Name: Boston and Beyond: Insights on Northeastern University with Salmaan Faraaz
Uploaded: 2026-01-20T17:43:58.000Z
Duration: 19 min 39 s
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Welcome back to another episode of Breaking Boundaries, the world's premier podcast for international students, or at least in the top 150.

I'm John Clark with the TOEFL program and my distinguished guest today is Salman Faraz, the director of recruitment for Northeastern University in South Asia, Southeast Asia, Middle East, Africa.

Salman, that I captured all that's correct.

I'm going to start broad and then we'll work down to the institutional level.

Northeastern has 20,000 international students and scholars from nearly 150 countries.

But let me ask you first, beyond Northeastern, why study in the US I think one of the most important reasons would be about the global opportunities out there.

You know, speaking about America as a landscape as, as as a place for opportunities, having so many big cities, having industry around.

So at the end of the day, I mean, when you look at students coming into the US they're looking at a quality education factor, but

at the same time they're also looking at actually getting into, you know, getting some practical experience.

And Northeastern has actually built on similar principles, which we call it the experiential learning.

So we would love students to come in, you know, look at the theoretical aspect in the classes, but

at the same time are able to work, able to do, say, co ops internships in the US and also experience, you know, applying the theoretical knowledge into practical experience.

So I think that opportunity is, is, is widely available in America.

And that's one of the key aspects, I would say.

And Northeastern in particular is located in the heart of Boston.

If you stand on any street corner in Boston and throw a stone, you're likely to hit a Nobel Prize winner or some genius who has, who has cracked some scientific code.

And so the availability of experiential learning opportunities in Boston, I imagine, is vast.

I mean, Northeastern has been in Boston for more than 100 years now.

If you look at the history, 1898 is when the university started.

Back in the day, we started off as a school which was specialized in a few programs in engineering, and

then eventually also learned the experiential model in 1909, that's when we actually started the model with about four companies on board and we've come a long way from there.

And now Boston obviously is a city which is so vibrant, is housed to some of the top universities in the world.

So I think the entire community out there is so young and actually is pretty much a learning Community, I would say.

But also speaking about other campuses, like Northeastern has grown in the last two decades to various other campuses.

So in the US we have not just Boston, but

about 11 campuses out there where students can actually go and study.

And apart from the US we also have expanded to other countries like Canada and the uk.

In Canada, we have two campuses in Toronto and Vancouver and also in the uk.

So I think Northeastern as a whole, we also offer the global experience, the global network of campuses where students can actually study where they actually wish to.

It's funny, I was going to praise Northeastern for its geographic honesty.

A lot of schools have geographic directional names, but it's confusing Northeastern.

If you look at a map of the US it's truly in the northeastern corner, but

it sounds like you have campuses worldwide.

And so it's many, many opportunities abound.

And on a personal note, I know that you also studied as an international student in the US you went to a more geographically confusing school, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, which is not in Indiana but in Pennsylvania.

Going back to your own experience, what was your experience like journeying to the US As a student?

I mean, some of the things, I mean, obviously as a kid being brought up in India, it was always a dream to actually go out there and study in one of the countries which is so advanced and also kind of getting that experience of actually studying abroad.

And for me, I think the experience in the US was more so, also about academic differences, which could be, say, I think the education is quite more practical compared to what I studied in India and also with the opportunities I got actually after graduating or even while graduating and doing these internships.

And also the experience of actually meeting people from various parts of the world, because I believe, I think we are living in a global world today and it's important to connect with people from all over.

So in my class I actually met people from, from, from Africa, from, from East Asia, from the Middle East.

So I was actually exposed to different cultures that also gave me that confidence to kind of work with people from all over the world.

And I actually, on a long note, I would say in my career I was able to deal with people better because I understood what, what the expectations were like, how the communication would work.

I think all of that really connected the dots and I think my decision to, to study abroad was actually a really good one.

Yeah, I, I like that you mentioned the social components.

In my experience at both undergraduate and graduate level, I loved my international student friends and I often learned more from them than inside the classroom.

But you mentioned something interesting, this idea of the practicality of the education here.

Could you dive into that a little bit more for those that are bound for the US what was different about the classroom experience in your eyes?

So one of the things was about the way the classrooms were set up.

That's one of the first things I noticed.

There was a cohort and our students can actually come into the class which are designed.

You can pick up your teachers, you can pick up your courses and then you come in.

The flexibility of the curriculum and the flexibility of choosing your professors.

That's the number one thing which I loved about.

You're going to be working with their research, which is going on.

So that was the first aspect which really excited me.

The second thing was about how we could actually attend the lectures.

And for every one hour of lecture, I remember going back to library and at least studying for four hours, which meant that there's so many things you gotta figure out yourself and actually dive into it.

The curiosity which the professors kind of built in the class, which was amazing, I mean, unlikely.

Back home in India, we used to see it was more of a coursework oriented study where it was more of like subjects, a lot of information given and then expect it to be remembered.

Whereas here it was more of doing more research by yourself.

The second thing was also about the office hours which.

Which really made sense to kind of go back and find the faculty and meet them and ask their doubts, which you had with them.

So which gave you more liberty and time to even go back, do the research for those four hours and then even when you have doubts, come back to the professor and kind of clarify those things.

So I really love the part and also the grading system is amazing, wherein it's just not about a test, which you do at the end, but

moresoever about how much work you put in.

There was also the group work and we used to work in groups and do projects, mini projects that also kind of really helped us build friendships between the peers.

So all these aspects kind of really were very different from how it is back home.

And then I love the experience of studying there.

I want to highlight one thing you mentioned.

One mistake I made in college early on was not taking those faculty office hours seriously.

But as my classes grew smaller and more specialized, I Learned junior year that they're there to help.

And that's my piece of unsolicited advice to students, is early on, take advantage of those faculty office hours.

The other thing that echoed with me is your note on no one takes attendance.

And most of the international students that I interact with are very ambitious, very organized, but

that can be kind of unnerving or on mooring to have the freedom.

You said flexibility, but you really do have a lot of freedom with class selection and attendance.

Many international students, you mentioned that you have a very diverse student body this year, more than 800 students from Africa.

Subtitles ListPlay Video

Boston and Beyond: Insights on Northeastern University with Salmaan Faraaz

absolutely

opportunity

vast

experience