4 /5 Steve Court: I recently graduated from Northeastern University - Seattle, with an MSCS. I was in the first ALIGN cohort for the computer science program, which began in the Fall 2013 semester. The ALIGN program is tailored for individuals with non-CS undergraduate majors. In my case, I was a mechanical engineer with a background in the aerospace industry. The Seattle graduate campus encompasses two buildings in the South Lake Union neighborhood of the city so does not have the traditional large university feel. However, for me, the relatively small size promoted a friendly, almost family atmosphere between the staff and the students, which I really enjoyed. The staff were always incredibly responsive and helpful throughout my time there.
Having been part of the first cohort, I witnessed some initial teething problems with our program and also how the university addressed those problems. Northeastern listened to student feedback and made improvements in every area while I was studying. Those initial issues mainly surrounded transitioning to a greater number of onsite faculty and TAs (i.e. a reduction in the reliance on Boston based resources), and improvements in the scope and focus of the ALIGN foundation courses. At this point, most, if not all classes are taught by an "on-the-ground" faculty member in Seattle. To be clear, this was mostly the case at the start but the situation has only improved. On the other hand, having the Boston campus as a resource benefitted several courses that I took, as there was a lot of mature, well developed material available from existing Boston classes. I should also mention that the breadth of availability of classes is also constantly growing.
The faculty in general are mostly, but not exclusively, professionals from industry (there are also classes taught by full-time faculty) and are typically highly qualified (often PhD) and abreast of current trends. The downside to this, at times, was access to the instructors but they generally put in a major effort to make time for office hours and to help students online. I believe that, as more TAs, become available as the program matures, that issue is easing. The quality of education I received was very high and Im very satisfied with what I learned.
If the small campus feel is for you, Id certainly recommend considering Northeastern in Seattle.
