<p>I'm interested in majoring in something like Biological Sciences. Just how strong are the biological sciences (and sciences in general) at Northwestern? How strong are they in preparation for grad school/med school/the future in comparison to... uh... the sciences at the other top 20 undergrad schools?</p>
<p>And here's something unrelated and something that just came up: Has anyone over there been made miserable by the weather (what, by humidity or harsh winters)? Based on some pictures of the university on the website, I would like to go there, but... just don't know enough yet. :)</p>
<p>The entire population of the city of Chicago deals with the winters, so it's just not that big of a deal. Honest. It's only a bit more intense than winters in the Northeast, and no one goes on Harvard / Yale / Brown / Dartmouth forums and asks how people deal with the weather ... </p>
<p>I also wonder why people seem to ask this for NU but not for UChicago for some reason!</p>
<p>People do ask it about Cornell though Pizzagirl!</p>
<p>And probably because NU has the advantage of being right on the water, to pick up all that extra moisture and windspeed!</p>
<p>The weather's not that bad though.</p>
<p>Don't sit out on the lakefront in mid-January then :-).</p>
<p>Besides, you people are all young, if you can't handle some snow on the ground at age 20, what are you going to do when you're 40?</p>
<p>Please Pizzagirl! By the time I'm 40, there won't be any snow left!</p>
<p>^ HAHAHA good point.</p>
<p>Winters in Illinois come back to memory. Involved chains on wheels... Anyway, now to return to the part of the question not influenced by lack of sleep...</p>
<p>How strong is the Biology (or related) program at Northwestern? How does it compare to those at... oh... University of Chicago, Stanford, and Berkeley?</p>
<p>USN graduate ranking:
1. Stanford
2. Berkeley
6. JHU
18. Chicago
21. Penn
23. UCLA
29. Northwestern, UIUC
34. Brown, Carnegie Mellon, Dartmouth, Emory, Vanderbilt, UC Irvine
42. Virginia
48. Rice
68. Tufts</p>
<p>The relationship between graduate and undergraduate Biology is tenuous at best :/ NU has a reputation for a very strong Biology program.</p>
<p>I think graduate ranking is helpful in the sense that if the grad program is highly ranked, the undergrad program is likely pretty decent. But when the grad program isn't highly ranked, it doesn't necessarily mean the undergrad program isn't good. :)</p>