<p>For all the current students, why did you decide to go to Northwestern? And now that you have been there for a year or so, what has been disappointing, exceeded expectations, surprised you, etc?</p>
<p>someone has to have SOME reasoning…</p>
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<p>i live in the area, a lot of my family went there, it’s an amazing school</p>
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the arrogance of many of the professors, the (un)helpfulness of the counseling (academic, career) offices, the difficulty of scheduling classes, the harsh grading with no strong improvement in teaching quality (i transferred)</p>
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how fun it is here, how awesome the students are, how great the town/location is, how i ended up liking the campus so much more than i thought i would, how employers respond to Northwestern on your resume</p>
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just how smart some people really are, and how somewhat disappointing it is to go home on a break and realize your friends from home just aren’t quite there (sounds kind of harsh), they just don’t get the same subtle humor, have the same depth of insight/consideration, etc.</p>
<p>elsijfdl-</p>
<p>If you don’t mind me asking, where did you transfer from?</p>
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<p>I am very disappointed to read this. </p>
<p>What makes it so difficult to schedule classes? </p>
<p>Describe “harsh grading,” please. Is it because the standards are so high or are the professors unreasonable?</p>
<p>The professors are not much better than where you transferred from?? Bleh.</p>
<p>Your positive statements are encouraging. In the end, was it a worthwhile move for you? Are you happy that you made the switch?</p>
<p>(would someone please tell me how to block the quotes. I clicked on the “quote message in reply” box and nothing happened.)</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>Wait, elsijfdl, did you transfer out of NU, or to NU? That sucks if you enjoyed all of the experience except for the faculty. =</p>
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<p>most classes are only available through one teacher at one time (and in many cases only one quarter a year). e.g. if you need Math 101 as a pre-req or major requirement, in many cases it is likely to ONLY be taught at 12pm, Fall quarter, meaning you must schedule all your classes around this class. Not only that, but many of those other classes are likely to be offered at only one time also, so it can become difficult to get all the classes you want.</p>
<p>at the school i transferred from (a large public) for example, Math 101 would have had sections at 12pm, 1pm, 2pm, 3pm, etc. and would have been taught both semesters, making scheduling much easier.</p>
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in relation to my public school, i found the teaching quality at northwestern to be largely the same, the way i described it is simply they “send out the tests to my old school, see what they gave as a grade, then mark it down one letter grade.” The unreasonableness of professors is a large part of it (arbitrary grading, unreasonable requests e.g. they would ask what 1+1 was and even though you answered correctly they would take off points because you didn’t tell them what 2*3 was…), and also simply the sheer amount of competition from your classmates. When you consider the average SAT score in arts & sciences is over a 1400, and they traditionally give out As to 15% or so of the class, you start to wonder who your competition is. Even though you may have written an amazing paper, there are surely 20 students who wrote unbelievable papers.</p>
<p>northwestern ostensibly has much more decorated, renowned professors, but i found as it relates to actual teaching quality, outside of standards, top 15 schools (i am generalizing) are likely no better than anywhere else.</p>
<p>also, in case you are concerned this is a northwestern-only phenomenon, two students i know who transferred from the university of chicago (a reputably highly academic school) both expressed their opinion that not only was the teaching quality better at northwestern, the grading was more stringent.</p>
<p>it is the students who you are in class with that really make the difference. someone linked to a study once that found teaching quality had very little effect on quality of education, that most of the effect on your education (and i agreed before i even read this study) came from the type of students you were surrounded with. you learn more from your peers than your lectures.</p>
<p>in that way, i didn’t mean to imply that i was getting a worse education at northwestern, i am getting a much better one, but it isn’t because the teachers are that much better.</p>
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happier than you can imagine. i didn’t mean to imply the teaching quality was bad, just that teachers on the whole weren’t any better or more accessible than my public school. if anything that’s a compliment for public schools, not an insult to northwestern.</p>
<p>also, northwestern has more to offer outside of the classroom than i can imagine any other school having. and the academics are nevertheless still top notch.</p>
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<p>to quote something, put this around the text (remove the hyphens):
[-q-u-o-t-e-]blah blah blah[-/-q-u-o-t-e-]</p>
<p>i want to add that traditionally, students in other schools (medill, sesp, medill, comm) tend to rate their profs/advising better than those in weinberg.</p>
