<p>Anyone care to comment on the physics department of Carleton vs Northwestern?</p>
<p>dietcokewithlime,</p>
<p>Perhaps you should read people's posts more carefully before calling their arguements "stupid". The nanotech and cyclotrons were mentioned <em>as examples</em>. The rest of your post is just repeating what others and I have already said; yet somehow when we said it, it was "stupid".</p>
<p>I can read, lay off. I'd say I said some things that texastaximom already said, but I don't think that you (Sam Lee) or the people talking about carlmom were actually speaking to the interests of the OP's daughter, and nothing helpful was produced. I was trying to bring a reality check to this thread, which I think people arguing about research needed. Besides, nobody else mentioned REUs as an alternative to doing research at your school (texastaximom alluded to it in mention M&B's daughter), a fact that I think should be emphasized because the tangential debate was about the kind of research students at each school do when the fact is that you don't need to do research where you attend college, give me some credit, dude. I still contend that most of this discussion has been irrelevant, it is what texastaximom said, some big U kids coming over to talk about the expensive toys they have on campus.</p>
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I still contend that most of this discussion has been irrelevant, it is what texastaximom said, some big U kids coming over to talk about the expensive toys they have on campus.
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<p>Not sure if you are refering to me, but if so, that wasn't my intention, I am looking towards LAC's personally. Just pointing out that those big schools do have some things that are good.</p>
<p>dietcokewithlime,</p>
<p>This is what texastaximom wrote to me:</p>
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I wish more students would approach things as you do, taking note of the pros and cons of each, not just where they think they will make the most money, work on the biggest project, or have the best chance at the Nobel prize.
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<p>So apparently you were reading my posts very differently from her. I said each has its pros and cons. Want me to say Carleton has everything the research U has and more? You appear to be pretty judgemental.</p>
<p>You were only talking about the pros and cons of research experiences at either school, which isn't exactly a balanced approach to talking about Carleton vs. Northwestern for a student who was merely considering studying sciences and sounded more likely to be interested in political science (maybe with a science public policy twist). That's my point. I'd be annoyed if I were a prospie who was thinking about maybe a hybrid special major in public policy and science, and people just kept going on about research experiences, I mean, this discussion is just not helpful if research isn't a top priority in choosing a college, which it sounds like it isn't for the OP.</p>
<p>I don't know I am required to cover all bases. I provided info about research. You are free to add others. If you really want to be helpful, why didn't you start your post by commenting on other areas instead of criticizing how other people's comments haven't been useful?</p>
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She is interested in political science as well as science and thought she might be able to combine into some sort of major such as society, science and technology...
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<p>Northwestern has an adjunct major in Science in Human Culture.
<a href="http://www2.mmlc.northwestern.edu/shc/undergraduate.htm%5B/url%5D">http://www2.mmlc.northwestern.edu/shc/undergraduate.htm</a></p>
<p>I am a professor at Northwestern. My daughter was admitted to both Carleton and Northwestern and chose Carleton, despite tuition being nearly free for us at Northwestern and tuition at Carleton being extraordinarily high.</p>
<p>In part my daughter's reasons reflected some of the ones mentioned by the Northwestern instructor/Mom earlier in the thread. Northwestern was traditionally a "rich kids' school," a characteristic that the school has worked hard to change. On average, Northwestern students tend to be more careerist, more social, more cliqueish, and more traditionally ambitious than Carleton students. Carleton has more of the feel of colleges of 30 years ago, with students giving extraordinarily little attention to clothes and outward expressions of whatever passes for coolness these days. The contrast in dress, makeup, etc., between Carleton and such schools as Northwestern, USC, Duke, Vanderbilt, Texas, and UVA couldn't be more stark.</p>
<p>Carleton students have many more writing assignments and quizzes in the humanities and social sciences than is common at big universities, which tend to make Carleton grads better writers than students from large universities. As for opportunities to work on cutting-edge science research projects, however, I would be very surprised if Carleton could routinely match a school such as Northwestern. I wouldn't be surprised, however, if the more intensive nature of the science instruction at Carleton didn't result in students who were as well or better trained. </p>
<p>My impression from having lectured at Georgetown occasionally is that Georgetown students tend to be a bit less academically serious than those at Northwestern or Carleton.</p>