University to better reflect the increasing depth of its instruction. In March 1923, the University secured general degree granting power from the Legislature, with the exception of the A.B., the S.B., and the medical degrees.
The College of Liberal Arts was added in 1935. Two years later the Northeastern University Corporation was established, with a board of trustees composed of 31 University members and 8 from the YMCA. In 1948 Northeastern separated itself completely from the YMCA.
Following World War II Northeastern began admitting women. In the postwar educational boom the University created the College of Education (1953), University College (now called the College of Professional Studies) (1960), and the Colleges of Pharmacy and Nursing (1964) (later combined into the Bouvé College of Health Sciences). The College of Criminal Justice (1967) followed, then the College of Computer Science (1982) (since renamed the College of Computer and Information Science).
By the early 1980s the one-time night commuter school had grown to nearly 50,000 enrollees including all full and part time programs at both the undergraduate and graduate level. By 1989-1990 University enrollment had reduced to about 40,000 full, part-time, and evening students, and in 1990 the first class with more live-on-campus than commuter students was graduated. Following the retirement of President Kenneth Ryder 1989 the University adopted a slow and more thoughtful approach to change. Historically, it had been accepting between 7,500 and 10,000 students per year based on applications of about 15,000 to 20,000 with acceptance rates between 50% and 75% depending on program. Attrition rates were huge, with a 25% freshmen dropout rate and graduation rate below 50%, with only 40% of 5,672 undergraduate full-time day students enrolled in the Fall of 1984 graduating by 1989.
When President John Curry left office in 1996 the university population had been systematically reduced to about 25,000. Incoming President Richard Freeland decided to focus on recruiting the type of students who were already graduating as the school's prime demographic. In the early 1990s, the university cut its freshman class size from around 4,500 students to 2,800 in order to become more selective, and began a $485 million construction program that included residence halls, academic and research facilities, and athletic centers. Between 1996 and 2006 average SAT scores increased more than 200 points, retention rates rose dramatically, and applications doubled.
During the University's transition, students experienced a reorganization of the co-operative education system to better integrate classroom learning with workplace experience. Full-time degree programs shifted from a four-quarter system to two traditional semesters and two summer "minimesters", allowing students to both delve more deeply into their academic courses and experience longer, more substantive co-op placements.
Throughout the transformation, President Freeland's oft-repeated goal was to crack the Top 100 of the U.S. News & World Report's rankings. With this accomplished by 2005 the transformation from commuting school to national research university was complete. Freeland stepped down on August 15, 2006 and was replaced by Dr. Joseph Aoun, a former dean at the University of Southern California. Aoun implemented a decentralized management model, giving university deans more control over their budgets, faculty hiring decisions, and fundraising.
As part of a five-year, $75 million Academic Investment Plan that ran from 2004 and 2009 the University concentrated on undergraduate education, core graduate professional programs, and centers of research excellence. Faculty was originally to be bolstered by 100 new tenured and tenure-track professors, later expanded to include 300 additional tenure and tenure-track faculty in interdisciplinary fields. Aoun also placed more emphasis on improving community relations by reaching out to leaders of the neighborhoods surrounding the university. In addition, Aoun has created more academic partnerships with other institutions in the Boston area, including Tufts, Hebrew College and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts.
During this time, Northeastern has advanced in national rankings. It placed 42nd in the 2014-2015 U.S. News & World Report's "Best Colleges Guide", a 7 position jump from 2013-2014 and a 27 place gain just since 2010-2011. Some have argued that Northeastern's recent rise in the rankings shows that the university has "cracked the code" to academic rankings, while others have suggested that it has figured out how to "game the system". The 2017 edition of U.S. News & World Report ranked Northeastern 39th in its annual ranking of National Universities.