<p>^^ yes i forgot that. it is mainly the weinberg advisors that are lacking. i recently switched to SESP and already it’s much better. they have dedicated advisors whereas weinberg has professors who moonlight as advisors</p>
<p>[i recently switched to SESP and already it’s much better.]</p>
<p>I have heard that SESP is a little gem at NU and that there are several transfers into that department every year. Do you know why that is?</p>
<p>I also read on this board that the advising is excellent in that department so I’m not surprised by your comments. Will it still be hard to get the classes you want now that you are in SESP? </p>
<p>Thanks for the instructions on the quotes. I hope I did it properly.</p>
<p>LOL, I still don’t have the quote box right. How did I get into NU??</p>
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<p>yes it’s the most transferred-into school at northwestern? reasons? well, my guess is:</p>
<ol>
<li>no language requirement (sounds silly but it’s a big deal)</li>
<li>probably the easiest school at NU (besides music)</li>
<li>you do a really cool thing called a practicum for a quarter where you basically just have an internship in the city (that NU gets for you) for four days a week and you just have one class a week on friday where you talk about it. students do internships everywhere from goldman sachs to public school districts.</li>
<li>the majors in it are pretty cool</li>
<li>the advising/personal attention is much better than weinberg (SESP is super small)</li>
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<p>SESP has many of the same problems where classes are scheduled only at one hour once a year, however it’s better than in weinberg because all the classes you need are for your major so they are arranged so that they don’t conflict with each other, whereas in wienberg it’s so big and so many different departments that classes are just scheduled haphazardly.</p>
<p>for quoting: pretend you want to quote this sentence: “i like summer”</p>
<p>type this (removing the hyphens):</p>
<p>[-q-u-o-t-e-]i like summer[-/-q-u-o-t-e-]</p>
<p>Is it a good thing or a bad thing that it’s one of the easiest majors at NU? Is it an attractive department to prospective employers? (i.e., is it a well respected department despite its small size?)</p>
<p>I noticed on one of the NU web pages that most “notable athletes” came out of SESP. How good a department is it and what kind of job do you hope to pursue from it?</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
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<p>SESP is a school for athletes, because like i said, it’s rather easy on grading and the SAT average of its students is slightly lower than the rest of northwestern.</p>
<p>there are several majors in SESP, including education, social policy, and a major called learning and organizational change.</p>
<p>it is one of the top 5 education schools in the country, so i think i would be safe in saying it sends its graduates to entry-level jobs that are the very top of their fields. </p>
<p>when i say it’s the “easiest” school at northwestern you have to consider that designation still means it would be the best school almost anywhere else.</p>
<p>LOC is a consulting-type major, and i don’t have any specific data but i’m sure graduates from there are served quite well, especially considering they will have extra internship experience from the practicum and possibly can even receive a job offer through there (like i said, students intern at places like goldman sachs, etc. during their practicum if they want to)</p>
<p>PS it’s easy to get a double major within arts and sciences even if you are part of SESP so as far as that goes, if you’re concerned about SESP appearing too easy you can very readily pursue a double major within arts and sciences with… NO LANGUAGE REQUIREMENT because you’re in SESP!</p>
<p>consider this, my GPA is around a 3.5 without language. with language it’s just above a 3.2.</p>
<p>Where did you transfer to / from, elsijfdl?</p>
<p>I am interested in sticking with Spanish. Can I take it as an elective? Are languages killer there? I got a 5 on my AP exam but maybe I need to start with an entry level course?</p>
<p>I’m surprised there is no language requirement. I read over some of the likely professions and it seems to me that a second language would be highly desirable. </p>
<p>I am also interested in continuing in Spanish. Why is it such a relief that a language is not required in SESP? How are the NU language classes??</p>
<p>there is a language requirement in weinberg. i am so glad i did well on AP Spanish test. i had a feeling the language classes in college are really hard in college. on SESP, im considering transferring to the school after freshman year for the LOC major that was already talked about. After fresman year b/c i want to take the freshman seminars and im not entirely sure if I want to transfer. Recently I emailed SESP about taking classes there while I’m still in Weinberg. Very quick and thorough reply said that I could only problem was that since I’m a freshman, the class could fill up due to reserved spots for incoming SESP people. So you can explore the school before actually transferring. I am going to do a double major in econ in Weinberg for sure if I transfer, though. Sam Lee (read=resident CC NU expert) told me his friend was a double at SESP (LOC) and Weinber econ and got a job at HSBC hedge fund. thats a really nice gig so i think employers will still look favorably on it. Besiders, its NORTHWESTERN for god’s sake! that name has appeal that few schools can match.</p>
<p>ridewithbd24, I gather you tested out of the WCAS language requirement? I’m getting nervous now about Spanish. What makes the language classes so difficult at NU?</p>