A Brief Dee-Tour

5th year Bioengineering and Computer Science student at Northeastern University. Passionate about cello, cheese, and cats. Feel free to message me on this blog or email me at [email protected]

[northeastern-alexishester]

Four years of Gala pics, four years of HA…

Saturday was HA’s annual Gala, and this girl and I were in charge of planning the event this year. It was a lot of work, but we had an incredible committed to help us (more on them later!) and I must say it was a ~super~ success!

I mostly wanna take this time to give a shoutout to Deirdre (@northeastern-deirdredunham), who’s been the best co-chair in the entire world. I couldn’t ask for anyone better to have spent four Galas by my side, and I can’t wait to cry for three straight hours next year! 😂💜

[northeastern-deirdredunham]

Space Mind Soul Reality Time Power

First 10 correct responses get 2 Flash Points. Email [email protected] and  [email protected] with your answer!

[northeastern-deirdredunham]

Finally, after 6 months at Farm, I ended up at a farm!!

[northeastern-deirdredunham]

hihihi. I'm going to visit some colleges in Boston and after I registered to have a campus tour for Northeastern I didn't get an email? When I finished filling out the thing it gave me a confirmation code, do I use that for something? (Also I really like your blog!!)

Hi there! 

You should have gotten a confirmation email with your registration, so it’s possible that you just typed your email in wrong. That happens a lot more than you would think!! The confirmation code you received is associated with your registration, letting you know all went through successfully. You don’t actually need that number for anything.

When you get to campus, you’ll go to the Visitor’s Center where someone with an iPad will check you in by name. Even with a messed up email, they should still be able to find your name.

Things might be sent via email a little closer to your visit though, so I would recommend calling admissions with any questions and to see if they can confirm your visit. You can get in touch with our admissions office by calling:

[phone]

I promise everyone that works in admissions is super sweet and helpful and calling isn’t stressful at all ^u^

Sorry that’s about all I can tell you without being on campus right now myself!

Enjoy your visit and thanks for reading my blog!! I’m so glad you like it!!

[northeastern-deirdredunham]

Hey all! I did this really neat thing called Questival recently which was a 24 hour adventure race around the city of Boston and beyond! The hunt pushed our limits of stamina, kindness, and made us truly embrace the motto of “no shame”. Questival is put on by this awesome gear company called Cotopaxi, and Questival takes place in major cities all around the world. If this 5 minute snippet of the Questival life seems fun to you, I highly recommend checking it out in a city near you; we already can’t wait to do it again!

[stability]

[northeastern-deirdredunham]

Things that are great about Boston?? Llamas, and scavenger hunt. Oh, and the awesome people who do it with me

[northeastern-deirdredunham]

Things that are great about Boston?? Llamas, and scavenger hunt. Oh, and the awesome people who do it with me

[northeastern-deirdredunham]

Happy mother's day from the Dunham household, the home of color and design aesthetic

[northeastern-deirdredunham]

What’s a Middler!?

How to identify a Northeastern student in conversation-

Person A - “What year are you in?” Northeastern student - “I don’t know....”

Or alternatively

Person B - “What year are you in?” Northeastern student - “I’m a middler!” Person B - “Is that a Junior? A super senior? What.....” Northeastern student - “I’m...I’m in my 3rd year.....”

The classic 5 year conundrum. When you go to your 5-year high school reunion, you will have just graduated college. On the bright side, you get a little extra time living out your college glory days.

But let’s talk the Middler year.

Northeastern is anywhere from a four year school to a six year school. And hey, if you’re feeling ambitious, I’m not going to tell you that you can’t even do it in three years! But all and all, here are Northeastern’s most popular options-

1. 5 years, 3 co-ops

2. 4 years, 2 co-ops

3. 5 years, 2 co-ops, 1 masters degree

So let’s do some math on option one-

3 coops = 1.5 years = 18 months

5 years = 10 semesters * 4 months = 40 months

40 months - 18 months = 22 months spent in classes

Now to look at a normal program - 

A normal program  = 4 years = 8 semesters *4 months = 32 months in classes

Some math doesn’t work out here...so how, and why? (tbh I’m confused now)

Well if you’re not a math person, let’s think about it logically. You’re taking a year and a half off of school, and even when you are in school for 5 years... that’s still only 3 and a half years. 

It’s not magic, so here’s how we do it. It’s a little something called summer classes. It’s not as bad as they sound because you only take two classes and it’s completely normal to do at Northeastern.