Presidents
Presidents of Northeastern (with tenures in office and campus buildings named in their honor):
- Frank Palmer Speare (1898-1940, Speare Hall)
- Carl Stephens Ell (1940-1959, Ell Hall)
- Asa S. Knowles (1959-1975, Knowles Hall)
- Kenneth G. Ryder (1975-1989, Ryder Hall)
- John A. Curry (1989-1996, Curry Student Center)
- Richard M. Freeland (1996-2006)
- Joseph Aoun (2006-present)
Northeastern University Accounting Video
Satellite campuses
In addition to Northeastern's main Boston campus, the university operates a number of satellite undergraduate locations in Massachusetts, including the Kostas Research Institute in Burlington, a Financial District campus in the Hilton Hotel near Faneuil Hall in downtown Boston, a Dedham Campus in Dedham, Massachusetts, and a Marine Science Center in Nahant, Massachusetts.
The University has also launched a number of full service remote graduate campuses in North America, including in Charlotte, North Carolina in October 2011, Seattle, Washington in January 2013, and San Jose, California in March 2015, with another opening in Toronto in 2016. Additional satellite campuses in Austin, Texas, and Minneapolis, Minnesota are planned.
Admissions
For the Class of 2019 (enrolling fall 2015), Northeastern received 50,523 applications (more than in any previous year), accepted 14,388 (28.5%), and enrolled 2,797. For the freshmen who enrolled, the middle 50% range of SAT scores was 660-740 for critical reading, 680-770 for math and 640-730 for writing, while the ACT Composite range was 31-34.
For the class enrolling fall 2013, Forbes placed Northeastern 35th in "The Top 100 Colleges Ranked By SAT Scores".
Academics
Northeastern offers undergraduate majors in 65 departments. At the graduate level, there are more than 125 programs. A Northeastern education is dynamic, interdisciplinary and entrepreneurial. Founded in 2009, IDEA is Northeastern University's student-led Venture Accelerator, which provides entrepreneurs, including students, faculty, and alumni in the Northeastern community with the necessary support and educational experience towards developing a business from core concept to launch. Academics at Northeastern is grounded in the liberal arts and in the integration of classroom studies with experiential learning opportunities, including cooperative education, student research, service learning, and global experience, including study abroad and international co-op. The university's cooperative education program places about 5,000 students annually with more than 2,500 co-op employers in Boston, across the United States, and around the globe. In 2014, College Prowler gave Northeastern an "A+" rating for the quality of classes, professors, and overall academic environment.
Colleges and schools
Colleges listed including schools and degrees offered:
Student organizations
List of Northeastern University student organizations
Honors Program
The University Honors Program offers selected students an enhanced curriculum. Starting with the First Year Reading Project and moving on to participating in a wide range of courses during the undergraduate years, the program gives students a variety of academic choices. The culminating experience is advanced specialty work in a major field through college-specific choices including specialized advanced honors seminars and an independent research project. In addition, students in the Honors Program exclusively can live in a Living-Learning Community housed in West Villages C and F. Since Fall 2009, first-year Honors students are housed in the lower nine floors of the newly constructed International Village residence hall.
Senior Capstone
The Senior Capstone is an advanced-level course related to the student's major. The course requires the student to integrate what they have learned through their academic coursework and their experiential learning experience (co-op, research, study abroad, and service).
Pre-med program
The university partnered with Tufts University School of Medicine to create an early-acceptance BA/MD Program. This program has been since discontinued. Northeastern's campus is just a few blocks from the Longwood Medical and Academic Area where Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of Dental Medicine are located along with their associated world class teaching hospitals. These institutions provide NU pre-med students with significant internship opportunities.
Study abroad
Northeastern has semester-long study abroad programs with placements in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, and South America. Some participating schools include: University of Edinburgh, Scotland; Reims Management School, France; European School of Business, Germany; University of Cape Town, South Africa; University of Cambridge and London School of Economics, England; University of Auckland, New Zealand; Swinburne University of Technology, Australia; Obirin University, Japan; American College of Thessaloniki, Greece and Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Chile and also Antarctica.
