Questions from an Incoming Freshman

Colleges and Universities A-Z Northwestern University
1

Hi! I just got accepted to NU Class of 2021 and I’m heavily leaning towards commiting if financial aid pans out.

I have some questions though about Northwestern as a school that I wanted to know first and wanted to see if i could have them answered before campus day.

  1. What's the difference between North Campus and South Campus?
  2. If you're a student at Weinberg then where will your classes be?
  3. What's the difference between a residential community, residential college and residential hall and the benefits of them?
  4. Different types of room (open suite, closed, traditional etc. which do freshman get)
  5. Suggestions for choosing dorm as a freshman
  6. How easy is it to double major across schools?
  7. Benefits of quarter system?
  8. What's the difference between a minor and certificate and perks of doing a certificate?
  9. How accessible are the dining halls?

Thank you!

2

  1. North Campus has Tech (where all engineering, cs, and most science classes are held), the new Kellogg building, all the frat houses, and better food (Sargent & Lisa’s >>> Allison & Fran’s). You’ll get a lot more engineers and econ majors living north. South Campus has better study areas, generally newer dorms (Allison, 1838 Chicago…just stay away from Hinman), the sorority quad, and easier access to downtown Evanston.

  2. Class locations are a mix for Weinberg kids. If you’re a hard science or CS major, you’ll have classes in tech. If you’re planning on taking any math, you’ll have classes in Lunt (North/mid campus). Seminars and distribution requirement classes can be anywhere, but are generally more towards south campus. If you live north, don’t sign up to take anything on Clark Street at 9 AM.

  3. Res communities and res halls are basically the same. Communities might have a few more events that are open to the whole dorm, but in both cases you’re dealing with fairly large settings. Res colleges are much smaller and have a more structured feeling; you’ll know your housing exec board well and will get lots of opportunities to participate in structured events.

  4. Most of the freshmen I know have doubles. A few have singles. I don’t know of any freshmen in suite style rooms (I’m pretty sure suites only exist in Kemper and the new 560 Lincoln building, neither of which, as far as I know, are available to freshmen).

  5. Res colleges are great if you tend to the more introverted side; you’ll see the same people a lot and get to know kids really easily. If you’re more outgoing, you can make a lot of friends really easily in a res hall. If you’re planning on majoring in something STEM, I suggest living on north campus; many sections of intro math and science classes are taught obnoxiously early, and you don’t want to have to walk from south campus to Tech each morning.

  6. @MMSS2020 can probably give a good answer here.

  7. You’ll have tons of free space to take classes you want. Courses pack a LOT of material into ten weeks, so you can’t let yourself slack, but you’ll be able to try all sorts of things out. Chicago Field Studies, Morty’s class, all the certificate programs…you’ll have free space to take pretty much anything you want. It’s also much easier to bounce back from a rough quarter than a rough semester.

  8. Minors generally have 6 - 8 course requirements which form the core of the subject’s major. For example, an Econ major might be required to take Econ 201/202/281/310-1,2/311 and 9 additional 300-level Econ courses of the student’s choice, whereas an Econ minor would have to take 201/202/281/310/311, but not have to do the additional upper div coursework. Certificates are 3 - 5 courses and tend to cover a much narrower subject matter.

  9. There’s a dining hall within 5 minutes walk no matter where you are on campus. Sargent’s always good, Plex and Allison are usually good, Elder’s hit or miss, and Hinman’s dining hall should be avoided if at all possible.

3
  1. I’m a dual degree and being dual degree is pretty harmless. IK double majoring across schools is pretty harmless? probably harder in more specialized schools and probably impossible for journalism unless your home school is Medill
4

Slivka - the Engineering Res College on North Campus has suite style rooms for freshman.

http://slivka.northwestern.edu/about/description/

5

560 Lincoln will be available to freshmen regardless of academic interests. It’s north campus.