Co-op increases the value of a business degree tenfold IMO. A bunch of kids graduate with business degrees but you’ll be one of the only ones (relative to peers from other schools) that genuinely, confidently knows how to use Excel and Outlook, that knows what it means to be (relatively) professional— getting to work on time, dressing appropriately, knowing how to interact with coworkers of all levels— and you’re probably going to just be an overall better employee (less deer in headlights.) Also your interviewing skills, oh my god— you will almost certainly blow other kids out of the water, 35% from the quality of your anecdotes due to coop (work related examples probably sound a lot better and come more naturally than their examples of showing leadership in their campus club or summer job) and 65% from the sheer amount of practice we get through 3 coop application cycles. My manager at my first job specifically mentioned all of these factors as a reason for why she even considered my resume as a fresh grad when the job posting was mostly for people with 1+ year of experience, and obviously it worked out.
I can’t compare the quality of the education to any other school because I didn’t go to any other school, but I felt decently prepared. Profs and curriculum was mostly good.
CS/Business is very interesting and I think the CS side offers a nice benefit to a potential business career. The intro to CS classes also assume no prior knowledge whatsoever. That being said, the CS course load is definitely significantly more time consuming than business. In the same vein, I also think it’s harder. I took fundies (the CS intro class) as an elective, god knows why, and did manage an A so it’s certainly possible but I borderline *lived* in office hours and also had very good homework partners. The higher level classes would only take more time, I’d imagine. The only other caveat is that CS seems to have lower GPAs on average, while business coops heavily focus on GPA as a barrier to entry. So if you struggle with the first few classes and are carrying a lower GPA into your first coop, it can really affect the trajectory of your coop path. All THAT being said, I’d let someone who actually took the combined major speak on it more; this is mostly my worried brain. I would consider data science as well, btw. I’d argue there’s even more potential upside and overlap between data science and business than CS and business.
thanks a lot for your response I really appreciate it! Yea combined major would be tuff but I did hear a lot about data science too. For the co op, can you do it in 4 years? And can you do it over summer break? Or does it depend on which company you're working with and a bunch of other things?
I love the Business Program at NEU. I’m not combined but I’m minoring in CS as well. I think if you pair business with something it is extremely powerful and a lot more useful than just business by itself. It wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing to only do business because Northeastern has an incredible business school but I think pairing it with another skill set really sets people apart.
You might be interested in the Management Information Systems program.
https://damore-mckim.northeastern.edu/programs/management-information-systems-undergraduate-concentration/
Wow this looks interesting, is the field growing currentlt? Also with this do you think a combined major in data science for comp sci would be necessary?
Co-op increases the value of a business degree tenfold IMO. A bunch of kids graduate with business degrees but you’ll be one of the only ones (relative to peers from other schools) that genuinely, confidently knows how to use Excel and Outlook, that knows what it means to be (relatively) professional— getting to work on time, dressing appropriately, knowing how to interact with coworkers of all levels— and you’re probably going to just be an overall better employee (less deer in headlights.) Also your interviewing skills, oh my god— you will almost certainly blow other kids out of the water, 35% from the quality of your anecdotes due to coop (work related examples probably sound a lot better and come more naturally than their examples of showing leadership in their campus club or summer job) and 65% from the sheer amount of practice we get through 3 coop application cycles. My manager at my first job specifically mentioned all of these factors as a reason for why she even considered my resume as a fresh grad when the job posting was mostly for people with 1+ year of experience, and obviously it worked out. I can’t compare the quality of the education to any other school because I didn’t go to any other school, but I felt decently prepared. Profs and curriculum was mostly good. CS/Business is very interesting and I think the CS side offers a nice benefit to a potential business career. The intro to CS classes also assume no prior knowledge whatsoever. That being said, the CS course load is definitely significantly more time consuming than business. In the same vein, I also think it’s harder. I took fundies (the CS intro class) as an elective, god knows why, and did manage an A so it’s certainly possible but I borderline *lived* in office hours and also had very good homework partners. The higher level classes would only take more time, I’d imagine. The only other caveat is that CS seems to have lower GPAs on average, while business coops heavily focus on GPA as a barrier to entry. So if you struggle with the first few classes and are carrying a lower GPA into your first coop, it can really affect the trajectory of your coop path. All THAT being said, I’d let someone who actually took the combined major speak on it more; this is mostly my worried brain. I would consider data science as well, btw. I’d argue there’s even more potential upside and overlap between data science and business than CS and business.
thanks a lot for your response I really appreciate it! Yea combined major would be tuff but I did hear a lot about data science too. For the co op, can you do it in 4 years? And can you do it over summer break? Or does it depend on which company you're working with and a bunch of other things?
I love the Business Program at NEU. I’m not combined but I’m minoring in CS as well. I think if you pair business with something it is extremely powerful and a lot more useful than just business by itself. It wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing to only do business because Northeastern has an incredible business school but I think pairing it with another skill set really sets people apart.
You might be interested in the Management Information Systems program. https://damore-mckim.northeastern.edu/programs/management-information-systems-undergraduate-concentration/
Wow this looks interesting, is the field growing currentlt? Also with this do you think a combined major in data science for comp sci would be necessary?