<p>Just another question to find about you, hehe. What were your stats upon entering NU? </p>
<p>Thanks for taking the time to answer these questions.</p>
<p>howz the computer engineering department at nu ??</p>
<p>JoyJoy:</p>
<p>My high school didn't have many APs and the only AP credits I transferred were for my Humanities and Elective requirements. If you have any of those you'll definitely want NU to accept them as they get those courses out of the way. I know many others who have transferred credits toward their major. For example, if you get a 3 or 4 on AP Chem, you can take the accelerated sequence rather than the general sequence, you'll just get your chem requirement finished in two quarters rather than three. If you get a 5 on AP Chem, you can place into Orgo if you're BME or ChemE. For AP Calc it's the same thing, engineers have to take four classes of calc and depending upon your AP score you can potetntially finish the sequence earlier. If you don't have APs, McCormick also has placement tests that you can take online over the summer to determine where you should start in chem and calc. Personally, I feel that transferring AP credits only help as you get the sequence done earlier. I never took the placement test in chem and now wish that I did.</p>
<p>The typical size for engineering and science courses varies greatly. As a freshman, many of your classes are going to have an overwhelming number of students. Chemistry can have over 180 students per class. The EA sequence generally has about 70-80 students per class, and Calc usually has around 40 students per class. The EDC(Engineering Design & Communication) sequence only has 15 students per class. The more upper level courses have smaller classes(maybe 20), while the more general ones aimed toward freshmen are huge.</p>
<p>This next quarter (which starts a week from now), I will be taking EA3, Chem 103, Math 215, and EDC2. You can look them up in the online course catalog if you need any in-depth information about them. It's difficult to pinpoit the "hardest part." Basically, all I can tell you is that make sure you don't get behind and definitely do the homework, even if it's not required. I think the most difficult part of college in general is to stay on task and to not get distracted. I usually spend a couple of hours each day Sunday-Thursday studying. I try to limit what I do on Fridays and Saturdays to a minimum. I can't really give you an exact number because sometimes EA homework might only take an hour, when at other times it takes four or five hours to complete.</p>
<p>Personally, I'd rather not post my exact stats. Just to give you an idea, I was at the top of my class and had good SAT scores, just like all other NU students.</p>
<p>divraj:</p>
<p>Computer engineering is included under the Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) major. I can't really give you any in-depth information about it since I'm not really familiar with it. I suggest you check out this link to the ECE home page, as it can provide you with more information than I can: <a href="http://www.ece.northwestern.edu/%5B/url%5D">http://www.ece.northwestern.edu/</a> Sorry I can't be more of a help on that one.</p>
<p>What kind of things are there to do on campus that an engineer would enjoy? Is the school heavily geared towards sports? What if a student doesn't like watching big ten football, is he/she left out in many events? </p>
<p>Generally, how are your professors? Do they teach well, or do they expect you to read the textbook to learn the topics? Do they overwhelm students with information/homework? </p>
<p>What do you think about your peers? Are they interested in the schoolwork? Do they tend to provide a supportive environment if you need help?</p>
<p>About the location: What kind of temperatures do you see during the school year? Do people go outside often or is everyone always miserable staying indoors?</p>
<p>JoyJoy:</p>
<p>Firstly, there's a ton of stuff to become involved in on campus depending on what your interests are. Practically any activities you participated in high school can be found at NU, from speech team to synchronized skating to lacrosse. Also, there's a lot of events you can attend: concerts, student produced plays, and sometimes famous individuals will come to campus and you can see them speak. There's also some things geared specifically toward engineers, such as SWE (Society of Women Engineers) for female engineers and also Solar Car, whom I know a lot engineers are involved in. Additionally, off campus, Evanston has a ton of restaurants that are within walking distance. And there's a movie theater that everyone goes to a lot. Remember that Chicago is onlly 20 minutes away, you can easily go to any events that are occurring downtown and there's always the Chicago museums to go to.</p>
<p>I wouldn't say that the school is heavily geared towards sports. During fall quarter, football was a pretty big deal but I haven't heard much sports related news since then. If you don't like watching football, don't worry, you won't be left out. A lot of people do go to the games when they are at home though. Football is really the only sport at NU that I would say is highlighted a lot. I would encourage you to attend at least one game though, probably the first one. I remember during New Student Week that the upper classmen in my dorm organized a group to take the freshmen who wanted to go. It can be really fun, even if you're not that interested in football, and it introduces you to various NU traditions, such as the fight song.</p>
