<p>I just wanted to get a few Northeastern students to talk about how they feel about their professors and advisors. I know that every school has their good and bad teachers, but in general, are the professors approachable, helpful, etc.? Do you feel like the advisors know what they're doing and are they helpful in terms of guiding you in the right direction? When my sister was in college (she didn't go to NEU), she said that her advisors had no idea what they were doing so sometimes she felt a bit lost. This is my future career I'm preparing for so I want to make sure the people who are supposed to be there to help me actually help. </p>
<p>And please write anything else you would like to add about your experience at Northeastern.
Thanks!</p>
<p>I am currently a Sophomore here at NU, I can honestly tell you that I have liked every professor that I have had here. I am a political science major but have taken classes in the italian, math, philosophy, english, geology, and criminal justice departments. I also rarely hear of students complaining about poor professors or experiences. All of my professors are extremely educated, intellectual, and have incredible resumes. Most have written books, some have worked in government, some have worked for major corporations, etc. From my experience, every professor has been amazing s far as dedication, caring, approachability, and availability has gone. I have made relationships with many of my professors, and they each know me as an individuals. Most classes are small, it obviously depends on your major but I have never had a class over 40, and most are around 20. My experience with professor has been my best experience here thus far, the quality of education you receive is truly excellent. </p>
<p>Additionally, every professor holds office hours, which are essentially walk in hours to their office when you can talk to them. They are also available for appointments. Most professors truly love what they are doing. There are tenured professors, who have a position for life basically, and then association/adjunct professors many of which are tenure track (tenure is a process). Most people love what they’re doing here, and wouldn’t teach otherwise (especially if they aren’t tenured yet!)</p>
<p>Oh and advisors. There are two different advisors. There are academic advisors, who are each given a major or two and a section of the alphabet (so, Political Science A-M, for example). They know the ins and outs of your degree audit (which is what we call this list basically of everything you need to fulfill to graduate, it’s technical) and are usually very well versed on all things credit/class wise in the University. You also have an advisor from the department who is like a “class advisor”, they are great and are more specialized in your major. And, if you are in honors there is an additional honors advisor.</p>
<p>I’ve had good experiences with advisors. The academic advisors aren’t as great in terms of knowing you as an individual, but that is to be expected. As far as their knowledge goes, all advisors are extremely experienced and well versed.</p>
<p>Most of my professors in college were pretty good. There were a few bad ones here and there, but I also had a good number of amazing professors. You’re bound to come across a bad professor at some point in college, it’s just how it goes, and there are also professors that some people just don’t like. But overall, I was pretty happy with professors, and now that I’m out of college, I really only remember the good ones. The bad ones, eh, I complained for 4 months, tried to do as well as I can, and moved on.</p>
<p>Advisors… usually pretty good as well. They don’t always have all the answers, they aren’t always perfect, but they’re good enough that you can find a way to make it work. My co-op advisor drove me totally crazy, but ultimately was good at getting students placed in coops. My academic advisor usually gave solid advice or directed me to a better source. etc, etc., be resourceful and there won’t be any problems.</p>
<p>Also depends on the department. I was in CAS (before it split into two) and they sorta just let us do what we wanted, whereas my friends in business had a way more structured advising system.</p>
<p>Can’t really complain.</p>
<p>I like all of the professors I’ve had so far (I’m in College of Science), not all of them are easy, but they are all very fair. I’ve learned a lot from them, and they’ve all been very helpful and hold regular office hours so you can go and get help with things that are bothering you. They’re all very knowledgeable in their fields. Looking forward to my professors for next semester.</p>
<p>Professors are generally good, and if you’re willing to approach them, they’ll generally be pretty responsive. </p>
<p>I feel like, if anything, there are way too many advisers, and for the most part they’re only necessary because the web infrastructure is so terrible. I’ve found most of my visits are me asking questions that should have answers online, and then spending fifteen minutes repeating the same information over and over again.</p>
<p>What questions could you not find online? I’ve always felt like my advisor visits was just me sitting there nodding as they went over things I’d read online or on my degree audit a million times. There have been several times where I’ve felt I knew more about the subject than my advisors did.</p>
<p>But I agree there are too many, in my opinion. No one ever knows who should be doing what. Like if you’re on the wrong co-op schedule, you need to contact your co-op advisor to get it changed, contact the financial aid advisor to have them re-do your aid package, and sometimes contact your college advisor if the mistake made you on the wrong graduation track. And then it still takes weeks to do it. Right now I’m trying to get something on my audit changed, but my math advisor and my econ advisor both can’t because it’s “integrative” (not just math or just econ), my college advisor can only change core classes, and the computer people supposedly working on it are refusing to respond to emails. I just want one person.</p>