<p>Hi, I've applied to Northwestern School of Engineering for next year, and I was very curious about this topic. Does the northwestern engineering program involve a lot of "weeder" classes? I'm very concerned about this because I'm pretty certain that engineering is what I want to major in, but I'm not very confident in my ability to make it through the weeder classes that I've heard of some schools having.</p>
<p>ChE '12 here. I would not say that classes are directly aimed at forcing students out of any given major. But there is certainly a large drop off in the bigger science classes (i.e. from Chem 101 to 102 to 103). But there are many other factors at play there. If you want to be an engineer, and want to be at Northwestern, you will be fine.</p>
<p>In my opinion, while McCormick does not try to “weed out” students, “weeder” courses certainly exist in the university. It is a view of many that many pre-med courses (especially general and organic chemistry) are designed to identify and dissuade weaker students from continuing to pursue the pre-med track. While you will likely have to take chemistry courses as an engineering student, your getting a very high grade in the course is not as important to your future career as it would be for a pre-med student who would likely be advised that acceptance to med school is unlikely with two C’s in orgo. While McCormick classes are challenging and demanding, I did not find them to be “weeder” courses in the sense that the expectation is that a certain number of students will discontinue the major after the course. The pre-med weed-out phenomenon is certainly not unique to NU. As majman said, if you are committed to a course of study and diligent, I am confident in your ability to succeed in McCormick.</p>
<p>Thanks! This was exactly what i needed to know</p>
<p>The “weeding out” at NU isn’t nearly as insane as it is at some other schools, however, since everyone here is smart. My brother went to a public with pretty great engineering, but their general admission standards weren’t that tough. So their chem and first gen engineering was INSANELY hard to weed out kids that shouldn’t be in engineering/chem type stuff. NU’s classes might be hard but I wouldn’t say they’re trying to weed you out, it’s just what’s involved in the class.</p>
<p>Although, to be fair, we basically accept no Orgo transfer credit (I believe we don’t accept Harvard, or maybe it’s Yale’s we don’t accept), as our orgo is one of the toughest in the country, so it is a hard class.</p>
<p>Regarding transfer credits, I don’t think the NU Chemistry department accepts transfer credits for orgo from any other university for chemistry majors. However, I do think other departments (i.e. biological sciences) accept transfer credit from other universities. Many pre-med students from NU who are not chemistry majors take orgo over the summer at Harvard as it is supposedly easier than orgo at NU. Medical schools will see that you have taken orgo at some university and usually accept courses taken at other schools toward a med school application</p>