PhD at Northeastern in Programming Languages

[kosh]

Hi all,

 

I'm hoping to do a PhD in Computer Science in programming languages and formal methods. One of my current profs who is quite well known advised me to apply to Northeastern because their group is extremely strong. Well, I've gotten into Northeastern as well as very highly ranked university with only one professor working in my area (although she has an excellent reputation!). Northeastern seems to have one of the best programming languages groups in North America, with a whole bunch of well known people, however I am concerned that the name of the university will bring me down. I can't even really look at what former students did with their careers, since most of the profs were poached relatively recently from more famous schools. 

 

What do you guys think?

 

 

 

 

[sqrwtrmln]

If you're referring to Northeastern University in Boston, MA, I would just like to say that I went there for undergrad and during my time there the school rose consistently in the rankings. It is now considered a top 50 US research university, so I would hardly think that attending would bring you down. In fact, both in the job market and in applying to graduate school, I have found my NU degree to be a boon. If you're talking about a different Northeastern, then sorry for wasting your time.

[croyd]

I'm also considering joining the PL group at Northeastern and dealing with the same questions.

One thing that has helped me is noticing that graduates from the 'PLT' group at Northeastern (formerly at Rice, I think) seem to be doing pretty well after graduating: http://www.ccs.neu.edu/racket/people.html

[kosh]

Thanks for the replies! Yes, I am talking about Northeastern in Boston. I have noticed that their rankings are rising extremely quickly. And yes, I saw the PLT group, and it's good to see that the advisors have very successful students. But a lot of those successful students actually graduated from Rice (or Purdue or Georgia Tech or Indiana...). It's really hard to gauge the reputation of the school.