As a senior in high school, Andrea Grimes, CS ’05 was accepted at Princeton. But Northeastern wanted the high-achiever, too, and was able to offer her a variety of scholarship funds, including, ultimately, a Presidential Scholarship. In the end, Grimes chose Northeastern. It wasn't just the scholarship money that sealed the deal; it was also the people at the College of Computer and Information Science. “They seemed really excited about having me come,”says Grimes. Plus, she says, “I really liked the idea of co-op. And they told me I could start on research right away.”

At Northeastern, working with Associate Professor Robert Futrelle, Grimes helped create software that pinpoints language patterns in biology text, to give biologists a better tool for searching databases. Later, she helped Assistant Professor Peter Tarasewich study privacy issues related to mobile devices.

As everyone predicted, Grimes excelled. She had the highest GPA in her class three years running, co-authored several research papers, and attended international conferences. Today, Grimes is a student in the Georgia Institute of Technology's PhD program in human-centered computing.

“I’m not really interested in developing the next gadget that people will use in the next couple of months and then get sick of,” she says. “I would like to help improve people's lives.”