Emory vs. Northwestern

Sam_Lee
Fri, 08 Apr 2011 19:35:20 +0000

^It’s extremely easy to cross academic disciplines at NU. The only exceptions are journalism, music (performance), and theater (performance) for obvious reasons. Note that you can still study musicology and drama in the school of arts and sciences. The number of people that double majors at NU is insane. For example, 60% of industrial engineering and management science majors also major in economics. Both Rhodes Scholars two year ago were triple majors. NU offers over 4000 courses a year, which is astonishing for a mid-sized university.

NU got into interdisciplinary fields much earliest than probably any school in the country. Well-regarded programs like integrated science programs (ISP) and mathematical methods for social sciences (MMSS) have been around since the 70s. NU created the first material sciences and engineering department in the world in the 50s. It’s also the first to have combined medical program (60s) and one of the earliest to have biomedical engineering department (60s). They have a unique engineering curriculum that integrates math, sciences, and computing for freshmen when students in most other schools are still taking physics, chemistry, computer sciences courses separately. Also, as far as I know, NU is the only school with top music programs that provide dual-degree in music and engineering. Based on what others wrote in CC, other top music programs really discourage music students from pursuing another major.