<p>I am considering applying for the ISP program. I would like to major in Cognitive Science, and I wanted to make sure that ISP would fit well with Cognitive Science. Looking at the coursework, it seems that it would fit well only with a Biology, Chemistry, or Physics double major. However, the vigor of the program is very appealing to me. </p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>One of my very close friends was accepted into ISP; she’s a genius, has an amazingly addictive personality, and very determined. She did very well at our high school, had high test scores, and a stellar reputation with students and faculty. At NU, in ISP, however, she is fighting for a 3.1.</p>
<p>It scared me more than you can imagine when I heard that, but she is taking a very hard load of classes this trimester, and has two more tris to bring her GPA up for the year.</p>
<p>I’d definitely check it out and make sure it’s what you want to do; she told me about 30%+ of the freshman drop out of the program from the sheer difficulty. If it is what you want to do, go for it! Apply and good luck!</p>
<p>My S is a freshman in the ISP program. How do other NU students view those who are ISP majors? My S says they say “Wow!” The McCormick engineering students don’t think "regular"science majors in Weinberg have the same rigor they do, but ISP students earn their respect. </p>
<p>It’s not an easy major by any means. It requires a lot of stepped up level work when compared to HS. ISP students do get excellent chances at research work. In fact, they are advised, when sending questions to professors about a research interest, to say in the subject line “ISP Student Interested in XXXX” because it gets more attention.</p>
<p>I believe the grade expectations of ISP students should be similar to those of engineering students. Check out the ISP portion of the web site to see where grads of the program end up. It’s an impressive list.</p>
<p>ISP is a rigorous program, so that’s a good start. It’s also very mathematically focused, so if you appreciate that (ie, have taken BC calc in high school and enjoyed it), you should seriously consider it. You should know, though, that cognitive science isn’t perceived as a very difficult major. Of course, your degree is what you make of it - if you challenge yourself with research, conferences, and the like, you can always keep busy. But in general, the sort of students who wind up in cognitive science usually wouldn’t make it in ISP due to the difficulty mismatch. That being said, if the part of cognitive science you’re interested in considers the brain’s chemical and biological structures, and how they contribute to making thought (a very neuro-biological perspective), then ISP could work out quite well for you. It would provide the chemistry/physics/biology background where the cog. sci. program uses a softer touch, and would likely make you a formidable candidate for graduate school. </p>
<p>As for ISP vs. engineering (which comes up a lot) - comparison between the programs is difficult. Engineering programs focus on structured problem solving, usually involving actual numbers and specific situations. How does heat flow here, solve this complex circuit program, etc. ISP, as a science program, focuses on teaching students how to problem solve. This is where the engineers start teasing the science kids - their problem sets are usually longer, and worrying about units and physical constants is time consuming. This does not make it more difficult - just, literally, longer. So to justify the amount of time and caffeine they spend solving increasingly frustrating problems, they say their major is more difficult than anyone else. Successful ISP students, by nature, tend to enjoy spending time learning about what they’re doing - and hence, seem equally busy. But since science is conceptually driven, it’s usually harder as well - so ISP kids spend a lot of time doing difficult things, and so come out on top. An engineering GPA is low because of the work load classes entail - finding time to actually study the concepts that come up on exams is tricky. ISP GPAs are low because they’re competing against a group of kids who are very passionate about what they do, and in intro courses, professors don’t liberally distribute As. This situation gets better in advanced courses, which are treated more like graduate classes (As and Bs, but rarely anything lower) - but freshman year, a lot of GPAs get bruised.</p>