<p>hey guys, i just saw the other questions thread, i'm also a sophomore at northwestern, i don't check this all the time but if you guys want to ask a few questions about like the things about the school that you actually want to know about, i will try to answer them.</p>
<p>how's your financial aid?</p>
<p>Know anything about the Integrated Science Program? Do the students in it really get better opportunities in reasearch, as the site claims they do?</p>
<p>i'm not on any financial aid, however i know of several students from what i believe to be wealthy areas (both near chicago) who are on financial aid/work study. It's my impression that if these students are on financial aid, it is not very tough to get a decent package, as i am reasonably sure neither of them lives in a house that costs less than a quarter of a million dollars.</p>
<p>i don't know anything about the integrated science program. I do know that, outside of science, northwestern offers integrated internship programs that allow you to get real world experience in chicago doing an internship that is combined with courses. You still get a full quarter worth of credits, however you spend the majority of your time in the city working for firms ranging from advertising to places like goldman sachs. Some programs (e.g. goldman sachs) are more competitive than others, but they are all done through the school and some really only require a 3.0+ gpa to get accepted.</p>
<p>how that applies to research through the isp i have no idea, i don't know anyone in that at all. the only thing i do know is that every time northwestern increases tuition they increase student research grants by the exact same amount: this year they increased tuition by 5% so grants increased accordingly, so that must bode well for people interested in receiving research grants.</p>
<p>How hard was it to make the transition out of high school into classes at Northwestern?</p>
<p>Follwing with the topic of internships, are most of the students that get advertising/business type internships usually communications or econ majors? Do a lot get job offers after they graduate from the companies they intern at?</p>
<p>What do you think of the Medill School of Journalism? Is it hard to get into?</p>
<p>What are you majoring in? Just curious.</p>
<p>How's your undergraduate placement in business? Do you have a lot of recruitment from i-banks?
Also, how is your econ program?</p>
<p>"How hard was it to make the transition out of high school into classes at Northwestern?"</p>
<p>Richtra,</p>
<p>I'm actually a transfer, but seeing as how i didn't try very hard in high school, college was a very difficult transition for me. I started out at a public school so i had very little in the form of advising/help/etc. Northwestern offers much more of that however for me the biggest issue when i went to college was having no idea what was expected of me, no idea what was going to be on tests, no idea how to schedule all my time completely on my own.</p>
<p>Classes you take will give you syllabi with date by date assignment due dates, reading due dates, etc. I highly suggest (this helped me a lot) that at the beginning of the quarter you take your syllabus from every class and copy them all down into one planner that will have all your assignments and their due dates for the rest of the quarter. This helped me immensely, it helps you stay on track, and it helps you not feel so lost in what initially will feel like the slew of assignments coming at you. It really is not that difficult, once you take your first set of midterms you will feel like you know much better what is going on and what is expected of you. College is not that hard, and you take many less hours per day of classes than you do in high school so you have so much more free time.</p>
<p>My biggest issue with Northwestern vs. high school, and this might be good for some and bad for others, is that they basically throw reading at you, ie: give you three weeks with reading assigned for each class period, and then at the end just test you on all of it, doing very little to hold your hand in-between. There are hardly any homework assignments in most classes, no little assignments, very little in the way of interim quizzes. If you are the type who needs a constant stream of little assignments to stay on top of things, you might have somewhat of a problem, because the majority of work is going to require self-motivated reading with no award in sight until the midterm. But again, a lot of teachers will be extremely clear (right before) about what you are expected to know for the midterm, and i have not had problems in classes i had been barely reading for up until that point with studying for many hours the night before (ie cramming), doing a lot of the reading, focusing nearly 100% on the parts they recommended knowing, and talking in class about, and pulled out As on midterms this way. ie: doing more work the night before than i had done all quarter.</p>
<p>for some people this might not be the best strategy but if you have a hard time keeping up with work when there are no day-to-day assignments i'm just letting you know this strategy can work here.</p>
