Northeastern University College of Engineering: A Comprehensive Overview

The Northeastern University College of Engineering (COE) stands as a prominent institution dedicated to providing a high-quality education through its teaching, learning, and research environment. The college seeks to prepare students to contribute to the accumulation and application of technical knowledge, consistent with its mission.

Foundational Principles and Educational Philosophy

The College of Engineering encourages students to study the arts, sciences, business, and other areas outside engineering. This allows for an increased awareness of the social, economic, political, aesthetic, and philosophical influences that shape the world in which graduates will practice their professions. The mission of the College of Engineering is to provide a teaching, learning, and research environment that results in the highest-quality education for our students. Consistent with this goal, while providing a practice-oriented, experiential, and interdisciplinary program, the College of Engineering seeks to prepare students to contribute to the accumulation and application of technical knowledge.

Degree Programs Offered

The College of Engineering offers a wide range of academic programs, including more than 65 undergraduate and graduate engineering degree programs at the BS, MS, and PhD levels. The college offers a Bachelor of Science degree with specializations in bioengineering, chemical engineering, civil engineering, computer engineering, electrical engineering, environmental engineering, industrial engineering, and mechanical engineering. There are also a number of combined majors offered within the college and between the College of Engineering and other colleges. Combined majors are continually being developed in response to student interest. More than 45 Master of Science, Doctor of Philosophy and Graduate Certificates are offered across five engineering departments in traditional disciplines and applied areas of study.

Undergraduate Programs

The college offers a Bachelor of Science degree with specializations in:

Bioengineering
Chemical Engineering
Civil Engineering
Computer Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Environmental Engineering
Industrial Engineering
Mechanical Engineering

In addition to these specializations, the college offers a number of combined majors within the college and between the College of Engineering and other colleges, which are continually being developed in response to student interest.

Graduate Programs

More than 45 Master of Science, Doctor of Philosophy and Graduate Certificates are offered across five engineering departments in traditional disciplines and applied areas of study. The College of Engineering offers more than 65 undergraduate and graduate engineering degree programs at the BS, MS, and PhD level. In addition to the traditional degrees, the college offers a wide range of minors and graduate certificates, including the Gordon Engineering Leadership Program, which can be taken in combination with most engineering MS degrees.

Experiential Learning: The Co-op Program

Beginning in 1909, the College of Engineering was the first school at Northeastern to offer the co-op program. Students have options available to participate in cooperative education experiences as they pursue completion of Bachelor of Science degree programs. Those seeking an 18-month co-op work experience may wish to enroll in the PlusOne accelerated master's program.

With Northeastern's signature cooperative education program, students gain valuable industry experience as part of the academic curriculum. BS, MS, and PhD students have the opportunity to work with more than 2000 leading employer partners around the world. The co-op program gives undergraduate and graduate students an opportunity to work within their profession for four, six, or eight-month periods as part of their educational experience.

Examples of student experiences include:

Shalini Agrawal, MS’26, robotics, works as a robotics software engineer co-op at Orpheus Ocean, where she’s applying the state estimation and sensor integration skills she developed at Northeastern’s Field Robotics Lab.
Bibek Gupta, PhD ’27, computer engineering, is developing morphing-wing robots at the Silicon Synapse Lab.
Ethan Flynn, mechanical engineering, completed co-ops at NASA and SpaceX and got a full time job offer.
Ella Strzegowski (Bioengineering E’23) embarked on a co-op at Moderna in the fall of 2021, just as the company was applying for its biologics license and COVID-19’s Omicron variant was tearing through the population.
Mechanical Engineering student Paige Butler shares how her involvement in the student group Students for the Exploration and Development of Space landed her two co-ops at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and subsequently, a full-time position following graduation.
Learn about MS in Bioengineering student Millicent Gabriel's co-op experience at Bluebird Bio.

Experiential learning is the heart of a Northeastern education.

Interdisciplinary Approach

A major goal of Northeastern engineers is to lead the way in interdisciplinary research. The College of Engineering fosters collaborations between biologists, chemists, physicists, geologists and physicians to seek new answers to problems like tumor detection, soil remediation and emissions control. With a focus on developing multifaceted engineers, Northeastern pushes beyond interdisciplinary programs, adding also combined majors, and offering over 70 minors in engineering and from across seven colleges at the university. Several COE, Bouvé, COS, DMSB, and Khoury students mentored by COE faculty are recipients of the Spring 2026 PEAK Experiences Awards from Northeastern’s Office of Undergraduate Research and Fellowships.

Student Life and Support

Students are encouraged to become involved in a broad range of student organizations offered within the college as an enriching addition to academic studies and co-op experience. There are over 50 student organizations in the College of Engineering that offer a broad array of experiences and opportunities. In addition to a full array of services at Northeastern University, specialized advising and other support services (including tutoring) are provided. Students in the John Martinson Honors Program may participate in honors sections of a number of courses.

A wide variety of academic tutoring services are available to undergraduate engineering students taking courses across engineering departments.

