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I don't know about you, but I've had an average of 2 5+page problem sets due every week in this school so far.
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<p>ouch, remind me to not take whatever you are taking. i agree with arbiter that foreign language classes have tons of day to day work but the rest of my classes it's basically just 'study for the exams'</p>
<p>As a freshman, I have to say that NU is more difficult than I expected. I was a straight A student back in HS, etc. Perhaps it was my course selection, but this first quarter has been very academically demanding. I have had time to pursue other interests (I'm was able to go out most of the time, played IM Football, volunteered, and was in the NU Philharmonia), but the workload is definitely tough.</p>
<p>Math has been the most difficult so far. MENU is ****ing kicking my ass. Craziest math sequence that I've ever taken, and it's very difficult to get an A. Right now I'm borderline (B) - (B+), and final grades come out tomorrow. </p>
<p>My freshman seminar "Economics of Developing Countries and International Institutions" is not too bad. Just a LOT of research, but definitely worth it. I spent an average of 20 hours on each. My final research paper was a 30 page analysis of Vietnam's economic history with international institutions and recommendations for the future.</p>
<p>My other classes are relatively easy: Chinese I (no background in Chinese) and Intro to Macroecon (took AP Econ back in HS).</p>
<p>^^^ MENU is a crazy hard sequence from what I've heard</p>
<p>Any idea on how they curve the final grades?</p>
<p>the solution to all of these questions is become a film major :)</p>
<p>actually, that's misleading. for my production classes i have to spend A TON of time shooting and editing so i don't see it as doing any less "work" than say engineering/science kids. we also have lab periods for film so there are as many class hours as well. and it's similar to any other area--if you're very talented and knowledgeable it will be easier/less time consuming than if you're new to the equipment and editing programs.</p>
<p>i also have a skewed view, though, because i put my ECs on the same level of importance as my academics, which i think many students here would find blasphemous (but is actually one of the main reasons i was attracted to NU). don't get me wrong, i work really hard in all my classes (i'm a psych double major) and do well in school generally, but for my career path i spend at least the same amount of time if not more on studio22 and other film projects and in a sense learn more than I do in some of my classes, so even with a "lighter" class load i am still working a ton.</p>
<p>Dang, 30 pages!? That's by far the longest paper I've heard of for a class, let alone a freshman seminar.</p>
<p>chemE is probably the worst. unlike other engineers, they have to take a quarter of bio and 2 courses of orgo like premeds. these are not even chemE courses and when it comes to those, it seems like <em>every</em> one of them is either time-consuming or challenging conceptually or both. for example, chemE lab is an 8-hr lab that meets once a week and the write-up takes about 20 hours a week. it's not difficult but pain in the neck. the polymer class has a problem set every week and even the solution key is easily over 15 pages.</p>
<p>atanas_vs,</p>
<p>were you on college fed challenge? i thought i saw your name on it. anyway, what's wrong with you guys? i expected you guys to have 4-peat! lol! so was harvard really better that day?</p>
<p>I was and -- sigh -- we got beat. I'm ashamed, we broke the streak, but that's life.</p>
<p>I hear in terms of schools on the quarter system, Northwestern is the most rigorous because they expect their students to take four classes whereas other schools on the quarter system expect three.</p>
<p>It's different I think -- there's a grad student here who did Caltech undergrad an d he says they did 5 a quarter, but had less exams, so the rigor came to about the same.</p>
<p>We're definitely more rigorous than those wusses at Dartmouth ;)</p>
<p>I don't know if all schools on the quarter system expect three instead of four, I was comparing my Calculus and Multivariable syllabi with my girlfriend at Dartmouth and we covered the same amount of material in two quarters that they covered in three quarters. That could have just been for that particular case, but I get the impression that the quarter system, at least as it is in place at NU, is much more rigorous than it is at other schools.</p>
<p>I know that NU's engineering requires more courses (48) than many others and the requirement makes the one at USC look easy. While the core courses cover more or less the same things as many other ABET accredited schools, NU requires quite a bit more outside the core. For example, the whole engineering analysis/design communication series is extra (though these 6 courses allow you to place out linear algebra/differential eqn and a quarter of physics); a lot of schools also don't necessarily require a course in material science and a course in structure if you are a chemE major.</p>
<p>This is kind of random, but I've heard that a lot of NU's engineering curriculum is based off of MIT's. I believe one of MIT's engineering department heads is on the advisory board for McCormick.</p>
<p>Someone once said the MMSS program was copied at Stanford and also someone else said the MMSS program is one of the most expensive undergrad programs in the country</p>
<p>And if that someone was right then the Kellogg finance program might be the most expensive program in the country now.</p>
<p>can you elaborate why they are expensive? u mean NU pays the profs a lot more to teach those courses than other profs?</p>
<p>aquamarinee,</p>
<p>not sure about that but i think it's safe to say MIT is worse than NU.</p>
<p>I think what it was with MMSS was small classes -- 15 people -- and really expensive professors. Economics/Finance professors are paid the most among all professors, and economics is not that expensive because the average number of people in class is something like 60-70. With the old MMSS curriculum we used to have 15 people in class and really expensive professors teaching it. With the Kellogg program we have really expensive professors and 45 people in class. So probably it's not the most expensive program, but it's up there, and if they decrease the class size we can certainly get there.</p>