Northeastern's International Business program is a member of the International Partnership of Business Schools. Through this program International Business students have the opportunity to be awarded a dual-degree from Northeastern as well as from a sister school abroad.
Northeastern also has the notable Dialogues of Civilizations program, which features dozens of one-month-long programs (usually taking place in the summer) where a faculty member will lead a group of students in the country of their choice. A sort of "mini" study abroad, each program has an area of focus - for example, the Geneva program focuses on small arms and multilateral negotiations while the South Africa program is based in non-governmental organizations. This program is meant to be a communicative experience and an exchange of ideas and cultures. It is open to all majors and all years, and is the most popular study abroad option at Northeastern.
Since the arrival of President Aoun in 2006, the school has also been emphasizing co-op abroad, in an effort to make the school more global and internationally engaged. There are many programs being offered including social entrepreneurship in the Dominican Republic, Belize, and South Africa.
Northeastern also offers a program called NUin for first-year students who choose to spend their first semester studying abroad. In 2012, 500 students enrolled in the NUin program in destinations of England, Ireland, Greece, Australia, and Costa Rica.
Research
Research Centers and Institutes at Northeastern include:
The university provides undergraduate students with an opportunity to engage in research through the Center for Experiential Education, CenSSIS Research Experience for Undergraduates, Honors Research, Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation program, and Provost's Office research grants. In FY 2007, annual external research funding exceeded $78 million. In FY 2009-2010, the research funding is close to $82 million. In 2002, Northeastern's Center for Subsurface Sensing and Imaging Systems was designated an NSF Engineering Research Center. In 2004, Northeastern was one of six institutions selected by the National Science Foundation as a center for research in nanotechnology. In 2010, Northeastern was granted $12 million by an alum for a Homeland security research facility, to be named the George J. Kostas Research Institute for Homeland Security, after its chief benefactor.
Faculty
Northeastern had 1,257 full-time faculty, 94.4% of whom possess a doctorate or the terminal degree in their field, and 403 part-time faculty in Fall 2015. Northeastern faculty members direct more than 35 research and education centers, including a National Science Foundation (NSF) Engineering Research Center, an NSF Nanomanufacturing Center, and two NSF Integrated Graduate Education and Research Traineeship programs.
Co-op/internship program
Northeastern has one of the largest co-op/internship programs in the world. Started in 1909, NU's co-op program is one of the oldest in the nation. In the co-op program, students alternate periods of academic study with periods of paid professional employment related to their major. Most majors offer a four-year graduation option with fewer co-op placements, but the five-year program is more popular with students. The co-op program typically begins the spring of the second year or fall of the third year (after a more traditional program for the first semesters on campus).
Co-op placements range from small dynamic start-up companies to large multinational companies with thousands of employees, including many Fortune 500 corporations. The program also places students with government agencies, branches of government, nonprofits, and non-governmental organizations. Northeastern students can be found interning in the United States Congress, the White House, United Nations, and at NASA. Student placements usually last six months, and are mostly paid. Students may live in the university residence halls on campus during co-op employment, and the university currently leases housing for students co-oping in New York City, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C. and assists elsewhere.
Northeastern University is also a partner with the Boston Youth Fund, which is run by the Boston Youth council and provides summer job and enrichment placement for the City of Boston.
Accreditation
Northeastern University is accredited by New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC)
Student activities
Northeastern has over 19 varsity teams in the NCAA, over 30 club sport teams, and over 200 student organizations. Several prominent student-run organizations, including the Resident Student Association (RSA), Student Government Association (SGA), Northeastern University Television (NUTV), Fraternity and Sorority Life (FSL), and the Council for University Programs (CUP) organize activities for Northeastern students as well as the surrounding community.
Athletics
Fourteen of eighteen Northeastern varsity sports teams have been competing in NCAA Division I's Colonial Athletic Association, since 2005.
