<p>I would appreciate it if some current NU students could answer these questions:
1. When do freshman start registering for classes?
2. Is it possible to select which professor you want to have for your course if more than one is teaching the same course?
3. Do HPMEs have separate advisors and registration periods?</p>
<ol>
<li>Yes but if it is a popular class/prof it will probably be full. What Northwestern tells you when you tour is that every professor on the faculty is required to teach at least one undergraduate class. What they don't tell you is that every professor on the faculty teaches ONLY one undergraduate class.</li>
</ol>
<p>I used to go to a state school and course selection/availability, believe it or not, was much better there.</p>
<p>At NU you have one class, at one time, and if it conflicts with your schedule or it's full (which it almost always is one of the two) it's just too bad. Really frustrating, one of my biggest/only complaints about Northwestern.</p>
<p>The way it works is you get a reg time based on your student ID#. Freshmen times are the worst, Senior times are the best (HPMEs get to register as a year ahead- so your first year you will be a Sophomore). Before your time starts, you can login to CAESAR but it won't let you register. Once it hits your time you can begin adding classes, and you can add whatever classes you want, barring any scheduling conflicts or prerequisites not met. You will almost always know who your professor is beforehand and you can email the department if you're not sure.</p>
<p>There is also pre-registration a week before reg that allows you to sign up for a max of 2 classes that your major allows you to pre-reg for. </p>
<p>The first freshman reg period is a few days after you get to school for NSW, which kind of sucks because all the upperclassmen register in mid-May, so you'll be hard-pressed to find open, non-intro classes. But this is the only time with such a huge disadvantage.</p>
<ol>
<li>Yes you can. Organic chemistry, for example, has 4 professors that teach separate sections of it in the fall. NU has something called "CTECs" which has student evaluations of courses. They are VERY helpful in choosing a professor. My registration time wasn't that great, but every orgo section still had openings when I registered this fall. If you don't get into the one you want, you can always try getting on the waitlist or talking to the prof. While on the topic of orgo,as an HPME I highly recommend you take that as a freshman so you can avoid the bio/orgo combo most people take as sophomores.
3.Yeah, you'll have a separate HPME adviser that they'll assign you. For the first registration you'll be the same as the other freshmen, but for the rest of the year you'll be able to register with sophomores. Don't worry about finding open classes because in the fall you'll probably want to take the popular big lecture classes anyways (like intro to psych, intro to russian lit, etc.)</li>
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<p>any other questions? I'd be happy to answer them</p>
<p>^^ yeah i agree, CTECs are key when choosing which professor you want</p>
<p>yea i looked at those on the website, seems like this William Hopper, who teaches 290 in the MENU sequence, isnt liked too much</p>
<p>yeah I discovered the CTEC website last night and it was so awesome. its an incredible resource to see how difficult a class is and how good the professor is. HPME, i have a question for you: I am probably going place out of Inorganic Chem and Phys Mech and E&M so that I can split up orgo and bio over 2 years since they are like the 2 hardest science sequences, and I'm planning to take bio freshman year and orgo sophomore year, so is that a good idea? It seems like most people who place out of chem and phys take orgo freshman year.</p>
<p>Can someone provide a link to the CTEC website?</p>
<p>you have to have a userid and password (use your school userid if you have it)</p>
<p>dfleish, are you completely serious when you say that as a freshman "you'll be hard-pressed to find open, non-intro classes"? Are there any particular departments that fill up faster/slower than others, course-wise?</p>
<p>^^ yes, he's serious</p>
<p>popular distro classes fill up first, like intro to music, intro geology classes, intro psych classes, etc.</p>
<p>although i don't know about open "non-intro," i tend to notice the intro classes fill up first (ie the easy distros)</p>
<p>the chances of you getting to take a non-intro is fairly low, unless you're in with a lot of ap credits or certain circumstances</p>
<p>My fall quarter I took:</p>
<p>2 classes for my major that had spots saved for incoming freshmen
Intro to Sociology
Intro to Macroeconomics</p>
<p>I know a ton of people that took Intro to Psych as well.</p>
<p>I can't imagine many people had very different schedules. Think about it, if there's a GOOD class, and it only has 30 spots, what are the odds that after ALL the upperclassmen register, any spots will be left? Maybe you'll get lucky browsing CAESAR one day and a spot will open up but generally it's the 150-people classes for the fall. This applies mostly only to fall quarter though, because at least in the following quarters you'll be able to pre-register before the rest of the school registers, and there won't be such a big gap between when everyone registers and when you do.</p>
<p>in that case, it might just be luck of the draw, i had the hardest time getting into the more "popular" large intro classes like geology, psychology, or music</p>
<p>i ended up taking more obscure classes that still fit the distribution requirements i needed</p>
<p>regardless, everything worked out fine so i wouldn't sweat it too much.</p>
<p>i know that you can pre-reg for classes for your major. im assuming that doesnt apply freshman fall semester though, right?</p>
<p>I honestly don't remember if there is still pre-reg then or not. I am leaning towards no because I think I registered for all 4 of my classes at the same time, and I would've pre-regged two of them if I could've.</p>
<p>yeah, i don't think that applies to freshman fall semester unless you're somehow already declared in your major</p>
<p>"HPME, i have a question for you: I am probably going place out of Inorganic Chem and Phys Mech and E&M so that I can split up orgo and bio over 2 years since they are like the 2 hardest science sequences, and I'm planning to take bio freshman year and orgo sophomore year, so is that a good idea? It seems like most people who place out of chem and phys take orgo freshman year."</p>
<p>Eternity- it's a good idea, except you'll have to take orgo freshman year and bio sophomore year. 2nd quarter bio requires that you've either already taken orgo or are concurrently enrolled in orgo (2nd quarter apparently has a lot of biochemistry that doesn't make much sense without some orgo background). But yeah, splitting up science is a great idea-unless you're one of the hardcore HPME students who try to take the most difficult courseload they can find (and they do exist. I'm not one of them). </p>
<p>any other questions?</p>
<p>eternity: just remember that you'll need to have 5s to place out of inorganic and phys</p>
<p>yeah i know i gotta get 5s
I already have a 5 in AP chem and I'm taking the Phys C exams soon and I'm pretty confident about getting a 5 in both Mech and E&M</p>