<p>"Follwing with the topic of internships, are most of the students that get advertising/business type internships usually communications or econ majors? Do a lot get job offers after they graduate from the companies they intern at?"</p>
<p>dcb07,</p>
<p>the traditional majors here for people interested in business are economics and a major in SESP called LOC (learning and organizational change). Following the advice of my dad and many others, the best way to go if you want to work in business is economics. With that being said, i am not very good at math and found the intermediate level economics classes (apparently after these they get easier.. these are supposed to be the "weeder" classes) to be very difficult and decided against majoring in economics. People from any major may get internships, however if you want to work for the BEST of the BEST firms, such as McKinsey, Goldman Sachs, etc. they might expect you to be at least 'economically sharp' however i am basing that only on the fact that someone told me that at an interview for mckinsey they asked them some rather difficult economic questions, maybe this was just because he was an economics major, he said he didn't even know the answers to them (on the spot) and he is a brilliant student.</p>
<p>So i guess what i'm saying is that if you are good at economics, majoring in it at northwestern would be the way to go, it is one of the top programs here, however it is by no means necessary, to answer both your and mj93's question, i am a political science major and i plan on getting a job in business when i graduate. I was told that getting a 3.5 in a non-econ major is better than getting a 3.0 in an econ major when applying for a job. Also, a woman from goldman sach's who came to speak at one of the job fair events was a poli sci major from upenn. So basically what i'm saying is, any major can really work, though econ is (and people will be reluctant to say this but i believe it to be true) preferrable.</p>
<p>And to answer your second question, yes, many internships (especially the one after junior year and this is why that internship is so important) will turn into job offers, but again it's also possible (although harder) to work for a company you didn't intern for.</p>
<p>"What do you think of the Medill School of Journalism? Is it hard to get into?"</p>
<p>k8thnotes,</p>
<p>The medill school of journalism is obviously according to most the premier journalism school in the country. With that being said, this is what it is like here, although i am not in it i have several friends who are:</p>
<p>Medill is a small school (i believe around 500), it is much more of a community than any other school at northwestern. The assignments are very collaborative, there will be many group projects, and a lot of interaction among the students.</p>
<p>The students in Medill tend to be very "intense," especially when they first arrive. They can seem overzealous, you know, they all want to take over the world of journalism. Obviously not every student is like this but in the one medill class i took for only a few days i found the personalities of many of the students overwhelming.</p>
<p>Many students have a very different idea of what medill is going to be before coming to northwestern, and as a result many who are initially in medill decide they would prefer a traditional college experience in terms of academics. Let me restate that: Medill is NOT a traditional college experience in terms of academics.</p>
<p>Sure there are gen-ed requirements that you have to take through other schools, but not very many, and once those are finished, medill is basically like a four-year training session. It's almost like a vocational school. The average medill class will expect you to constantly be writing articles, making documentaries, interviewing people, researching and gaining information, etc. It is a VERY hands-on learning approach. You will be told and told and told how to write unbiasedly, how to structure articles, journalistic ethics, what not to say in an article, how to make a header, a lead, etc.</p>
<p>It is basically hands-on training for journalism for four years. The kids i know in medill's idea of college is very different than mine: i take a traditional liberal arts curriculum, take midterms, write papers, read classic literature, etc. Medill is not like this for the most part, they write articles. Professional articles. Make film reports. Professional film reports.</p>
<p>If this sounds like the kind of thing that you look at and think "hey.. that's not work, that's what i do for fun in my extracurricular activities" then you will most likely love medill because that comprises the majority of your class work. If you think "well i like to write articles, but i really want to feel like i'm in college, not job training or working for a newspaper" you will most likely not like medill at all.</p>
<p>To answer your question about getting in, it's comparable to the arts and sciences school in terms of admission, but i assume they expect journalistic ECs and and a profession of avid interest in journalism.</p>
<p>"What are you majoring in? Just curious."</p>
<p>poli sci</p>
<p>"How's your undergraduate placement in business? Do you have a lot of recruitment from i-banks?
