<p>i was wondering if anyone could speak to the quality/availability of academic advising at northwestern. i have heard several horror stories from family friends that have worried me quite a bit. i was admitted to the communication school, but information/opinions regarding any school would be welcome. additionally, any information people could offer on class sizes or professor accessibility would be helpful as well. thank you :)</p>
<p>I don’t have any complaints about my freshman advisor. So far it seems like he’s done a good job. I imagine that it’s the advisors you get after freshman year that really matter, since that’s when you need to start focusing on a major.</p>
<p>Class sizes vary depending on the type of class. Freshman seminars are about 17 people. All of my language classes so far have been about 15 people or fewer (and I’m in Spanish, which is a pretty popular language). Then there are mid-size classes that have 75-100 people, and then the really big classes (like Intro to Psych) that have about 200 people. That’s the biggest class I’ve had so far. Each quarter so far, my schedule has been made up of roughly 1-2 small classes, 1-2 medium classes, and 1 big class. Again, I imagine this will change after freshman year when I start taking classes more specific to my major.</p>
<p>In my experience, professors are very available, and encourage you to come to office hours. Some are willing to make appointments to meet with you if you have classes during their regular office hours, and they’re pretty good about responding to e-mails. Plus, the TAs have office hours and can be contacted through e-mail as well. So I would say that NU is very good in terms of professor accessibility.</p>
<p>I’m in Weinberg, by the way. :)</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>