Prospective Engineers

Colleges and Universities A-Z Northwestern University
41

<p>stlbballfan13:</p>

<p>Most students walk around campus, especially if your classes or wherever you are going is nearby. A lot have bikes in case they might have a class on the opposite side of campus (there's only ten minutes allotted between classes, so if you're going from north to south campus in that amount of time, a bike would be useful). I wouldn't say a bike is completely necessary (I don't have one with me), but say you're planning on minoring in Spanish or something else in Weinberg that's humaninties related, you'll probably have some classes on south campus and getting there a little quicker with a bike would be nice. There's also campus shuttles. Freshmen engineers this year have a class in downtown Evanston, so we take the shuttle there from north campus. But next year's freshmen don't have to worry about this since the new building will be opening on north campus in the fall. Students also use the shuttles a lot at night to go back and forth between north and south campus and Evanston.</p>

<p>NU offers a shuttle that goes to the Chicago campus, so that's one option. Also there's the L (elevated railroad system), which seems to be the most popular way of traveling between Evanston and Chicago. There's also various buses that travel around the Chicago area.</p>

<p>Notebook computers are definitely more popular. A lot of the times you'll be working on a project with a group and being able to bring your computer with you will be very handy. Pretty much everyone has a notebook computer. I only know of one person in Slivka who has a desktop. There could be others though. At college, you basically live on a computer. You'll get a ton of email every day, homework is posted online, basically everything can be done over the internet. As an engineer, and even more so since you're comp sci, you'll be doing a lot of computer programming, so having the option of computer portability is important.</p>

<p>There are printers in computer labs in Tech. You have an allotted amount of money you can use (that's already in your tuition) towards printing from these printers. Also, Slivka has a printer in the Discovery Room. But most people tend to bring their own printers to campus. Some bring colored printers and others don't. Personally, I think it's more convenient to have your own printer.</p>

<p>Comp Sci majors definitely have opportunities for co-op as well. I suggest checking out this website for more details: <a href="http://www.mccormick.northwestern.edu/co-op/employer/academics.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.mccormick.northwestern.edu/co-op/employer/academics.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>I can't really say how many comp sci majors get to "choose" to live in Slivka, as many people who apply don't get in. But in this current year, 3 comp sci freshmen are in the dorm, out of the 57 freshmen total. (To give you a better idea of the proportions, 8 are BME, 8 undecided engineering, 3 Mat Sci engineers, and 11 bio majors, among various other engineering and science/math related fields.) </p>

<p>Hope that helps you out.</p>

42

<p>bump</p>

<p>any other questions?</p>

43

<p>hey knb459, if you see this i have a few questions for you right now</p>

44

<p>knb459</p>

<p>For engineering students who elect to go the co-op route, how does the tuition work? You mention that co-op students usually stay 5 yrs? Does this mean that they pay 5 years tuition? Are they being paid a salary hile working through the co-op program or is it like being a non-paid intern?</p>

45

<p>I am sure knb will cover it better than I do since I graduated 6 six years ago (old..:() but I like helping out. :) Anyway, it's definitely paid (my friend was paid $14/hr in 1997) and you won't be charged tuition while co-oping (cos you are not taking classes). You pay the same amount of tuition that you would have paid if you went straight through in four years.</p>

46

<p>I think you have to pay a slight fee to still be considered part of the University ($600 or so). I'm not 100% sure, but I know you have to do this at U of Michigan and Stanford.</p>

47

<p>Sam Lee and uc_benz ... thanks for the info, that's basically what I wanted to know. Another question I have is 'how different is the undergrad experience for an engineering major at Northwestern vs. undergrad engineering at UMich (or Berkeley if you have any info on it). My son is accepted at all three. He is not 110% sure that he wants to have a career as an engineer but it seems like the best fit for his academic strengths. Any input is appreciated re: how the experience at Northwestern is similar to or different from these larger schools.</p>

