Northeastern University

Overview

A private research university in Boston, Massachusetts, Northeastern University (NU or NEU) was founded in 1898. For four decades, it evolved from the Evening Institute for Younger Man in Huntington Avenue YMCA into what it is today. In 1916 it was renamed Northeastern College and, in 1922, was again renamed Northeastern University. This was also the same year that it admitted women into the School of Commerce and Finance and the School of Law.

Today, NU offers undergraduate and graduate programs not just on its main campus but also on regional campuses, which include those in San Francisco, California, Charlotte North Carolina, Portland, Maine, Vancouver, and Toronto, among others. In 2019, the New College of Humanities in London, England, was purchased by NU.

Classified as an R1: Doctoral Universities, Northeastern has a very high research activity. Moreover, it espouses a cooperative education approach. This program combines both classroom activities with professional experience. As part of its curriculum for over a hundred years, it stands as one of the largest cooperative/internship programs with more than 3,100 partners across the world.

NU has nine colleges and schools. They are the (1) Bouvé College of Health Sciences, (2) College of Engineering, (3) College of Social Sciences, (4) College of Arts, Media, and Design, (5) College of Professional Studies, (6) D’Amore-McKim School of Business, (7) School of Law, (8) College of Science, and the (9) Khoury College of Computer Sciences. Faculty and students are encouraged by the university to innovate to solve global challenges. Also, they follow a cross-disciplinary and collaborative approach.

Over the last decade, Northeastern University has expanded its scope beyond Boston on its way to build a global university network. The system currently has a global network of more than 255,000 alumni and 3,000 co-op partners.

Moreover, Northeastern hosts Research Institutes and Centers. These include the Network Science Institute, the Center for Law, Innovation, and Creativity, the Center for Drug Discovery, the Ethics Institute, and the NULab for Texts, Maps, and Networks. Research engagement by students and faculty range from combinatorics and discrete math to music performance.

Notable alumni include Biz Stone, a co-founder of Twitter, Marc Raibert of Boston Dynamics, Senator Maggie Hassan, and Patrice O’Neal, the standup comedian.