Summers are broken up into Summer I (May/June) and Summer II (July/August). You will be on co-op for one of the summers, but the other summer has potential to be filled with the “learning” part of “experiential learning”. Or, take your classes through a dialogue and get the experiential part of it too!

People spend typically 2/3 summers in classes (I might be making that up) which gives us 4-6 more months, bringing us closer to the normal length of time someone spends at school.

And check this out, you’re *still* coming out with a better deal for time spent in a classroom. Aw Hell Yeah.

If you have AP or IB credits, it makes your time stuck in the middler so much quicker and less stressful, but if you don’t have any of that stuff, no sweat.

And hey, it’s not like you’re actually paying for school for 5 years...you don’t pay tuition while you are on co-op. Yes you pay tuition over the summer, but on the off-chance that you don’t have to take summer classes, it’s not as bad as one may think!

This is a lot to take in at once, so here’s the TL;DR

Middler years are totally normal 

You don’t need to overload on classes to do 3 co-ops in 5 years

Summer classes are pretty darn chill

Real life is scary, stay in college longer.

Edit: Real life isn’t actually scary, co-op prepares you for that too

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I’m just leaving my middler year now and am so excited to tell people I’m a junior. Except I’m a senior by credit standing....oh well. Back to the confusion of being a Northeastern student.

Have any questions about poorly done math, college, or life in general? Message me on this blog or email me at

[email protected]

Until next time, stay pawsome!

-D

[northeastern-deirdredunham]

A few weeks back, Farm volunteered in downtown Nashua for Earth Day! Together, we built 12 new flower beds for the Nashua Community Gardens. It was a breeze and a ton of fun for this group of woodworkers, engineers, and designers.  Get a co-op where you would spend a misty Saturday morning volunteering with your awesome coworkers (and get a co-op where your coworkers will go out for drinks afterwards!)

[northeastern-deirdredunham]

A Letter to Admitted Students

If anyone reading this blog is an admitted student, you may know I had the opportunity to write a letter to you all! If you’re not an admitted student or you’re an admitted student who does not open their college mail, I wanted to share my letter with you all here now-

Congratulations again to our incoming Huskies, and give me a shout if you have any questions or want to chat!

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Congratulations! You’ve done the work and have survived college applications, and now you can sit back with an acceptance to Northeastern University! Phew, now that wasn’t so bad, was it?

My name is Deirdre, I’m a third year student here at Northeastern in the first graduating class of Bioengineers with a minor in Computer Science.

In my time so far at Northeastern, I’ve completed two co-ops, a summer internship, research, and some personal travel. The experiences I have gained both in and out of the classroom have helped me reach goals I had only dreamed possible and have shown me new and exciting opportunities I didn't know existed. And all of this is only in my first three years; in my five year program, who knows what I can accomplish!

When I’m not Keeping Up With My Klasses (a little more stimulating than the Kardashians), I can be found exploring the city and staying active in different student organizations. Freshman year, I was a founding member of a board game club, Northeastern University Association of Gaming Enthusiasts (NUAGE), and on top of that I’m a member of Husky Ambassadors, Northeastern University Symphony Orchestra, and the Biomedical Engineering Society.

But enough about me, this is your acceptance letter after all. Take the time to explore and discover new areas of interest, and step through the doors Northeastern will open in the professional realm through our outstanding co-op program. This is your chance to follow your passions and broaden your global scope both on campus and around the world.

I am constantly inspired by my peers, and find that Northeastern fosters a very collaborative learning environment in all senses academically, professionally, and socially. We cheer each other on and support each other as we embark on different adventures in our life; after all, adventure is out there, let Northeastern help you find it. You and me, we’re in a club now, except our club is a not so little place called Northeastern University.

A Northeastern student is someone who is vibrant, innovative, passionate, and a few more fancy buzzwords. But most importantly, a Northeastern student is you.

Welcome to the pack, Huskies, and welcome to Northeastern!

All the best,

Deirdre Dunham, ’19.

[northeastern-deirdredunham]

My friend Emily just won Northeastern’s Coolest Co-op contest with this DOPE video. Well deserved. Definitely cooler than my co-op (sorry Farm I love you).

Emily is an English and International Affairs double major who is on her second co-op at Flocabulary. This video tells you what she does...but let me just say, I’m low key high key jealous.