<p>Professors can vary. To be honest, they really don't have that much time to go into complete detail on everything covered in the text book. Before coming to college, I had never really read a text book for a class. To gain a complete understanding I would highly recommend reading the required chapters from the text book. Some professors are better than others though, at getting through to their students what they need to know. Doing the homework usually gives you a good idea as to what test questions will look like. And previous tests are posted online to give you an idea of what the exam will look like. I wouldn't say I feel overwhelmed. There's just stuff that needs to get done and you have to find the time to do it. I know others who realized that engineering wasn't for them and decided to transfer out of McCormick and into Weinberg. I guess engineering is a cerain way of thinking, and within the first quarter, most can realize whether it's their bag or not.</p>
<p>I've met some of the most diverse, interesting, smart, kind, and supportive people at NU. The people at NU are awesome and I truly wouldn't want to be anywhere else. Most everyone is "interested" in their homework. They realize they have to learn it and get it done. I know in high school there were people who just didn't really care about their school work; at NU it's hard to run across those people but you occasionally might find one. Everyone is extremely supportive. Like I said earlier, I haven't met anyone thus far who isn't willing to help someone out.</p>
<p>During fall quarter, the weather was actually extremely nice. It hadn't snowed once. In mid-September, when we moved in, it was in the mid-80's, but I'm sure that's pretty rare for September in Chicago. In October and November, it varied between the 50's and the 40's mainly, sometimes the 60's. Once January came, it started to get cold. Mostly, it's been in the 30's, occasionally in the 20's. Usually people only try to stay indoors if it's snowing really badly outside. Otherwise, even when it's cold, people are normally out and about.</p>
<p>Hope that helped you out.</p>
<p>Hi! I was just wondering about the job opportunities in non-engineering fields if you are a McCormick graduate. Are there lot of graduates who decide to work in banks? How many job fairs are there and does it attract the big names? Thanks</p>
<p>billemos:</p>
<p>I've heard of engineers who go on to med school and law school in relation to patent law. A lot also go into businees in relation to engineering. I don't know specifically if there are a lot who decide to work in banks, but seeing as though you want to double major with economics, it definitely seems plausible.</p>
<p>There's numerous job fairs throughout the year. The biggest one is called Industry Day and it occurs every October. There's a ton of companies that come to this one. Off the top of my head, I remember NASA, Proctor & Gamble, Afflack, GM, and Abbott, among numerous others.</p>
<p>Thanks for taking the time to answer all of my questions knb459. </p>
<p>Do you have any experience with interning or research positions? What are they like?</p>
<p>JoyJoy:</p>
<p>Sorry, but I don't have any first hand experience with either, but I can tell you a little bit more about the co-op program at NU. A lot of engineers at NU tend to do the co-op program rather than interning. Basically, you have an actual "job" for 18 months total(two 3 month intervals and two 6 month intervals) spread throughout your last three years at NU. During certain quarters you're considered to be working instead of taking classes. The co-op program entails that you're a student for 5 years rather than 4 so you can get the extra quarters in that you missed while working. NU provides information sessions you can go to during your freshman and sophomore years to learn more about co-op and if you decide to do it, it starts the summer after your sophomore year.</p>
<p>Although I haven't had a research position, I know some who have, even freshmen. I know one kid who found a research team to join within the first three weeks of school. So you can definitely become involved in research as soon as you get to campus. If you know a certain professor is conducting research in an area that interests you, you can ask them if you can join their team. Or if there's research you want to start yourself, just as long as you get a faculty member to become your advisor/mentor, you can do that too.</p>
<p>No problem JoyJoy, hope I'm helping.</p>
<p>Hey everybody! I just found out that I have been accepted into Northwestern and McCormick for Fall 2005. Although I haven't decided whether or not I will be attending Northwestern, I have a couple of questions that I hope you can answer to help me make up my mind.</p>
<ul>
<li><p>I'm planning on majoring in computer science. Do you know anything about this department?</p></li>
<li><p>What is the transition like going from high school to the engineering program at Northwestern?</p></li>
<li><p>Why did you choose to attend Northwestern over other colleges?</p></li>
<li><p>What do you like and dislike most about Northwestern?</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Thanks for all your help.</p>
<p>Congrats stlbballfan13! Please post your stats in the Official Decisions Thread.</p>
<p>stlbballfan13:</p>