The school sponsors the following sports teams:
- (M) Baseball
- (M), (W) Basketball
- (M), (W) Cross Country
- (W) Field Hockey
- (M), (W) Hockey (in Hockey East)
- (M), (W) Rowing (in Eastern Association of Rowing Colleges and Eastern Association of Women's Rowing Colleges)
- (M), (W) Soccer
- (W) Swimming & Diving
- (M), (W) Track and Field
- (W) Volleyball
The NU mascot is Paws. The school colors are red and black with white trim. The fight song, "All Hail, Northeastern", was composed by Charles A. Pethybridge, Class of 1932.
Some notable athletes have played for Northeastern's sports teams. Dan Ross played football at Northeastern long before setting the Super Bowl record for receptions in a game. Reggie Lewis still holds the men's basketball career scoring record. Jose Barea played point guard for the Huskies and averaged 21 points, 4.4 rebounds, 8.4 assists per game as a senior. Barea was drafted by the Dallas Mavericks in 2006. Carlos Peña was named Major League Baseball's American League Comeback Player of the Year in 2007 and an AL Gold Glove winner in 2008. The U.S. Olympic women's ice hockey teams have included Northeastern alumni Shelley Looney and Chanda Gunn.
The baseball team has competed in one College World Series and played in the NCAA regionals seven times.
In its first year in the CAA, the men's basketball team finished in 6th place (out of 12 teams) and advanced to the semifinals of the conference tournament. The CAA proved to be a competitive conference in the 2006 NCAA Basketball Tournament, as George Mason University advanced all the way to the Final Four. In 2007, its second year in the CAA, the women's track team captured the conference championship, while the volleyball team finished second. The women's basketball team won 10 more games in 2008 than the previous year, the biggest one-year turnaround in the CAA, and advanced to the tournament quarterfinals.
Northeastern's men's and women's hockey teams compete in the Hockey East Conference. During the 2007-2008 season, the men's team ranked as high at #7 in the country and held the top spot in the conference before finishing the season in sixth place in Hockey East. Both teams also participate in the annual Beanpot tournament between the four major Boston-area colleges. Northeastern's men's team has won the annual event 4 times in its 54-year history, while the women's team has captured the Beanpot 14 times. During the 2008-2009 season, the men's team ranked as high as 3rd in the nation and held the top spot in Hockey East until the last weekend of the season; the team made the NCAA tournament for the first time since 1994, the Beanpot championship game for the first time since 2004, and goalie Brad Thiessen made the Hobey Hat Trick, only the second Northeastern player to do so.
The Northeastern Crew team consistently ranks as one of the top 10 teams in the nation. In the 2008 National Championship, the team made the Grand Finals and placed fourth behind University of Wisconsin-Madison, University of Washington, and University of California, Berkeley, while beating Brown University, Princeton University, University of Pennsylvania and Harvard University.
Northeastern offers 40 club sports, including judo, rugby, lacrosse, squash, cycling and ultimate frisbee. In 2005 the women's rugby team finished third in the nation in Division II, while in the same year the men's rugby team won the largest annual tournament in the United States. The men's lacrosse team began the 2008 season ranked in the Top 10 nationally. The men's and women's squash team finished the 2008 season ranked in the Top 20 nationally. In the 2008-2009 academic year the Northeastern Club Field Hockey and Women's Basketball teams won their respective National Championships. From 2007 to 2009, the Northeastern Club Baseball team won three straight New England Club Baseball Association championships. On May 25, 2010 the club baseball team defeated Penn State to win the National Club Baseball Association Division II World Series and national championship.
Citing sparse attendance, numerous losing seasons and the expense to renovate Parsons Field to an acceptable standard, the university Board of Trustees voted on November 20, 2009, to end the football program. According to president Joseph Aoun, "Leadership requires that we make these choices. This decision allows us to focus on our existing athletic programs."
Campus
Northeastern is located in Boston's Fenway, Roxbury and Back Bay neighborhoods adjacent to Huntington Avenue near the Museum of Fine Arts and Symphony Hall. The area is also known as the Fenway Cultural District.