Academic Standards

In addition to meeting university progression standards, it is expected that undergraduate engineering students enroll in four (4 credit) courses, with corresponding labs and recitations, and successfully complete at least 12 semester hours each academic semester (fall, spring) with an acceptable grade-point average. Students who earn below a 1.000 GPA or earn fewer than 4 semester hours in any academic semester (fall, spring) may be dismissed, regardless of their prior academic status. Students may elect to take courses on a satisfactory/unsatisfactory graded basis in accordance with university policy. A maximum of 9 semester hours may be taken for a satisfactory/unsatisfactory grade toward fulfillment of degree requirements in the College of Engineering. A maximum of 4 semester hours of satisfactory/unsatisfactory graded coursework is allowed per semester. Students must complete all of the requirements in the degree program in which they are candidates. Degree requirements are based upon the year of graduation, determined by the date of entry or reentry into the College of Engineering. Students are expected to develop and follow a program of study outlining scheduled coursework to complete degree requirements. If changes to the year of graduation are to be made after completion of the third year of study in the major program curriculum, revised plans should be submitted to an academic advisor for review and approval.

The following plans of study are for current students only. Plans are organized based on term of entry. These plans are samples only- actual curriculum sequences may deviate from these samples. Programs of study are the responsibility of the student. The first-year engineering coursework provides a foundational experience across engineering majors, which provides flexibility for students who may decide to change their engineering major during the first year. The first-year required math, science, and Cornerstone courses are offered at multiple locations including the Northeastern Boston campus, Northeastern Oakland campus, and the Northeastern London campus via the London Scholars Program. Students who entered in a Spring term should pick the previous fall term (ex. Pathways for each undergraduate degree can be found below by following the link and navigating to the ‘PlusOne Accelerated Master’s Degree’ section. Students in combined majors should refer to the link for their home program.

PlusOne Accelerated Master’s Program

Undergraduate students enrolled at Northeastern can participate in the PlusOne accelerated master’s degree program. Students have options available to participate in cooperative education experiences as they pursue completion of Bachelor of Science degree programs. Those seeking an 18-month co-op work experience may wish to enroll in the PlusOne accelerated master's program. Pathways for each undergraduate degree can be found below by following the link and navigating to the ‘PlusOne Accelerated Master’s Degree’ section. Students in combined majors should refer to the link for their home program.

Graduate Certificates

A Graduate Certificate is another way for students to personalize their path with a specialization in an area of their choice. Over 15 graduate certificates are available. Certificates can be taken in addition to or in combination with a master’s degree, or provide a pathway to a master’s degree in Northeastern’s College of Engineering. Certificates are also available for PhD students.

History and Development

An engineering department was first established around 1901 as part of the evening educational program at the Boston Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA). The variety in engineering courses was meant to prepare men for work in engineering and industrial design. A Co-operative School of Engineering, the institution's first day school, was formed in 1909. Carl Ell, a future president of Northeastern, joined the engineering faculty after graduate work at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1910. He became head of Northeastern's civil engineering department two years later and dean of the School of Engineering in 1917. In 1920, the engineering school received degree-granting powers. In 1936, however, the school failed to receive accreditation largely due to cramped classrooms and inadequate laboratory facilities at the Huntington Avenue YMCA building, but also because its four-year curriculum that included the co-op experience was deemed too short. a new governing body, the Northeastern University Corporation with an independent board of trustees, was created to give the Boston YMCA less control over the university. The curriculum of the engineering school, which by that time included civil, mechanical, electrical, industrial and chemical engineering programs, was expanded to five years. And the university constructed its first campus building, Richards Hall. By 1960, enrollment at the College of Engineering had reach 2,734 students, making it the largest undergraduate engineering program in New England and one of the largest in the country.

Campus and Facilities

Centrally located on Northeastern’s Boston campus, the College of Engineering is housed in the Snell Engineering Center. In 2017, Northeastern opened a state-of-the-art interdisciplinary facility in Boston's Roxbury neighborhood on Columbus Avenue. The Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Complex (ISEC) includes wet and dry laboratory facilities, classroom and office space, a 280-seat auditorium and a large atrium with a spiral staircase totaling 234,000 square feet (21,700 m2) of space to accommodate approximately 700 faculty and graduate students.

Rankings and Recognition

The College of Engineering is recognized by U.S. News & World Report as some of the engineering programs in America. For the magazine's 2025 edition, the undergraduate engineering program was ranked #35 and its graduate engineering #34.

Faculty and Staff

The College of Engineering at Northeastern University has 235 full-time faculty on staff. Gregory D. serves as the Dean. The 2024 Ph.D. student-faculty ratio is 4.8:1.

Admissions and Cost

The Northeastern University College of Engineering (COE) has a rolling application deadline. The application fee is $75 for U.S. residents and $100 for international students. Its tuition is full-time: $1,864 per credit and part-time: $1,864 per credit. Tuition (doctoral, part-time) is $45,000 per year (in-state) and $45,000 per year (out-of-state). The acceptance rate (Master's & Doctoral) is 44.4%.

Student Population

The gender distribution of enrolled (master's) students is Female 37.5%, Male 62.4%, Other 0.2%.

Research and Innovation

Engineering is an exciting and evolving field. Engineers pioneer discoveries that shape society and can have a transformative impact on the world. Sara Garcia Sanchez, PhD, electrical engineering, came to Northeastern University from Spain to study wireless communications in a high-level international environment.

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