Our S19 is mostly looking at liberal arts schools but it’s still early in our process and I’m curious about NU’s advising/counseling once kids get on campus. The close personal support of LACs is one of the larger reasons that S19 is looking at LACs.
My husband and I went to Northwestern and don’t remember any advising. In fact, when I was doing very poorly in my engineering program, no one contacted me and I only knew I was in deep trouble when my parents received a letter in the mail saying I was on academic probation. This was 30 years ago and, obviously, I should have been a more proactive student and found more help. I did go to my professors for help and to my TAs but it wasn’t enough. I still struggled in class and didn’t know of any other options for advice.
Has this changed at all? Do kids have relationships with their advisors? S19 has a weighted GPA of 5.55/5.0 and a 1540 SAT score so we think he’s in the ballpark for NU. He would be applying undecided to Weinberg. We are trying to figure out how different the experience would be versus a place like Grinnell or Carelton.
Oh my goodness, I love the advising here (NU) so far. I am only a freshman, so I don’t have a full perspective yet, but no complaints yet. So basically how it works is as follows: summer before his freshman year, he will pick a freshman seminar class (there are over 60 topics to choose from) and that will be a small class of about 15 students. The professor of that class will be his freshman adviser.
My freshman adviser emailed the whole class during the summer, introducing himself and inviting us to reply and share about ourselves. So before the quarter even started, I had some communication with him. He is very responsive to emails. Also during wildcat welcome (orientation week), everybody meets with their adviser individually to talk about registering for classes etc. And at the beginning of class, he encouraged us to check in with him periodically to let him know how we are doing.
For every freshman seminar class, there is also a peer adviser, an upperclassman who will be there to support him throughout the entire first year and answer any questions. Mine is very kind and helpful.
After fall quarter of freshman year, he will get a “college adviser” who replaces his freshman adviser. This person will stick with him throughout the four years. My freshman adviser said that the college advisers are more helpful with regards to planning for studying abroad, internships, getting jobs etc.
After declaring a major, he will find out more about advising in his particular department.
I don’t know if you visited or not, but the advising was a big selling point when I visited and one of the reasons they were my top choice.
@soontobecolleger thanks! Did it sound like the college advisor would help you choose classes, make a plan to figure out your major, etc., or are they mostly for job and career advice? Sounds like the freshman advisor is a very short term relationship.
@homerdog yes it sounds like the college adviser can help with choosing classes to some extent, if you tell them what your interests are. But if you are completely undecided (without any direction), you would probably spend the first few quarters fulfilling distribution requirements, and pick a major related to one or two of the classes that you found. The distro system is really helpful for undecided people, but I won’t go into that in detail (unless you want me to) because the same system might have been in place when you went there.
For more info on college advising (because I don’t have personal experience with it yet), this is what it says on NU’s website:
"The best way to think of your College Adviser is as a generalist (your department adviser is more like a specialist).
You can talk with your College Adviser about selecting courses and choosing a major, as well as about strategies for completing requirements.
Your College Adviser can help you develop an academic plan and consider opportunities such as studying abroad, getting involved in research, writing a senior thesis, or applying for fellowships.
If you are following a pre-med, pre-law, or pre-business track – or if you are unsure of your future plans – your College Adviser can help put your academic choices into context.
If you’re thinking of doing both a major and a minor, or perhaps two majors, your College Adviser can talk with you about options for fitting in both, complementing the guidance you get from department or program advisers in each field.
It is important to know that your College Adviser is also there if you are having difficulties, academic or otherwise, at Northwestern. Your adviser is there to help you solve problems, navigate the university, find the support you need and to be your advocate in the College."
Also, my freshman adviser said that the college adviser always either has the answer or the resource/contact to find the answer.
@soontobecolleger super helpful. Thanks so much!
@nugraddad thanks for the links! Seems to be as I expected. There is support if you need it but maybe not a whole lot of guidance. Checking in with an upperclassman or an advisor if you need something is different than having a mentor. I completely understand that a bigger school is going to be different than a smaller school in that regard. Of course, bigger schools have things that smaller schools do not as well. It’s a trade off.
I think your question is partly about whether anyone will notice and provide support if he is struggling during the semester, though. Certainly my kids at LACs had this happen more than once; I think it is part of what you get at a LAC. Not sure about NU.
@intparent Exactly. Plus, he’s undecided. He’s decided against engineering and computer science but, honestly, he could end up econ, bio, poli sci, history, environmental science or studies…the list is kind of long. I don’t know if just fulfilling requirements during the first year and a half will help him find what he’s interested in. A mentor will help him work that out.
We weren’t considering NU at all until two things happened : (1) one of his best friends was talking up all of its merits and told S19 that it’s his first choice and (2) we got S19’s SAT score back. Now, he’s curious. He’s all about personal relationships with teachers, etc., so I explained what I thought the differences would be between NU and an LAC. I just wanted to throw this question out there in case I was wrong and the kids at NU were assigned advisors that work with them as closely as some of the counselors we met at the LACs we visited. Since both my husband and I went to NU, it’s always kind of been on the radar but, once we started figuring out what S19 wanted, I scratched it off of the list. Wanted to make sure that I didn’t do that prematurely though.
@homerdog Third year student here, speaking from experiences. Halfway though the quarter, academic advisors will reach out to you if you are on track for below a C in a class. They will also communicate with the you and the professor to try to help you get back on track. Peer support, advisor support, professor support, and career advising is readily and easily accessible here. As a freshman, you son will of course need to adjust to being on his own, but ultimately, he will be treated as an adult and take initiative if he is struggling. I have had professors and department heads agree to work personally with me in their free time to make sure that I understood the material, but I reached out to them first.
Northwestern also just launched a new mentorship program https://mentor.northwestern.edu
You list your interests and then they connect you with alumni mentors. You choose how often you want to communicate and how you want to communicate. It is available to all students. Here are just some of the topics mentors can/will cover:
Career/Industry trends
Challenges of having a low GPA/test scores
Choosing a major/specialty/industry
Choosing academia vs. industry
Critique of resume/CV
Marriage & family
Networking/Informational interviewing/Introduction to others in your field
Open to discussing any career topic
Parenting vs. career
Providing insight into different sectors/specialties of my industry
Providing Insight into how to maximize your university education
Shadowing at your workplace
Sharing your personal experiences and lessons learned
Transitioning to life after school
Using accommodations in the workplace
Work-life balance
Workplace issues
Hope this is helpful. Please feel free to reach out via private message if you have any additional questions or concerns.
@CaliCash - Great Post! I might pass it on to my NU kids - they both had 120 Dance Marathon hours, and they love to help!
@nugraddad Awesome! Also, this mentorship program is available for graduates seeking advice as well! According to the website I posted above, “Mentees are current Northwestern students or alumni who are looking for guidance as they navigate their career, consider a career change, or explore graduate school.” So this sounds like a really great opportunity. There’s only a short application to match mentees with the most appropriate mentors for whatever they need guidance with. I can’t wait to give this a shot.