Although located in the heart of Boston, the NU campus is still filled with trees, flowers, and grassy quads. Since the late 1990s, Northeastern has been considered a model of design for urban universities and has twice won the "most beautiful new or renovated exterior space" award (presented by the American Institute of Architects) in 2001 and 2004. The site of the first baseball World Series is commemorated, in front of the university's Churchill Hall, by a statue of Cy Young.
Matthews Arena
Opened in 1910 and widely known as the Boston Arena, Matthews Arena is the world's oldest surviving indoor ice hockey arena. Located on the east edge of Northeastern University's campus, it is home to the Northeastern Huskies men's and women's hockey teams, and men's basketball team as well as the Wentworth Institute of Technology's men's hockey team. The arena is named after former Chair of the Board of Trustees George J. Matthews and his wife, the late Hope M. Matthews. The arena is the original home of the NHL Boston Bruins and the WHA New England Whalers (now the NHL Carolina Hurricanes). It was also the secondary home to the NBA Boston Celtics in the 1940s. It has hosted all or part of the America East Conference men's basketball tournament a total of seven times and hosted the 1960 Frozen Four. The arena also served as the original home to the annual Beanpot tournament between Boston's four major college hockey programs.
Marino Recreation Center
Named after Roger Marino, co-founder of EMC Corporation, the Marino Center features on its first floor an atrium with two cafés (Au Bon Pain and b.good) and a food market (Wollaston's). The second floor includes a student exercise area, a multipurpose room is used for aerobics classes and martial arts clubs. The gymnasium consists of three basketball courts. On the third floor, a state-of-the-art resistance training area and a fully equipped free weight room. A three-lane suspended track is available for either walking or jogging, and rowing ergometers are available.
Library facilities
The NU Libraries include the Snell Library, the John D. O'Bryant African-American Institute Library, and the library at the NU Marine Science Center in Nahant, Massachusetts. The NU School of Law Library is separately administered by the NU School of Law.
Snell Library opened in 1990 at a cost of $35 million and contains 1.3 million volumes. The Digital Media Design Studio within the library is a collaborative and interdisciplinary learning environment for creating course-related multimedia presentations, projects and portfolios. The library is home to the Favat Collection, a current collection of children's literature and K-12 curriculum resources, instructional materials, and related information to support courses offered by the School of Education. It contains three computer labs operated by NU Information Services. Two are available to all NU students, faculty, and staff; the other is a teaching lab..
The NU Libraries received federal depository designation in 1962. As a selective depository, the Libraries receive forty-five percent of the federal publication series available to depository libraries.
The Snell Library is also home to the Northeastern University Archives and Special Collections department, which includes the Benjamin LaGuer papers collection. The Special Collections focus on records of Boston-area community-based organizations that are concerned with social justice issues.
Snell Library is also open 24 hours a day, allowing students to study at any given time.
Spiritual Life Center and Sacred Space
Within the urban environment that characterizes the campus as a whole, NU has carved out a quiet, peaceful space in the centrally located Ell Building for the Spiritual Life Center's Sacred Space. The nondenominational Sacred Space, the Center's main assembly hall, can be configured with carpets, mats or chairs. It has a distinctive ceiling consisting of 3 hanging domes made of overlapping aluminum tiles with an origami-like effect, warm wood floors and accents, and glass-panelled walls that lean outward slightly, their shape and material giving a sense of openness and volume to the space. Faucets for ablution are available in a flanking antechamber, and the Center also contains a smaller meeting space and library. The Sacred Space opened in 1998. The architects Office dA (Nader Tehrani & Monica Ponce de Leon) received the 2002 Harleston Parker Medal from the Boston Society of Architects for the design.
West Village
The West Village complex includes eight buildings serving mainly as residence halls and classrooms.
- Building A (opened 1999): Residence Hall (two sections, West Village A North and South).
