<p>PLEASE PROVIDE INSIGHTS ABOUT THE INTEGRATED SCIENCE PROGRAM</p>
<p>Is this diamond in the rough program here that we initially just stumbled across?</p>
<p>The more my husband (a USC math professor) looks at it, the better this Integrated Science Program seems. He is going to scope it out in more detail with a math professor he knows at NU who’s associated with ISP. </p>
<p>It looks like a great fit for my S. He wants interdisciplinary science but wasn't interested in attending a tech school. My H (PhD from MIT) thinks ISP looks like MIT in the classroom for the science, coupled with a more well rounded academic experience and social live with the rest of NU. </p>
<p>Another colleague of my H's who is the president of the American Mathematical Society and who had worked at NU for several years, said the ISP is outstanding and likely worth the price. It's important to note he said this, knowing my S could be attending USC tuition free, since he was admitted here as well.</p>
<p>Well okay, I’ll report back to myself then, LOL!</p>
<p>The math prof colleague of my H was one of the people who founded the program in the 1970’s. It has grown and gotten better since then.</p>
<p>They take in about 35 per year, out of 300 applicants. A large proportion go on to grad school (which is not true for NU’s science majors in general.)</p>
<p>There is a house on campus designed for ISP students to go and just hang out together. They offer a weekly speaker series, too.</p>
<p>It is a challenging curriculum. Students sometimes complain about the workload, but they’re able to do the work.</p>
<p>There is attrition–maybe 40-50% who start the program finish it. But a lot of this is not because they find it too hard, it’s because, like any college students, they sometimes get interested in something else and leave their original major. They might leave to major in economics or whatever that’s unrelated to ISP. Others leave because they decide there is one particular science they love so they switch to physics or chemistry or whatever.</p>
<p>He strongly recommended coming back for another visit. It would allow talking to some of the present students, which would be very valuable.</p>
<p>:p seems not many people know about this program, huh? </p>
<p>well, hmm, what I am interested is the comparisons of the courses among MIT&Caltech&ISP at NU. so anything about differences of the courses is welcome. :D</p>
<p>35 out of 300? I used to thought it quite easy to get in. Because I have know 3 of my friends who got into ISP.</p>