Also, how is your econ program?"</p>
<p>aquamarinee,</p>
<p>I'm not exactly sure about ibanking specifically, but you might want to look at this thread for consulting, which is typically in the same boat as ibanking as a "power" business career and assume ibanking recruiting would be similar:
<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=235587%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=235587</a></p>
<p>on an anecdotal note, many kids go to work for places like goldman sach's, etc. firms who all come to campus during job fairs to talk to students, pick up resumes, etc. The career office, although i haven't been but i've researched it, is very helpful in terms of helping students network with alumni, there is even a database they have that when an alumni, or any business for that matter, needs a position filled, they will send notice specifically to northwestern, and the career office will help you look through this database when you are looking for an internship/job.</p>
<p>This is in addition to resume-drafting advice, career counseling, etc. that they offer, so ultimately to answer your question if you come to northwestern and get a good gpa you will have no problem at all working for any of the top ibanking firms. I know several upperclassmen working for goldman sachs right now as interns that will probably translate into full-time jobs upon graduation.</p>
<p>Northwestern econ is top five in the country. I'm not great at math and i found the intermediate classes to be very difficult (apparently after that they get easier) but i know many students who find them not hard at all, one even went so far to say econ was an "easy major" here. These are typically math-y kids who say this though: the econ program here can be somewhat math-intensive though it all depends on what classes you choose to complete your major, you have a selection.</p>
<p>To answer both of your questions in one, if you come here and succeed in the economics department with a 3.5+ GPA, i would say that you would have your pick of some of the very best internships/job offers from any of the top ibanking firms, especially with the help the career center provides. That's much of the benefit of coming to northwestern, they will GET YOU a job.</p>
<p>Thank you for the information! Hmm, to ED or not to ED... still contemplating.</p>
<p>How were your grades in 12th grade for the final transcript submission? Do you know of any people who failed any classes their senior year of high school and still were allowed to attend NU? </p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>I'm going to ask some engineering-specific questions, not sure if you'll have the answers.</p>
<p>I was accepted to BME - how difficult is it to graduate from McCormick within four years, assuming you're not changing majors? How is this affected if you do a minor in WCAS (I'm interested in cognitive science)?</p>
<p>"How were your grades in 12th grade for the final transcript submission? Do you know of any people who failed any classes their senior year of high school and still were allowed to attend NU? </p>
<p>Thanks."</p>
<p>dewy.dandelion,</p>
<p>I was a transfer student, my high school grades were not good. If you failed a class you should probably just contact the admissions office, they might rescind your admittance but i think that's unlikely, what's more likely is that they'll put you on "academic probation" for your first quarter or so at the university, which essentially means "don't mess up."</p>
<p>my senior year grades probably averaged somewhere around a C+, but it was my college grades that got me into northwestern as a transfer, and the essays i wrote about beginning to care about school work</p>
<p>"I was accepted to BME - how difficult is it to graduate from McCormick within four years, assuming you're not changing majors? How is this affected if you do a minor in WCAS (I'm interested in cognitive science)?"</p>
<p>csquare,</p>
<p>i really don't know much about engineering (i'm in wcas) except that i've heard that if you don't start in the engineering school (e.g. transfer there your sophomore year from wcas) it's hard to finish the core requirements (they make you take a lot of classes in every engineering field i guess) in four years. But since you are starting in mccormick, and like you said will not be changing majors, i don't think it will be a problem at all for you to graduate in four years.</p>
<p>I don't know how easy a wcas minor will be, likely not very difficult as you will probably be taking as many as 12 classes a year, and if i'm not mistaken minors only require about 6 courses in an area and thus are relatively easy to obtain at northwestern. I even know an engineering student who is double-DEGREEING (that's even more intensive than double-majoring) in two fields in the engineering school, so i'm sure you will be fine.</p>
<p>elsijfdl, how good are the biology, philosophy, and spanish departments? I'm thinking about majoring in Bio and minor in spanish along with possibly another major. How hard the classes in those departments?</p>