I can talk fo dayz on engineering and comp sci stuff, but Emily is my token english major friend and educates me on what is happening in the world around me and and always seems to be learning a new language which is super cool. If any of you nerds want to chat with her about life, the universe, or Germany, she is open to emails! Feel free to email her here- [email protected]

[northeastern-deirdredunham]

Register...set....GO!

I’ve returned to a cruel reality, and that reality is I actually have to go back to classes in the fall. 

Actually, I’m excited to go back to classes. I think a perk of the coop program is that by the end of coop, you are ready for classes, and by the end of classes you are SO ready for coop.

Plus, guys, after working 8 hour days every day, who wouldn’t be ready for this schedule??

I’m basically a professional at registering for classes, so here’s a helpful FAQ for class registration season~

How does Registration at Northeastern University Work?

First semester freshmen: I know you are so excited to start picking your classes and having this magical concept called “guided flexibility”, but for your first semester, your schedule will be built for you. Unless you are going to use credits to get out of a class, you don’t have much of a say in what you’re taking and when you take it. However, you usually do have an elective to play around with. When you come in for orientation in the summer, you will meet with an academic adviser and like 10 other students and you guys will search through a massive book of classes and pick what looks ~fun~

Literally everyone else: A few weeks before registration, you will get an email from the university to let you know that your time ticket is posted online. A few weeks before that, the schedule of classes for the coming semester goes live, but there’s no email blast to tell you that. When you get the time ticket email, you can figure out what your ideal schedule would be. Myself and many Northeastern students like using https://neu.courseoff.com/workspace . Courseoff has a schedule of all our classes inputted and you can create an account and save different possible schedule configurations. It’s usually pretty accurate but sometimes wont tell you a room or prof. Oh well.

What if I can’t get a Class I Need/Want?

Need: Email your academic adviser ASAP. If you need a class, they will make sure you get in that class. Either they will expand the class size (this could mean changing the room but its usually no biggie), or if enough people have problems they might just make a whole new section. TBH one time there was a class I needed but it wasn’t free at the time I wanted, so I waited for them all to fill up and then emailed my academic adviser saying, “Oh noooo I need this...at 10:30am pls” and it was done. 

Want: If it’s a want and not really a need, you can either try to get into the class the next semester OR wait until right after “I am Here” registration ends. Many people forget this and will be dropped out of classes. That’s when you strike. You can also email your academic adviser to keep an eye on it for you, but I like picturing NEU students as vultures striking. 

Why does it say “Registration Status: Junior” when I’m Not a Junior?

Registration time tickets are done by your credits! So if you came in with 32 AP credits, you probably have sophomore standing after fall of your freshman year. And some people take summer classes which bumps up their registration times, everyone is just doing different things. A weird thing is that the older you get, the better time tickets you get, but the less competitive it is to get into your classes? That math definitely makes sense.

What do I do when my Time Ticket Activates?

REGISTER! People rush to do it, but honestly it’s not terribly time sensitive unless you really want a certain time for a class. Before your time ticket activates, write all your CRN numbers down on a word document, and then when your time ticket activates, copy and paste those suckers on the quick reg bottom portion of the registration window.

What if I Second Guess It?

Don’t worry, you can drop classes online up until somewhere in the first week of classes without any repercussions. Of course it’s better to do this sooner rather than later so you can fill that slot in your schedule (4 classes is a normal course load, by the way). but hey, we all make mistakes. And when in doubt, take Jazz class. 

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Best of luck with registration, and now that you all know when I have classes....come find me in the fall!

Have any questions about vulture students, college, or life in general? Message me on this blog or email me at

[email protected]

Until next time, stay pawsome!

-D

[northeastern-deirdredunham]

When you and your main are going to crush it leading Husky Ambassadors Programming Committee as the ultimate dream team and you can't really control your emotions. I was totally forshadowing this in my @northeastern-alexishester shout out.

[northeastern-deirdredunham]

Hey, I love your blog! I'm a prospective husky but I'm on the fence... I was wondering what are the best and worst parts of northeastern, in your opinion? Thank you!

Howdy there!Thanks for coming here for a little neighbourly over the fence chat. Well, I’m on one side of the fence, I respect you just chilling, sitting on the fence though.I’m getting nowhere with this joke.

Here’s what I think are the best and worst parts about Northeastern (do you want the good news or bad news first? Bad news? Okay.)

WORST: Co-Op and Global Learning

Ha, gotcha. For anyone skimming my blog, I probably just killed all desire they had to come here. But let me explain what I really mean.

