Out of curiosity, for students who currently attend NU (and were accepted RD), which schools did you choose over to attend Northwestern? What were the critical factors that made you tilt to Northwestern?
Good question. I think there might be a thread a year or two old about this topic, but there would be a lot of new students at NU by now so I’d think its okay.
I chose NU over UMich, UW - Seattle, CU - Boulder, USC, and Willamette> I chose NU because after I had got my acceptances back (plus a Stanford rejection and a Clarement McKenna waitlist), I decided I wanted a liberal arts education instead of a business-school one. Most of the schools I had applied to and gotten into were business schools, except for NU and Willamette. Between those two, NU had more academic rigor and a better reputation, so I chose it.
Ironically (in the popular, not technical sense of the word), I switched to the McCormick School of Engineering after one and a half quarters at Northwestern. I still do appreciate the liberal arts components of my education though, and I love my experience at NU so far.
@thatrunnerkid – My son will check into NU – he is very interested in Electrical engineering & CS - wonder what you are studying & if you have any thoughts about those programs. EE seems to be a pretty small group of students. http://profiles.asee.org/profiles/6828/screen/21?school_name=Northwestern+University
We’d be grateful to learn what the environment like in McCormick - is it collaborative/supportive or very intense or some combo? thanks!
@thatrunnerkid Are you in IEMS?
@osuprof nope, MaDE. That means I take a fair amount of IEMS courses though. Why do you ask?
@CA1543 I don’t know all that much about the EECS department (its one department that runs the CS, EE, and Computer Engineering programs), but I knew a guy who majored in CS in McCormick and really liked it. Another thing: if you do CS at Northwestern, you can choose between being a student in the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science, or in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences. The major courses are the same, so a prospective student should choose on what sort of education they want outside of the major - liberal arts or engineering. I’d say the learning environment in McCormick is both collaborative and intense - there are many opportunities to work with other students in and outside of class on projects and other work, and that work as well as the institution behind it demand a lot of students, but most of them get a lot out of it.
If you’re interested, I recommend checking out the McCormick EECS website or making a post asking for perspectives from NU EECS majors on the Northwestern forum too!
@CA1543, EECS, at least the CS part of McCormick is not that small at all. I am actually astonished by how small that CS number is on the link above. They have been adding sections for quite a few CS courses after they fill up (which a state school would probably not do) to accommodate all the interest. For example, a sophomore/junior graphics course was full with 60 students and 57 more on the wait list, so the professor added a second section. The EE courses seem to be less full, though.
I would say EECS there is pretty collaborative. A bigger concern is there is a lot of team work and you can get stuck carrying your team.
Thanks to both @daddio3 and @thatrunnerkid - really appreciate this info – we should definitely go see Northwestern - one huge positive is the small class sizes for courses - would want to make sure the EE is substantial enough and has a good variety of areas students may learn about – will try to get a much better understanding. Thanks again!!
@CA1543 In response to your desire to learn more about the substance and variety of the curriculum, if you want to learn more about the EE curriculum, check out the Undergraduate Manual here: http://www.mccormick.northwestern.edu/eecs/documents/undergraduate/eecs-undergraduate-manual.pdf
To accompany that, here’s a link to the web page for the curriculum, outlining the major in a simpler format: http://www.mccormick.northwestern.edu/eecs/electrical-engineering/bachelors/curriculum.html
On this page you can check out the EE major’s areas of specialization: http://www.mccormick.northwestern.edu/eecs/electrical-engineering/bachelors/index.html
@thatrunnerkid – Really appreciate the links to specific info you sent. Thanks so much - I will read it for sure!
I know someone who turned down Stanford because NU was closer to home.
Turned down U of Chicago.
More free time here. I think there’s value to time outside of academics
bump