<p>Aside from the specialized schools (McCormick, Medill, etc) what are Northwestern's strongest majors? I have been accepted but I'm not sure if I want to go yet. I am interested in: literature, languages (esp. Spanish and French), and cognitive science/psychology. How do NU's programs in these areas measure up to those at other top schools?</p>
<p>US News ranking: </p>
<p>cognitive psychology: 16th (most other schools in the top 18 are state U though)</p>
<p>english: 19th</p>
<p>What other top schools you have in mind? I can look up their rankings for you. Not that I am saying rankings are necessarily accurate.</p>
<p>US News doesn't rank languages.</p>
<p>Strongest programs (ranked or generally considered in the top-15) are econ, chemistry, art history, african history, sociology, social psychology, journalism, all programs in the communication school (film, theater, communication studies..etc), education, various fields in music, various engineering disciplines. I may leave out some but these are what I can think of at the moment.</p>
<p>thanks, this information was really helpful. If you are willing to look them up, the other schools I have in mind (which I was either accepted or waitlisted at) are NYU, UPenn, Wesleyan, and Haverford. Btw, how did you find the rankings on the webpage? do you have to be subscribed to US News?</p>
<p>Yes.</p>
<p>Since it's a graduate ranking (that's what department ranking usually is), obviously Wesleyan and Haverford won't be there. It's not neceassarily a good measure of the quality of ug education.</p>
<p>English
Penn:10th
NYU:23th</p>
<p>Cognitive Psychology
Penn: 18th
NYU: NR (>18th)</p>
<p>Sam Lee, can you tell me where Northwestern stands for these majors?</p>
<p>Political Science, History, Philosophy, Psychology</p>
<p>thanks</p>
<p>correct me if I'm wrong, but NU's pre-med advising is supposedly very good, but their biology major isn't all that great?</p>
<p>pre-med advising is ridiculous, bio/chem majors probably want to die when they're done, it's really intense</p>
<p>HelloooHellooo,</p>
<p>Political Science: #21
History: #17
Psychology: #22
Sociology: #11</p>
<p>Oh, there's no phillosophy ranking in USN.</p>
<p>kLuo28,</p>
<p>Bio is ranked #29. It's no Harvard/Stanford but pretty decent considering how many colleges are out there. As a point of reference, great schools like Emory, Dartmouth, Vandy, Rice, and Brown are ranked lower.</p>
<p>Also, sometimes ranking has no bearing on the quality of a program. For example, Poli Sci sounds ranked fairly high but I've heard bad things about the department from some people here. And just because a program isn't ranked doesn't mean NU doesn't offer amazing classes from professors who really know their stuff, because I've taken Philosophy classes like that. Just a caveat...</p>
<p>Sam, are you viewing this rankings online or on a hard copy? I'd like to check these rankings for myself so I can browse other schools and majors.</p>
<p>Online but I don't want to copy and paste them (copyright).</p>
<p>like dfleish said, take it with a grain of salt.</p>
<p>so would you not recommend poli sci at NU?
any thoughts?</p>
<p>The poli sci department in general is supposed to be very good (indicated by the ranking) but certain sub-specialties such as International Studies are abysmal in comparison (around 50th).</p>