<p>Does Northwestern have Co-Ops? What connections can I make in the industry and surrounding area? Georgia Tech has great Co-Ops, so that is something I wouldn't mind sticking around for.</p>
<p>GT is my default, as it is close to home and about 30 students from my school go there each year (not sure that's too good)... but I would like a nice change that pays off with a good science and engineering education and job later on.</p>
<p>Your feedback would be super awesome, Thanks.</p>
<p>NU does offer Co-Ops for Engineering students. The ranks of the individual departments and disciplines should not matter much for Undergrad. It is the quality of the overall school (the student body, the intellectual rigor, the facilities for research, the general environment etc) that makes a difference.</p>
<p>Thanks NU Dad–how large are the classes at Northwestern? </p>
<p>Although the rankings don’t matter to me much either, I want to be in good shape and get the best foundation… for my job and if I decide to attend graduate school, for that as well.</p>
<p>I want to know how much I can actually interact with my professors as compared to a larger school like Tech–where not only I am among many thousands of students in my major, but also in an undergrad where weed out courses are a staple to level off the higher acceptance rates and put additional social restrictions for sake of keeping high standing.</p>
<p>It’s hard to get into both of these schools, so know that you might not get to make the decision. NU has 8000-ish undergrads, GT has 14000-ish, so NU’s classes would generally be smaller than GT. I live in SC, and people say the difference between Clemson and GT engineering students is that GT kids are studying all weekend, and Clemson kids party. Basically, GT kids don’t have any social life, whereas NU kids do, so if social life is important at all to you then you may want to think about that. Also, personally I would never want to live that close to my home.</p>
<p>In terms of academics you aren’t really going to be able to find enough of a difference to decide on only that. NU and GT both have amazing science/engineering programs.</p>
<p>I do not know about GA Tech, but at NU there are quite a few opportunities to do research for Ungergrads. This will definitely be a booster when you apply to Grad School.</p>
<p>I am at NU, and my friend is at GT. I am obviously biased (Go Wildcats!), but at both schools there are opportunities for research, opportunities to interact with professors outside of class, like at office hours and such, and both schools have huge weed out intro classes. Gen Chem is terrible no matter where you go. But at Northwestern, dropping out of Gen Chem doesn’t mean dropping out of school, it just means you should consider changing majors. After the 100-200 person intro classes, the class sizes drop down to between 15 and 30 students generally.</p>
<p>And GT has a social scene, you just have to find it. A lot of it will be in Greek life, but there’s plenty going on around campus.</p>
<p>For one of the best chemistry departments in the world, the number of chemistry majors is surprisingly small. In any given year, there are usually only 20-30 graduating seniors. Given this and the fact that the chemistry department seems to be pretty prolific in producing winners in Goldwater, NSF, etc, research opportunities seem to be abundant. I think NU is one of the best places for chemistry. But beware, the intro classes are not easy.</p>
<p>NU does have co-op and seems to have pretty good relationship with places like Dow.</p>
<p>The size difference is pretty significant. Although GA Tech is a little less than twice the size of NU, 70% of the GA Tech students are in engineering and many are in the sciences. What that translates to is that the engineering school alone at GA Tech has more undergrads than the entire NU.</p>
<p>The differences for chemistry and chemical engineering:
Chemistry:
NU
Faculty: ~40
Undergrads: ~100</p>
<p>GA Tech
Faculty: ~50
Undergrads: ~330</p>
<p>Chemical engineering
NU
Faculty: ~20
Undergrads:120</p>
<p>GA Tech
Faculty:~55
Undergrads: 863</p>
<p>As far as Co-op goes, NU engineering probably has higher participation rate than GA Tech. I used to think just about everybody at GA Tech is in Co-op but according to their "mini fact book, there were 1805 participants for FY 11-12. That translates to about 20% participation rate. At NU, that rate is about 30%. The rate implies that Co-op may not be guaranteed at GA Tech; this is something you may want to investigate.</p>