- Building B (opened 2001): Residence Hall.
- Building C (opened 2001): Residence Hall (several floors for upperclassmen honors students) and one classroom.
- Building D - Behrakis Health Science Center (opened 2002): classrooms and laboratories
- Building E (opened 2002): Residence Hall.
- Building G (opened 2004): Residence Hall and several classrooms.
- Building H (opened 2004): Residence Hall. Open to students who are over the age of 21. Single rooms only. New home of the College of Computer and Information Science (several classrooms, offices and computer labs).
- Building F (opened 2006): Residence Hall for upper-class students, classrooms, John D. O'Bryant African-American Institute, Admissions Visitors Center.
The plans for Building K, a 22-story high rise housing 600 beds, have been completed and will be rented to the university until they are able to buy it.
South Campus (Columbus Avenue)
Northeastern University's southernmost section of campus is located along Columbus Avenue in Roxbury, parallel to the Orange line. The University expanded south into Roxbury at the same time as they were building West Village. In 2001, Davenport Commons was opened, providing 585 students housing in two residence halls while 75 families representing a range of incomes have been able to purchase a condo or townhouse at or below Boston's market value. Davenport Commons also created commercial space on Tremont Street.
During the summer of 2006, Northeastern University proposed a new residence hall further away from the main campus, at the corner of Tremont Street and Ruggles Street. Construction began in late February 2007. In the Spring of 2009, The complex was named International Village and opened later that Summer. Its nicknames include "IV" and "INV." It consists of three interconnected residence halls, an office complex, administration building, and a gym. The residence halls house honors freshman and all levels of upperclassmen. A 400-seat dining hall is available to all members of the Northeastern community as well as the public.
The following buildings make up the South Campus, :
Interdisciplinary Science & Engineering Complex
On February 21, 2014, Northeastern University had its groundbreaking ceremony for the new Interdisciplinary Science & Engineering Complex on Columbus Avenue. Completed in 2017, the 220,000 square foot building provides research and educational space for students and faculty from the College of Science, Bouvé College of Health Sciences, College of Engineering, and College of Computer and Information Science. The centerpiece of the complex includes a large atrium, a spiral staircase, and a 280-seat auditorium.
East Village
East Village is Northeastern's newest dorm building for upperclassmen. The building is located on St. Botolph Street and opened in January 2015.
Dodge Hall
Dodge Hall is mainly used for Northeastern's business programs (Before Snell Library opened in 1990, it served as the university's main library). Dodge Hall has five floors. The basement houses a computer lab and is connected to the university's large network of underground tunnels which connects many buildings.
Classrooms and a lounge area occupy the first floor. The D'Amore-McKim School of Business undergraduate office is on the second floor, and the graduate office is on the third floor. The School of Professional Accounting office is on the fourth floor.
Directly behind Dodge Hall is the YMCA where Northeastern was founded.
Sustainability
The most recent Sustainable Endowments Institute's College Sustainability Report Card issued Northeastern a grade of "A-" for its environmental sustainability efforts and programs. Additionally, the Princeton Review rated Northeastern as one of the top 15 "Green Colleges" in the nation in 2010. In 2011, the GreenMetric World University ranking evaluated Northeastern as the second greenest university in the world, and first in the US.
In accordance with a Boston zoning code amendment in 2007, the International Village residence hall was certified as a LEED Gold building in 2010. Dockser Hall was the first building on campus to achieve LEED certification, also Gold, with the completion of its renovation in 2010.
Public safety
The University Police Department is a full-service law enforcement agency with full powers of arrest on university property or property used by Northeastern students and faculty. The campus is adjacent to the Boston Police Department's Headquarters. A 2008 Reader's Digest survey ranked NU as the second safest school in the United States after Johns Hopkins University in Maryland.
