<p>My D, a freshman in Weinberg, has spoken to some friends who recommended attending the summer program at Harvard if she's unable to get an internship in summer: Visiting</a> Students : Harvard Summer School 2009 </p>
<p>Her long term goal, as of now, is medicine. Your opinions please, especially if you have some first-hand knowledge of this program. I do know that the summer programs my kids attended from brand name universities while in HS were really not college programs. Would this be a reasonable substitute for the equivalent NU course and are there any cons going in this direction? </p>
<p>I guess a bigger question is whether three quarters of academics and summer months for work (probably unrelated to academics, and iffy with the economic situation that we have) would be better than this, so I'm looking for guidance from those of you with more experience.</p>
<p>Summer school doesn't really do anything good (or bad) for med school admission but then neither does irrelvant work experience. How about some biomed related summer research with a NU faculty? </p>
<p>On the other hand, if she can get the bio out of the way during summer (I assume you meant the bio that every premed needs to take), her workload would be easier at NU and it'd be easier to get a better GPA. If I were her, I'd consider taking organic chemistry instead since it's known to be the worst at NU (hard exam; tough grading curve). I vaguely recall someone said NU no longer recognizes organic chemistry even from Harvard. But if she's a not a chemistry major or doesn't need orgo to fulfill her major requirement, all that means is she can't count those credits towards graduation (so some money loss). But they can be used for med school application.</p>
<p>As part of the changes to the Chemistry curriculum, NU does not accept transfer credits from any university or college for Organic Chemistry. They used to only accept it from Harvard but that ended two years ago. It is true, however, that as long as the three credits from Orgo are not needed to graduate then it is an option to take it over the summer, at Harvard or elsewhere, and simply send an additional transcript of those marks when applying to medical school.</p>
<p>Sam, her main reason is what you mention - get bio out of next year's coursework and focus on what she takes at NU, such as the Orgo. She was trying to get into a 10 hr/wk research project now, but hasn't been successful. I personally would like her to get a break from classwork, but not if she can't get a job or an internship in an area of interest, and ends up doing pretty much nothing.</p>
<p>I had zero trouble to get undergrad research at NU and I wasn't even among the top in my class. But I was a chemE. Maybe bio is different since so many premeds want to do research to beef up their premed resume so there's more competition. She may also try the ones in biomed engg department; don't worry about the "engineering" part; some of the research in that department can probably be classified as biomed instead of biomed engg.</p>
<p>Why only 10 hr/wk though? So she can still take summer courses at the same time? Some profs may want more commitment than that. But it looks like her main concern is to get the bio out of the way. That isn't necessarily a bad choice considering how many people do struggle with bio and orgo at the same time.</p>
<p>Also, with bio out of the way, she may have time to do the 10/wk research in the fall. The 10/hr limit is gonna put here at a disvantage for summer research when many others can do them full-time for the entire summer.</p>
<p>I would say research looks better (especially if she gets published) but let me just say bio first quarter is a killer because it's genetics. Genetics is just the first part of the quarter tho so it's not TOO bad. I took it this year and the entire time I was doing genetics I wanted to shoot myself. The tests are insanely hard and I heard bio at Harvard is actually easier than bio at NU...at least first quarter. If she's good at genetics she will do fine but everyone I talked to in bio was having the same problems as me.</p>
<p>Sam & speed, thanks for your input. You're comment about 10 hr/wk sounds absolutely correct. She did get an offer for 20 hrs, but for this term, she couldn't. I'll have her check summer out with a much lighter course work and 20+ hrs.</p>
<p>If I were your D, I'd budget more than 10hr/week even if that's what on the paper. 10hrs/week probably won't give you enough time to achieve something. It's only two afternoons if you think about it and I personally can't really do much in such time-span. Though you are not expected to write a thesis, you also don't want to give the prof the impression that you are just doing the bare minimum. </p>
<p>The fact that Northwestern students have outperformed others in Chicago</a> Area Undergraduate Research Symposium (CAURS) suggests that NU students are pretty active in undergrad research. It's no surprise that profs are turned off if you can only commit just 10 hrs when it seems like many others can commit significantly more.</p>
<p>My daughter a freshman at NU wants to take Chemistry this summer and where we live she can only take 1/2 of an academic year. The reason for this is that Northwestern gets out for the summer so late. I know that people recommend taking Biology at Harvard in the summer— what is general chemistry like at Harvard in the summer?</p>
<p>If your daughter plans to take higher-level chemistry courses (e.g. if she is a chemistry major), I would suggest she take Gen Chem at NU. If it’s just for pre-med requirements… is there a reason for her to go to Harvard instead of NU? For example, do you live in Boston? Unless you take biology at a school very close to your permanent home, it looks unfavourable for you to attend a university other than your own for pre-med requirements. If the intent is to do an “easier” programme and get a better grade, that will be quite obvious to medical admissions officers. </p>
<p>As far as I know (from a friend of mine there), Gen Chem at Harvard is what you could expect from a top school – but not overwhelmingly difficult. My opinion, however, is for your daughter to take Gen Chem at NU if possible – I know both professors very well and I can say that in my experience they are two of the best professors in the Chemistry department, which is arguably top 10 in the country.</p>
<p>Actually, she is looking into dentistry as a profession. (along with psychologist, and lawyer) However,although extremely good at math and does well in science (she is a very creative, writes extremely well, a top notch performer)…she was scared out of taking chemistry at NU by her peers, who were dropping pre-med like like flies. I think her issues (not the peers) is the time requirement of Chemistry vs the other subjects. If she takes Chemistry at NU this summer, she would be there until the end of August, if she takes it at Harvard she would be done at the beginning of August so we would still see her.</p>
<p>However, what she she really wants to do this summer preferably at home is take Chemistry. The problem is I can’t find it where she could do the whole course during the summer here because of her spring term ending so late. In the same time she could take 1 term here, she could take the whole year at Harvard. </p>
<p>Ya sure the tests are hard but almost everyone (except the top few percentile) in the class will find them difficult too. what kind of grade is she shooting for in gen chem - an A? In the tests if she doesn’t stray too far from the mean she’ll get a B…almost everyone does. I really didn’t think gen chem was discouraging, however, sophomore year is definitely a killer so it doesn’t get any easier. I think you have to be in the range of about 20 pts or more above the mean on every test to get an A (not counting lab which takes a crapload of time and is also a relatively important factor in your grade).</p>