48

<p>Since I didn't attend Berkeley/UMich, I can only speak based on what I've heard. I think the students are more collaborative and less competitive than those in Berkeley (that might be because of the huge % of Asians..LOL! I am Asian myself and boy, they ARE competitive..just joking!). I cannont confirm how true it is but you've seen/heard quite a bit and therefore there's a reason to believe it has some truth to it. The grading isn't as harsh (hence a bit less stress) at NU and I can confirm that's a fact. I haven't heard much about the grading/cut-throat competitiveness at UMich so it's probably also better than Berkeley in that sense. If his strength is in math and he ends up finding interest in econ/business, he can have a chance (though it's a slim chance) to get into MMSS program (great complement for social science (esp econ) majors that love math). At NU, you can transfer between schools rather easily (except transferring into journalism/music schools). I think Berkeley/Mich are more restrictive in that sense (probably fierece competition if you try to transfer to more popular major/school or just impossible regardless). You should do some research on that particularly if your son is kinda undecided.</p>

<p>uc_benz, did you get into MMSS?</p>

49

<p>Thanks for the response, Sam Lee. Do you know if he will be faced with very large classes at NU and TA's instead of professors? That is one of his concerns.</p>

50

<p>Definitely much smaller than UMich/Berkeley's for the introductory ones. I came in as a sophomore so I didn't take the general chem/phys/calculus. But my organic chemsitry was not huge and I think it had like around 200 people. All my classes were taught by professors. TAs just lead the discussion sections. Once you get to upper-level ones, I beleive the classes are usually in reasonable size even for places like Berkeley/Michigan.</p>

51

<p>deuxanfants,</p>

<p>I just checked out your son's stats and congrats to many acceptances. I'd like to change what I said about MMSS earlier--from "slim chance" to "fighting chance" because of his credentials. :)</p>

52

<p>Yeah, I was accepted into MMSS and I will be in the program next year.</p>

53

<p>Looks like you are well-prepared for your career path. :) People will rely on you for details about MMSS since it's lacking on CC.</p>

54

<p>Yeah, it seems kind of like a mysterious program in general. The webpage doesn't really tell much about the program, but I have talked to several people who are in the program, looked at the course descriptions, and read the CTEC's online so I have a pretty good idea of what I am getting into. Evidently pretty much EVERYONE in the program is an aspiring investment banker or consultant so it will be competitive in that sense since those jobs are few and far between, but a lot of the assignments are completed in groups so there is also a sense of teamwork. </p>

<p>If anyone has questions about MMSS that you cannot find on the website I will be happy to try and answer them, and I'll definitely be looking forward to describing my experience when I actually begin the program in the fall.</p>

55

<p>Sam Lee ... thanks very much for your responses to my posts. Regarding the class sizes, I consider 200 students to be a very large class! It sounds like NU is the same as Berkeley or UMich (or other large research universities) where students start out in large lecture classes (with discussion groups led by TA's) and then, as they become upperclassmen, their classes get down to a reasonable size. If this is the case, I am not sure how I can justify spending $44K per year for NU vs. the $20K we would spend at Berkeley. I guess I am looking for what makes the extra money worth spending. If he is going to have a far superior experience, I will spend the money gladly for him. But right now I am searching for a reason to go with NU. We will visit in two weeks and I plan to do as much research as possible before we get there.</p>

56

<p>Sam Lee, I just reread your earlier post and realized that you gave me some good info regarding other benefits of NU (more collaborative, grading less harsh, MMSS program, etc.).</p>

57

<p>
[quote]
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.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>I quote from a current freshmen at NU. I think I probably overestimated the orgo numbers because I think orgo can't be larger than general chem. I've heard some public U have as many as 800 students (I am trying to track down the Berkeley/Mich numbers for you) in the introductory science classes. If that's the case, 200 isn't bad. Sorry if I wasn't clear; I was not talking about intro engineering classes; I was referring to intro science ones (chem/orgo) that are also filled with pre-meds, most of whom are not engineering majors. Now that I think about it; if you are not chem engg major and not a pre-med, you don't need to take orgo and probably don't even need to take full-year of chem (I am not sure about it); those couple chemistry classes (maybe physics also) will be the only big classes your son would have at NU. Sorry about not being aware of it; it's been 6 years since I graduated and I was a chemE major.</p>

58

<p>Someone at Berkeley just told me their chem1a has about 500 people. That makes NU's one look small in comparison. I'll post the MI's number once I get that.</p>

59

<p>Sam Lee ... thanks, I appreciate you checking on the numbers.</p>

60

<p>You are welcome. :) I may be a bit biased but I try to be truthful also. Sometime on CC, people let their bias lead to bashing. I've even seen outright lies. But more often, I've seen people having good intention but put in heresay instead of facts and they are not aware of the difference.</p>