Northwestern University Top Questions

the professors are generally really great here. if youre looking for great academics in the sciences and engineering youve come to the right place, although it's no walk in the park. however the language departments could definitely use some work.

Classes are difficult, but manageable. People are not competitive with each other, they are competitive with themselves.

The school is a factory for I-Bankers and Consultants... if you want to make a lot of money in one of these fields, come here because all the best firms recruit on campus and Chicago is a central location for these industries. If you know you want to go to law or medical school, you might be better off saving your money and racking up a good GPA at a state school because classes can be kind of difficult. I major in Social Policy, which is very good for its advising and connections to professors in the policy institute. I also minor in Political Science, and the classes are kinda (up to 120 people in some) big but still very interesting. There are programs that allow you to work in the city for credit, and that can help you with connections. It's really easy to do this, and the school is great about helping you get internships.

50{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} of your class will be people you never see outside of class. They live in their dorms and study. As such, class is competitive. However, if you got in to NU you're proabably smart and will be able to handle your time well enough. Ironically, they have lots of "liberal arts education" talk for a highly motivated student body. Most people are here to become investment bankers, doctors, journalists, or engineers. They aren't here to study math and work for NASA or become professors. Thus its pretty suprising NU doesn't have a business school or a dedicated pre-med major.

Northwestern University is a rigorous, academic-minded school. The quality of teaching is outstanding. You really can't complain when you are being taught by a professor who has written some kajillion books on his or her subject and is considered a leader in the field. The professors care about the students and are even more involved in student work when you reach higher level classes.

The best part of Northwestern, in terms of academics, is that most everyone is shy and anti-social. This means that people like me who have the most important and correct opinions, get to share more than at other schools. Whenever I have a discussion section for a Northwestern course, every other student seems too reluctant to speak a word. So, I take the silence as an opportunity to express my opinions and influence others. In the end, because of my eloquent speeches and infallible logic, everyone else in the class ends up agreeing with me and adopting my views. At no other school are student's as nervous and reserved as at Northwestern, which gives talkative students like me a grand opportunity to speak their mind.

the academics here are tough and you are forced to work hard, but you learn eye opening things constatly

I think professors at NU are generally good. Some classes for Freshman and Sophomores are a little too large and so there could be more student-professor interaction.

Like every college, it depends on the class and your major, but yes, academics can be very challenging here. Not really that big of a surprise though.

Academics are the main reason students choose to attend Northwestern. Lacking is the Ivy League "kill or be killed" mentality and the ensuing arrogance. However, despite the lack of Ivy League ostentatiousness, the students still challenge themselves and each other, and competition can be fierce. The professors are mixed, as they are with every school, but on average they tend to be very capable and there are certainly more impressive professors than there are terrible professors. The quarter system, as a foil to the semester system used at most universities, is incredibly fast-paced and rigorous, but any student accepted to Northwestern is capable of pumping out good grades; effort is the only real decisive factor.