Public transportation
Northeastern is bracketed by the MBTA's Orange Line and Green Line "E" Branch. Six stations serve the campus: Massachusetts Avenue and Ruggles on the Orange Line; and Symphony, Northeastern, Museum of Fine Arts, and Longwood Medical Area on the Green Line. The Green Line is paralleled by the #39 bus. Ruggles also serves several of the southside lines of the MBTA Commuter Rail system.
Campus development background
Northeastern's campus is mostly located along Huntington Avenue in an area known as the "Fenway Cultural District" which is part of Boston's Fenway and Back Bay neighborhoods. Other notable institutions in the district include: the Museum of Fine Arts, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Symphony Hall, the Huntington Theatre Company, New England Conservatory, Boston Conservatory, Berklee College of Music, Christian Science Center, Mary Baker Eddy Library and Harvard School of Public Health.
Northeastern's campus is something of an urban oddity; despite its location in central Boston, Northeastern is home to a significant amount of green open space and quads.
A site master planning competition awarded a contract to revive and rejuvenate the campus; the process was started in 1988 with the creation of the new Northeastern Quad and Mt Ryder. A small oval of land centrally located at the campus main entrance was refurbished by the donations of the graduating class of 1989.
What was once a concrete square, outside of the library and student center, was transformed with brick pavers and granite curb stones, in a scalloped design that would eliminate all square corners, a concept developed by the outgoing class of 1989 in a "Northeastern News" poll and suggestion to the President Box that was presented to the board of Trustees in March 1988. The "No Corners" campaign kicked off with a fund raiser at the Ell Student Center on Parents weekend in October 1988. The later selection of a nationally recognized green space landscape architectin 1990 started a renewal plan that continues today. Since the late 1990s Northeastern has twice won the "most beautiful new or renovated exterior space" award presented by the American Institute of Architects in 2001 and again in 2004. In 2008, West Village Building F was recognized in American Institute of Architects New England 2008 Merit Awards for Design Excellence.
In 2003, Northeastern was awarded the prestigious gold medal by the Massachusetts Horticultural Society for its Dedham Campus.
Rankings
The 2017 edition of U.S. News & World Report ranked Northeastern tied for 39th in the National Universities category. ("U.S. News & World Report)(2016)
U.S. News & World Report rankings by year:
Some have argued that Northeastern's recent rise in the rankings shows that the university has "cracked the code" to academic rankings, while others have suggested that it has figured out how to "game the system".
Additional Northeastern rankings include:
- 1st for "Best Internships/Career Services" (Princeton Review) (2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2013)
- 7th (tied) of "Most Innovative Schools" (U.S. News & World Report) (2017)
- 12th of "Best Graduate School Programs in Criminology" (2017)
- 13th of "Great College Towns" (Princeton Review) (2011)
- 14th in architecture by the Key Institute (2013)
- 19th in the nation for "Undergraduate Business Schools" (BloombergBusinessweek) (2014)
- 33th of "Best Graduate School Programs in Pharmacy" (2017)
- 42nd of "Best Engineering Graduate Schools" (2017)
- 57th of "Best Business Graduate Schools" (2017)
- 60th of "Best Computer Science Graduate School Programs", with the Programming Language specialty ranked 13th.(2017)
- In addition, Northeastern DMSB students have dominated case competitions against other Boston area business schools, winning 10 of the last 13 Business School Beanpot competitions.
Notable alumni and faculty
Notable alumni of Northeastern University include Saad Kidwai, U.S. Senator Mo Cowan (JD), New Hampshire Governor and U.S. Senator Maggie Hassan (JD), filmmaker Courtney Hunt (JD), Amin Khoury (MBA), President and Chief Operating Officer of SoftBank Corp. Nikesh Arora (MBA), talk show host Wendy Williams (BA), co-founder of Napster Shawn Fanning, basketball player José Juan Barea, co-founder of Twitter Biz Stone, and baseball player Carlos Peña.
Notable faculty of past and present include former Massachusetts governor and Democratic presidential candidate Michael Dukakis.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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