<p>I can't really give you any first hand information on this department other than I know they complete the same general engineering requirements (Engineering Analysis sequence and Engineering Design & Communication sequence) and the same math requirements as BME. I know that the chem requirement is a little shorter than the BME requirement (Comp Sci doesn't require Orgo). Most Comp Sci classes don't take place in the engineering building (Tech). Currently, they take place in the Research Institute which is located in downtown Evanston (also, across the street is where EDC class is presently held). Luckily, for all of you incoming freshmen, starting this coming fall, these classes will now be held in the new Ford Motor Building which is connected to Tech. Other than that, I really don't know that much about the comp sci department. If you need more information, I suggest you look at the comp sci website: <a href="http://www.cs.northwestern.edu/%5B/url%5D">http://www.cs.northwestern.edu/</a></p>
<p>The transition to the engineering program really depends on how strong your high school background is in the different subject areas you'll be taking. For example, in high school, I had a wonderful chemistry teacher and found the transition to college chemistry to not be that difficult. There are others though who found chem to be a struggle. My weakness was in calc. My high school teacher wasn't that great and I definitely didn't get a strong background in the subject. In my first class, I found myself struggling while others thought it was easy. So I had to do put more effort into that class to be on the same level as everyone else, which is what I did, and ended up with an A. In your first quarter, you'll probably find some classes to be a piece of cake, while others you'll have to struggle with, but they are all manageable. The one thing I definitely suggest is to read the relevant chapters in the text books to gain a better understanding of what you're learning. This is something I found I didn't have to do in high school. And the amount of reading at NU isn't overwhelming at all. Definitley manageable.</p>
<p>Several reasons as to why I chose NU. My top three schools were NU, Carnegie Mellon, and Cornell. My first reason was based solely on the location/setting of each school. Carnegie Mellon is in the downtown of busy and noisy Pittsburgh while Cornell is on the top of a hill surrounded by farmland, miles and miles away from NYC. Northwestern gives me the best of both worlds. It's extremely close to a city while not being in the city. Evanston is only 20 minutes from downtown Chicago and yet Evanston, while being quieter than Chicago, has its resources also. My second reason was based on academics. Northwestern was the only one of the three that offered a straight out BME degree. Carnegie Mellon requires that you must double major and does not offer BME on its own. Cornell only has BME at the graduate level and instead has "biological and environmental" engineering for undergrads. Also, Northwestern was the only of the three that had a freshmen engineering program (EA and EDC classes) that gives freshmen engineering experience from the start rather than just taking science and math classes freshmen year. My third reason was just small quirks about each school. At Cornell, there is a swimming requirement (I'm not too fond of water). At Carnegie Mellon, I was kind of upset with their housing process which was based on a cheap "first come, first serve basis" which encourages accepted students to send in their non-refundable tuition deposit as soon as they get their acceptance so that they will get their first housing choice. Which, in essence, gives CMU more money, as a lot will probably drop out after they find out what other colleges they get accepted to. I just personally thought this was a mess. I like the housing process at NU a lot better. As a freshman, you don't apply for housing until June. There's a lot of questions on your personality so they can pair roommates and you write down your top 5 choices. Additionally, I really liked the res college system at NU (I've talked about it in an earlier post) and didn't really see anything like it at Carnegie Mellon or Cornell. If you decide to apply to a res college, you also write an essay in your housing application, indicating how you can contribute to the res college and why you want to be in it. Remember, when deciding which college to finally decide on, don't base all your reasons on academic ones. Whichever college you go to, you are going to be living there and 80% of your daily thoughts are going to be based on things totally not academically related. So keep in mind the little quirks you find among your college choices.</p>
<p>The thing I like most about NU is really hard to pinpoint: my dorm is awesome (and this is coming from a person who has never had to share a room with someone before or lived away from home for more than a few days), I love the environment (i.e. convenience of both Evanston and Chicago), there's always so much to do on campus, the campus is beautiful (especially the beach when it's warm), and the people here are the most interesting and wonderful people I have ever met. As for the thing I dislike the most, it's definitely the cell phone reception on campus. There's a huge Sprint tower on the top of Tech, which blocks out all other cell phone coverage. I have Verizon and can only get reception while outside, as do most others who do not have Sprint. Unless you have Sprint, you can't use your cell phone inside of any building on the campus. So if you decide to come to NU, I highly suggest getting Sprint so you can actually use your cell phone when you get here.</p>
<p>Wow, that was a long post. Hope it helped you out.</p>
<p>Thanks, that was really helpful. I have another question that's kind of personal. If you don't want to answer, feel free not to. As you know, Northwestern's cost of attendance is very high. I think the projected cost for next year is somewhere around $44,000. How are you able to cover these costs? Is Northwestern generous with financial aid? Also, what kind of financial aid do you or people you know receive? Money is a HUGE issue with my dad, and this factor alone may determine whether or not I can attend Northwestern. I was just wondering if you had any insight on this topic.</p>