Northeastern, as you may know, is known for our co-op program and how we encourage everyone to study abroad. Yes that’s right, even me, an engineering major, is getting to go abroad for a summer. But this is also a weird thing for us where every 6 months of so, a lot of people leave.

For co-op, you are split up randomly and will work for 6 months and go to classes for 6 months (essentially). There is no guarantee you will be on the same cycle as your friends, and you may end up not being in Boston near them. You may go anywhere from New Hampshire to Italy…you just don’t know where life will take you.

In other schools, kids go abroad all the time. At Northeastern, there are plenty of kids who actually *have* to go abroad. One of my good tour guide friends is going to Mexico for the next year and I won’t see her for that long (she’s in International Business). International affairs also has a mandatory study abroad, and then with all the different options for everyone else, its too good of an opportunity to pass up.

This brings a weird social dynamic where the friends you make early on might just…disappear. Heck, I saw a guy from my freshman engineering class the other night and was like, “LONG TIME NO SEE!” and he was like “Well I haven’t been on campus for a year and a half”. 

Northeastern makes us grow up faster than normal college students. Not only are we working full time jobs, but we are experiencing an “adult” social life where not all your friends live in your same building or even state. It’s not a shift for everyone, and it can feel scary and overwhelming at times. But then you step back and remember that everyone is going through this too and it becomes a little more manageable. 

BEST: The community

Tying into that I said above, even leaving for NH for co-op taught me how many amazing friends I had here. I find the whole Northeastern population to be incredible welcoming no matter what. 

You leave for 6 months? No one is going to forget you or move on. I mean, granted people may change and move on, but I suppose I should say they have not moved on from you. I honestly am experiencing so much love from my friends back at campus while I’ve been away. 

You want to start a super nerdy game club with socially awkward kids? Congrats, you’re actually super cool. I’m partial to this example, and here’s my favorite story about the NEU community. When I went to an unofficial NEU NYC meet up, I was desperate for friends. Everyone seemed so cool and in my head, well, I wasn’t. I saw a guy take something out of his backpack, and in the process I spotted a box of Magic the Gathering cards. Bingo. Found my friend. Well, he is a super nerd but he was also incredible warm and friendly and not incapable of conversations on tons of topics. He’s still one of my good friends and this morning I sent a letter off to him out in California (he’s there on coop, and yes we communicate via snail mail).

I love the type of student that is a Northeastern student. I think we are what makes Northeastern great, and I think should you choose to come here, you’ll find the same.

Once again, these are just my opinions. Feel free to have your own experiences and agree to disagree. But I am also a proponent of making the best out of not the best situations. 

And a little bit of extra advice to help you out?

Make a pros and cons list to help you decide what you value. Pros could be as simple has “is in Boston” and cons could be “does not have castle like buildings on campus”. I just find it helps to sort through things when you can write them down on paper

You’re doing an awesome thing by reaching out to me to ask opinions. If you haven’t don’t that with other schools yet, do it! Ask your teachers in school for advice too because they have probably seen students go to these schools you’re considering and can tell you what they have heard and what they know. My teachers knew I was a Northeastern student before *I* knew I was a Northeastern student.

Revisit the campus. I understand if you can’t do that, and perhaps you already have revisited (we did just have a lot of Welcome Days), but I find you might see a school in a second light when you visit upon acceptance.

Trust your gut, but also know it’s okay to be wrong. I used to have a teacher that told us to throw a dart at a board and go to whatever school we hit. I’m not going to tell you to do that, but go with your gut feeling and believe that the rest will follow. And if for some reason it doesn’t? That’s okay, you’re not signing away your soul. Just….just a decent amount of money. Ugh, that got too real.

I hope this helped and feel free to message me or email me if you want to noodle through any more thoughts to help you decide which school is the right fit for you~-D

[northeastern-alexishester]

~Obligatory Gala post~

Last night was the best event of the HA year, our Gala! I’ve had a blast planning this all year with Programming Committee, and I’m so proud of how amazing it was! Planning a Harry Potter themed party is basically my life goal, so last night was a dream (for real, when I started opening the cupcake boxes, i almost cried at every one. They were SO. CUTE.)

Turns out, I did not take nearly enough pictures last night, but here are a few with @northeastern-deirdredunham and fellow PC member Claire (who, sadly, is not a blogger). I had so much fun last night - thanks for making it such a great year, everyone!