Which college has better 'name recognition', Gettysburg or Northeastern?

It depends on whom you talk to and where you are. Gettysburg is a small, prototypical liberal arts college in a rural area; Northeastern is a very large university in a very urban area with its well-known work-study programs. it’s not even apples and oranges but apples and lamb chops.
They are interesting choices to have applied to. What else is on your list?

From my experience with four children of my own and the job of Director of College Placement at a Quaker School, the young people tended to thrive more in a small, liberal arts community. That is presupposing you want a liberal arts education and not a more career-oriented one.

(Psst. My dad and I have been wondering

@gailcalled
Thanks! Funny how even as an accepted college student I let that slip.

I am looking into the engineering programs at both colleges. Gettysburg’s being the 3–2 Duel Degree program.

@ctferrarajr: How soon will you hear from your other schools? April 15 is almost upon us.

Have you visited both schools?

For what it’s worth, I know of Northeastern but not Gettysburg.

For what it’s worth, I didn’t know either one was a college.

^^ Live and learn. They are both schools with excellent regional (NE) reputations.

Gettysburg College

Northeastern University

@gailcalled I received all the other acceptance letters, the most notable being SUNY Geneseo, Allegheny, and Mary Washington. I will get the letter for Trinity this week (I highly doubt I will be accepted haha).

I have visited both but, like you said they are apples and oranges. Its really the city vs. a small town atmosphere.

Until last year, I had never heard of Gettysburg College. The son of the CEO where I work attended Gettysburg. He loved it there and was an intelligent young man. That may or may not have been a reflection of Gettysburg.

Of course, few people know my alma mater either.

Northeastern, being bigger, will have wider name recognition. But don’t worry about that; pick the school which suits your needs the best.

I can’t answer unbiased as I went to Northeastern.

@blueiiznh: What was your experience like? What did you study? Did you do off-campus work? Did you like living in downtown Boston? If you had to do it over, would you have made a different choice?

I don’t know either, but it sounds like one is bigger. One nice thing about bigger schools is you can test the water in many more majors/areas before settling down. Just a thought.

@gailcalled MS in Computer Science. Northeastern is one of the largest commuter university’ and as such there really are not many dorms to speak of. I lived a few T stops away. I loved living in Boston. But living on the North Shore and on the beach is acceptable as I am only 45 minutes away. I love going in town and do so often.
I would recommend it or any major college or university in Boston/Cambridge area. A great place to learn and live. I am very happy with my choice and would do it all over again in a heartbeat.

@blueiiznh: You apparently flourished at the big urban university, which I would have found very inhospitable.

I too went to college in the area, as did both my husbands (same class and same university oddly) and two of my sons. Then I lived in Cambridge and worked at Harvard for 5 years after graduation. It was magical, but seems less so now. Too big, too overbuilt, too crowded, too noisy.

But it is also true that I love living now in a rural community where the cows outnumber the humans, and three cars and a logging truck constitute a traffic jam.

I’d pick Gettysburg over NE, but that’s my personal choice.

@gailcalled I understand and enjoy the quiet of where I am and it only being a drive away. We have more horses that people where I live and I do like that shift too.
Yes, Harvard, MIT, BC, BU, etc are so huge now. I completely agree it has to fit the personality and what a person is going to expect and be able to handle.