<p>Hello again. I just want to make sure knb459 sees my post.</p>
<p>stbballfan13:</p>
<p>NU actually gave me the best financial aid package of my top three choices(NU, CMU, Cornell), although I had been given a full ride to Penn State's Honors College. At first my parents encouraged me to go to PSU but then realized that the choice should be based on my decision of where I would feel the happiest. NU basically decides how much money your family should be contributing out of the $42,000 (which was this past year's tuition, next year will probably be a little higher) and then outlines how you can pay for it by various loans and maybe work study. I believe that there are two different NU loans that are in your parents' names and they start to pay on them while you're still in college. There's also the Perkins loan and the Stafford loan. I believe one of them is in the student's name while the other is in the parent's name again. As a student you don't start paying the loan off until 6 months after you finish college. I don't have work study but I know a lot of people who do. My roommate is a lifeguard at SPAC (sports pavillion and aquatics center) and a lot of people do security monitoring which is sitting at the front desk of a dorm and having people sign in if they don't live there. They allow you to bring a computer and do your homework while being a security monitor, which is why a lot of people like it. (i.e. getting paid to do your homework) I believe you can do security monitoring even if they don't give you work study in your financial aid packet. When filling out financial aid forms, I would highly recommend writing down any special circumstances your family might have with income/money. NU basically took the same number as calculated by FAFSA in the "expected family contribution" (EFC) amount and then said what loans I could apply for to pay for it. Whatever they tell you now is definitely not set in stone though, after talking with them a little over the summer they decided to give us a little more aid. I suggest checking out the NU loan website as it can give you a better idea of how much the loans can cover:
<a href="http://www.studentloans.northwestern.edu/loantypes.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.studentloans.northwestern.edu/loantypes.html</a></p>
<p>I know someone who is actually getting a free ride to NU because of family income, so it can happen. It basically all depends on what FAFSA outlines as your EFC. And also if you are a National Merit Finalist, NU gives you $2,000. It's the only academic scholarship that NU has.</p>
<p>bumping...</p>
<p>any more questions?</p>
<p>Knb459 -Thanks for all the info you've put up already - it's been a great help! I've been looking at some of the residential colleges online and everyone looks like they're having a great time! I had a question about Slivka, are there many biology majors...and if not are you still tolerant of them..I'm sure you are..just wanted to hear your opinion! Also, do most people pick their residential college based on proximity to where they will have most of their classes? I'll be visiting NU within the next week or two and was wondering if there's any better day to tour the campus?</p>
<p>Wapsybi:</p>
<p>Out of this past year's freshmen in Slivka, about 20% are Biological Sciences majors. Although there are many more Slivka residents in McCormick than there are in Weinberg, the majority of those who are in Weinberg are biology majors. There's somewhat of a friendly "rivalry" between McCormick students and Weinberg students (usually because they have less work than us) but all of us get along. A lot of my friends are bio majors.</p>
<p>It really varies why people choose between north and south campus. Engineers most always have classes in Tech or a building close by so it's smart to live on North campus. For those in Weinberg, especially as freshmen, there'll be classes both on north and south campuses. In general, north campus tends to consist of mainly engineers and those that are in a science/math related field. South campus is more of the theatre, communications, music, and humanities majors. But you will find instances of engineers living on south campus and vice versa. It's just in general, how it tends to be.</p>
<p>As for what day you should visit campus, I would recommend a week day so that you can get a feel for what a typical day might look like. The campus tour and whatnot only covers south campus so if you are a biology major, I would recommend looking around at north campus a little on your own, since that's where you'll tend to be more often. And also look around Tech, as many science majors have a lot of classes in Tech, as do engineers.</p>
<p>I have a few more random questions that I hope you can answer.
- How do students get around campus? Do most students walk or bike?
- What transportation is available to go from Northwestern to Chicago?
- Which is more popular: desktop computers or notebook computers?
- Does NW have printers available or do students have to bring their own?
- Do people who aren't engineering majors (i.e. computer science majors) but are part of McCormick still have the opporunties (co-op, etc.) as engineering majors?
- How many computer science majors choose to live in Slivka?</p>
<p>Sorry for giving you all these questions at once. Whatever info you can provide would be great. Thanks!!!</p>