Northwestern University Top Questions

Diverse - you can get a great huge lecture (ex. Human Sexuality with J. Michael Bailey) which will have amazingly interesting material taught by leaders in the field, while at the same time having small seminars of 8 or 9 on Hebrew literature. The main point is that you should always be able to find something you're looking for. Interesting classes. Classes you don't have to go to. Fun classes. Challenging seminars. Easy distros. Discussion based. Single exam classes. It's all here.

Academics are no joke here. You will find that a large part of the student body takes school pretty seriously, and teachers tend to expect that of us. There are certainly easy A classes that are great as general education requirements, but be prepared to work. You can't slide by at NU with no effort, and the people that try usually figure this out fairly quickly.

While the academics are difficult, they are most definitely manageable. Since NU is full of bright students, we all challenge each other to try out best.

Engineering is tough here. The professors aren't the most personable, and the required classes are annoying. However, when you take more specific classes for your major, things get a little more interesting.

I was surprised to see so many classes with TAs that grade papers and such. Very few of my classes do the professors get to know any of the students, let alone grade their papers. I enjoy meeting people here because I know they're smart--otherwise they wouldn't be here, so conversations are more intellectual than I would have at home. There are real competitive students who are used to getting straight A's from high school.

The classes are fairly small with fairly good attention to each student. The students are uber competitive which makes life more stressful. The best and most interesting class I have taken was a freshmen seminar on the search for extraterrestrial life in the galaxy.

It really depends on what school you're in and what major you have. A lot of my friends have been to their professors' apartment or had a meal with them. I, for one, have met with a Professor maybe once out of class. No matter what their major, people are pretty studious and ambitious in what they want to do. You'll see everyone at the library - film kids working on their projects, theater kids memorizing scenes, econ students trying to grasp graphs and models, engineers doing really hard math, pre-med students learning how to save lives, basically everyone doing some sort of work. I don't feel it's uber-competitive though - people share notes and have study groups and mostly don't even talk about grades. Sometimes I wish my classes were smaller but I guess that's what I get for being an Econ major.

The Pre-med curriculum is quite rigorous, with several 'introductory' science classes attempting to weed out those that can take the academic rigor and those that cannot. This does not necessarily lead to the best students succeeding. Professors are rather approachable, but only in classes that are fewer than about 50 people. Most classes at NU tend to be smaller like this, and I have found a handful of professors that I have made connections with, albeit not incredibly strong. Professors really encourage people to step out of their own disciplines, and try to meld their specific interests with other courses/topics. Education is not necessarily geared to getting a job, but some professors try to reveal the big picture.

HArd as hell. professors know your name if you go into office hours. Students study 24/7..the only break is reading week and thats when we let loose. Students are way too competitive b/c when they get here, we are all equal, and you are no longer "the best" anymore. Academic recquirements are good here because hey, if your not intelligent,I guess you dont belong here. and wow, northwestern students are pretty well rounded and the academic life encourages that.

Impressive, but too self pleased. The process through which one applies to study abroad is like a seminar of how aledgedly great nu's academics are.