<p>Since a lot of people here, myself included, will likely be attending in the fall, do any current or former students have any Northwestern-specific advice that they could share with the incoming freshman class? Whether it's about housing, classes, or any other topics, I'm sure many of us would greatly appreciate any advice we can compile in one place.</p>
<p>This</a> page seems to have some good information about the specific houses for the people that are interested.</p>
<p>Here’s another good resource with information for freshman.</p>
<p>[The</a> Unofficial Student Guide](<a href=“http://asg.northwestern.edu/drupal/usguide/]The”>http://asg.northwestern.edu/drupal/usguide/)</p>
<p>For when the housing application comes:
[Freshman</a> housing guide 2010 » North by Northwestern](<a href=“http://www.northbynorthwestern.com/2010/05/81000/freshman-housing-guide-2010/]Freshman”>http://www.northbynorthwestern.com/2010/05/81000/freshman-housing-guide-2010/)
We’re making a new one this year, but for now use this. A little outdated/inaccurate at times, but it is still a very huge help.</p>
<p>& I’ll post the new one here when we finish it, although I must confess we have not even begun.</p>
<p>Keep busy in late August/early September because all your friends will be leaving for their colleges and you’ll still be home. It’s going to make you crazy and frustrated - all your forms and info will come later than your friends, they’ll all be shopping and packing and it will be too early for you to do that. Even if you participate in one of the pre-term experiences (I forget what they’re called right now) you’ll still be leaving much later than your friends.</p>
<p>Do PWild, be open to Greek life, meet as many people as you can fall quarter, don’t start out taking ridiculously hard classes.</p>
<p>I agree with the last poster about not taking ridiculously hard classes first quarter. My son (now a sophomore at NU) was very glad that he did not start with the highest level of a subject open to him given his placement tests at NU (which he purposefully did not study for) and his AP credits. Generally, he started one level down (i.e., with 5 in AP Calc, he could have skipped first 2 levels/classes of calc, but decided just to skip first one, and started at second level/class). </p>
<p>This enabled him to have somewhat easy classes and good grades his first quarter when there was so much new stuff thrown at him (including getting used to dorm life, etc.) Also gave him a strong foundation from NU in those subjects, and he has continued to do very well. </p>
<p>He had several friends who wished they’d done the same – they ended up either dropping tough classes or getting lousy grades. Perhaps if your HS was as rigorous as NU, and you were an ace at that top HS, you could easily do well in the top level available to you…but that would be unusual. Remember, NU is a very rigorous academic school. Top students in HS are just average at NU…</p>
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<p>Perhaps some top high school students will be just average at NU, but others must obviously remain at the top no matter where they go. Otherwise who would take their place, former high school C students?</p>
<p>Of course some kids will be top students at NU. But my point is that virtually all the incoming students at NU were at the top of their HS classes…over 90% in the top 10% of their HS class and over 10% of the NU freshmen were val or sal. And their test scores are stellar. There are tons of kids from the best high schools in the country who had a dozen AP classes. To remain one of the top students at NU, my son (who was val. at a mediocre HS) is studying much, much harder at NU and carefully choosing his classes – but he loves it.</p>
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<p>That may be true but most high school students allowed to take AP classes are already in or near the top 10%. Except for gym, these top kids seldom interact with the bottom half to two-thirds of their high school class.</p>
<p>Given the gauntlet that high schoolers have to go through these days just to get into a top-20 college – multiple APs, college classes, community service, and ECs impressive enough to catch an adcom’s eye – and given the fact that college has 18-20 less hours a week of pure sit-and-listen time, I think actually attending college is a relatively easy-going affair.</p>
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<p>Is that old data from the 27% acceptance days? It seems awfully low nowadays. By contrast, Brown turned down 80% of its val applicants and 85% of its sal applicants.</p>
<p>“Except for gym, these top kids seldom interact with the bottom half to two-thirds of their high school class.”</p>
<p>WOW - What a horrible, egotistical, holier than thou comment! I am so glad my kids don’t go to your high school! That is so not true at our high school - what about electives, sports, service, other extra curriculars, plays, etc. etc. etc.</p>
<p>And yes, there’s only so much room at the top and college is very different than high school. A fair number of “elite” crash and burn in college while other “bottom half” kids soar.</p>
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<p>Yes, but it doesn’t mean most at Brown were val or sal. In fact, only 12% of the enrolled class were (noted that many didn’t submit class rank but that applies to NU also). It’s pretty counter-intuitive.</p>
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over 10% of the NU freshmen were val or sal.
Is that old data from the 27% acceptance days? It seems awfully low nowadays. By contrast, Brown turned down 80% of its val applicants and 85% of its sal applicants.
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<p>One statistic has nothing to do with the other. The percent of a class that is Val/sal has nothing to do with the % acceptance rate of Val/sals. You’re neglecting the key factor – what % of the applicants are Val/sal. A high percent of a class being Val/sal could be due to a) a high percent of all applicants were Val/sal and they were admitted at fair share or even below, or b) a smaller percentage of applicants being Val/sal but the school loves them.</p>
<p>Oh, my, what a firestorm! I am not at all suggesting that the course work at Northwestern is easy. Instead, I suggest that today, the applicants that do make it through the current 18% acceptance window (down from 27%) are battle-hardened veterans with not only brains but the ability to mange huge academic workloads while also juggling multiple ECs and community service projects.</p>
<p>It’s been said that the hardest part of Harvard is simply getting in; this is increasingly becoming the problem at Northwestern. Consider that in Northwestern’s current junior and senior classes, one out of three students now attending would not have been accepted this year. That is a huge difference, and one could assume that cutting out that lowest one-third (however NU defined it) would also cut out the majority of those who struggle with an unexpectedly tough workload.</p>
<p>Sam Lee and Pizzagirl, I could not immediately find the NU acceptance stats data, but I see from the Brown data that, indeed, only a small percentage of those enrolled are val or sal, despite the fact that 80-85% of the val-sal applicants are turned away. Apparently over half of the enrolled class is composed of students from high schools who don’t provide class rank at all – this must be the trend with elite feeder schools that top colleges prize. Still, one might conclude that a not-insignificant number of the non-ranked students would qualify as val or sal, had they been given an official rank. </p>
<p>Amtc, perhaps I should have said that the top students seldom interact academically with the lower half of the classes. Is it egotistical to note that high schools – at least large urban high schools – divide their students into 3 academic tracks – regular, honors and AP-bound – and that the non-AP-bound tracks rarely contain students who attempt to get into top-20 schools? In my son’s school, the same 40 or so students (out of a class of 400) always seem to pop up, whether it’s a history fair award, a science fair award, a foreign-language award, a math team competition or a Scholastic Bowl competition.</p>
<p>Val and Sal stats are utterly meaningless. Every HS in the country has a Val and Sal. Not every HS in the country has brilliant kids or is even serviceable. Many people buried in their class at the best HS’ in the country would have likely been the top of their class at an inferior school.</p>
<p>I agree, arbiter. I know vals and sals here who are dropping classes like flies and have GPAs below 3. On the other hand, kids who were not as distinguished by their high school are starting to thrive. It’s a completely different, and completely incomparable environment to high school. Personally, I’m having some trouble adjusting too–I feel like I’m getting by, but I’m not at the level I’d like to be.</p>