<p>It's dangerous to generalize about Chicago weather. I live near Chicago, and this winter has been particularly crazy. From mid-December to mid-January there was something like 30 days of above "normal" temps where it stayed in the 40's and 50's the whole time. A week ago, it was subzero before windchill, and something like 20 below with windchill. That's probably the coldest I can remember in my 18 years of living in this area. Today, however, it was back above freezing.</p>
<p>So Jeremy, you hit it at exactly the wrong time. Don't expect it to be that cold every winter.</p>
<p>Haha YEP! I came at WAYY the wrong time; I had to wear one of those Hannibal Hector masks, you know, the ones that cover your entire face and leave a slit for your nose to breathe! IT was horrible, but still evanston was an amaazing town :D</p>
<p>Well, NU is my first choice tied with McGill. If I get into both of them, I will have NOOOOO idea where to go because they're both absolutely amazing schools (altho I think I have a higher chance at McGill b/c they accept a much higher % of freshman lol.)</p>
<p>In general, Fall is the best season at NU. During the Winter, it does get biting cold for about 6 weeks (usually mid-Jan to end of Feb) due to the wind.</p>
<p>Early spring is OK (if you don't mind rain) and late Spring is very nice (around the time Dilllo Day comes around - everyone seems to just want to hang-out by the lakefront).</p>
<p>Granted, the weather pattern has been really wacky this year (I would say that NE is a little bit warmer - the cold winds pick up some heat as they race across the Great Lakes and states in btwn - but not really enough to make that much of a difference).</p>
<p>weather update: it's basically a mild blizzard right now (of course, this is coming form a california kid who doesnt exactly know scale) but weather warnings are in, parking isn't allowed on some streets. etc etc. it's all quite interesting. but yeah, huuuuuuuuuuuge amounts of snow (most its been all year so far, they swept up the walkways and such but by about 3 pm it was all covered again. snow ranges from powdery fluff stuff to the soggy kind, so yeah.</p>
<p>Nobody knows...the weather is unpredictable. It could be like today and cold, windy and snowy. It could be subzero or warm around the 30's-40's. You can never really tell.</p>
<p>when it's like that, do classes get cancelled or do people in Evanston just carry on in the blizzards like people in the Pacific NW carry on in the rain??</p>
<p>In comparison to the NW and rain, rain is completely different than snow in that even though it is a hazard, it is nowhere near that like a snowstorm. Although it is never consistently snowing in Chicago, theres at least a few snowstorms a year where it comes down pretty good.</p>
<p>about the classes getting canceled, it's a common consensus here than NU doesnt care much about the student. Not to say that its a bad school, its just they don't really care about the students so much. Basically northwestern was the only school in the big ten to not get a snow day yesterday (not sure if other schools got today off also)</p>
<p>I beg to differ. Since I left, NU had added unique programs not offered in most other schools--BIP, Engineering First, and now the Kellogg certificate programs. In particular, to invent a completely different introductory curriculum (Engineering First) was a very complex task for many faculty involved; they could have not bothered and kept the old introductory curriculum which was still the model for 99% of engineering schools today anyway. You may take it for granted but things like CTEC aren't available in many schools. I took couple classes at UCLA and those teacher evaluations are for "internal use" only. Certainly, there are rooms for improvement; the adminstration could create a more warm and fuzzy feeling; Norris Center can be improved (they did add a Starbucks recently); advising at the a&s and engg schools can be improved (students at music, journalism, and education/social policy schools are reportedly pleased with theirs). Certain things can be streamlined a bit--I don't know what it's like now but I hated it when I had to get 2 or 3 wet signatures just to add or drop a class (I transferred from Wash U where I could add/drop classes by myself through the computer).</p>
<p>hehehe...I like how this thread is taking on a mind of its own...it stemmed away from the campus and is going onto the weather, now onto programs lol :D</p>
<p>"it's a common consensus here than NU doesnt care much about the student. Not to say that its a bad school, its just they don't really care about the students so much."</p>
<p>Sam Lee, this is a different comment than addressing things that can be streamlined or improving programs as mentioned in your post. </p>
<p>The bver100 post invites an important discussion about NU as a place where people are valued (or not), respected (or not), listened to (or not) and so on. There is no perfect place, obviously, but it seems ridiculous to spend over $40K a year to go to a school described by bver100 when there are so many other good choices...</p>
<p>Curious: why did you transfer from WashU and was it a good move for you, if you don't mind my asking?</p>
<p>You are right Jeremybeach, we are all over the place with this thread. I'm interested in the replies as I am in the decision making mode. Do we continue here or start a new thread? I'm new to this CC business.</p>
<p>i do agree with sam lee that theres a lot of good things about NU. However, theres a couple things that have appeared this year that seem to show that student and admin relationships are a little separated.</p>
<p>for instance, starting the spring quarter, all doors except main doors in all dorms will be alarmed. this is in response to thefts and such last year. at the end of fall quarter, the student government met with the admins and learned that the alarms would be implemented on a dorm by dorm basis, considering each dorm seperately. student polls showed that ninety-six (if i remember correct) percent of students were against alarming the doors. the school admin said they would take this into account when deciding. In the end, they decided to alarm all doors. Seems a little disconnected with students</p>
<p>Also, it appears that a lot of classes are weed-out classes for freshmen. i'm not sure how this compares to other universities, but i've been told that some classes its better to not attend lecture and study out of the book since the lectures are just to confuse you. I personally dont think i've been in a weedout course yet, but i might also just not realize it.</p>
<p>Advising does leave some room for improvement. It really depends on the professor. One of my eecs friends has an advisor from the eecs dept who was awarded the "best advisor award" in 1989. I, on the otherhand, have an environmental engineering graduate professor. Although she is very nice and tries to help as much as she can, she is basically clueless when it comes to biomedical engineering (by the way, 15 of the 18 others in my advising group were also bioengineers).</p>
<p>i don't criticize northwestern to the point of saying that it's a bad school, but there are some ways the school can improve. Of course, this is all my perception, and I don't want anything i say to stop anyone from coming to northwestern, as i do believe that it is an excellent school. i guess sometimes i look at things differently then other do</p>
<p>bver100, I appreciate your candid summaries. Again, no school is going to be perfect. To say the administration doesn't care much about the students is a red flag for me.</p>
<p>I can see the admin. differing from the students but is it done with respect for example? Did anyone from the administration ever communicate why they chose to alarm all doors? That would be respectful, even if the two sides don't agree on the final outcome. Is communication poor btw the administration and the students or is it more about this one alarm issue?</p>
<p>Is there some formal way for students to effectively communicate with the administrators? If so, what is the process to be heard?</p>
<p>Are you glad you are going there or do you wish you'd made a different decision? The old hindsight question...never fair, frequently asked.</p>