Northwestern professors

[Anonymous]

We toured the school and my kid loved it. He has the stats for NU, but I didn’t like how large it seemed. Do professors pay attention to undergrads/teaching or are they more research-oriented for tenure? DS interested in history, political science, and literature.

[Anonymous]

We toured a lot of schools east of the Mississippi, public and private.

The students at Northwestern seemed like some of the happiest and engaged of all of the high stat private universities we visited.

We were impressed with the engineering professors that we met.

[Anonymous]

More research interested

[Anonymous]

My kid graduated from NU in 2018. Had no trouble forging relationships with professors.

[Anonymous]

My kid regularly goes to office hours and has formed connections with professors. Most are fantastic and accessible.

[Anonymous]

Several family members attended and several friends work there. Focus is on teaching & building relationships with students as students have easy access to profs and are welcome to engage in research with profs.

Many small classes. Lots have about 12 students, some as low as 7 students, but some intro econ classes are large.

Students are very happy, highly intelligent, and hard working. If the student prefers to kick back & relax for 4 years, then NU is not the right school.

[Anonymous]

Easy to triple major at Northwestern (if that is of interest). Rec letters, if requested & needed, will be evidence of close professor/student relationship.

[Anonymous]

We are headed for a visit soon. We are in VA and other fav is UVA so obviously IF DC could get in to both, $$ may be a factor.
Can anyone draw comparisons other than price-tag?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are headed for a visit soon. We are in VA and other fav is UVA so obviously IF DC could get in to both, $$ may be a factor.
Can anyone draw comparisons other than price-tag?

Cousin just graduated from Northwestern: they had small classes other than a couple if 150 person intros. They made many connections with professors and that is how they got their internships which later led to job offer at the end of last summer: 6 figures, big city, private equity firm. Their significant other was premed there and is going straight into med school, had smaller classes than the econ major, was doing science research from early on through a professor connection.
UVA, where many family members go, is very different. It is a great school, but the first 2 years are all large classes (unless Echols scholar which guarantees some seminars). Engineering there has much smaller intros and more opportunities to get to know professors early. UVA is not a "target" at the same level for the private equity companies, but UVa does much better than other schools.
UVA is a great top US school with 18,000 undergrads. Northwestern is an excellent, world-class school with only 8,000 undergrads.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Several family members attended and several friends work there. Focus is on teaching & building relationships with students as students have easy access to profs and are welcome to engage in research with profs.

Many small classes. Lots have about 12 students, some as low as 7 students, but some intro econ classes are large.

Students are very happy, highly intelligent, and hard working. If the student prefers to kick back & relax for 4 years, then NU is not the right school.

+100
It is a top10 national university on par with (and better than some) ivies: competition due to the highly motivated student population is palpable: self-imposed, not in a cutthroat way, but real.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are headed for a visit soon. We are in VA and other fav is UVA so obviously IF DC could get in to both, $$ may be a factor.
Can anyone draw comparisons other than price-tag?

Cousin just graduated from Northwestern: they had small classes other than a couple if 150 person intros. They made many connections with professors and that is how they got their internships which later led to job offer at the end of last summer: 6 figures, big city, private equity firm. Their significant other was premed there and is going straight into med school, had smaller classes than the econ major, was doing science research from early on through a professor connection.
UVA, where many family members go, is very different. It is a great school, but the first 2 years are all large classes (unless Echols scholar which guarantees some seminars). Engineering there has much smaller intros and more opportunities to get to know professors early. UVA is not a "target" at the same level for the private equity companies, but UVa does much better than other schools.
UVA is a great top US school with 18,000 undergrads. Northwestern is an excellent, world-class school with only 8,000 undergrads.

Totally untrue to say UVAs first two years have large classes. Totally depends on your major but my two have only had a couple large intro type classes first year and the rest have been between 30-60.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are headed for a visit soon. We are in VA and other fav is UVA so obviously IF DC could get in to both, $$ may be a factor.
Can anyone draw comparisons other than price-tag?

Cousin just graduated from Northwestern: they had small classes other than a couple if 150 person intros. They made many connections with professors and that is how they got their internships which later led to job offer at the end of last summer: 6 figures, big city, private equity firm. Their significant other was premed there and is going straight into med school, had smaller classes than the econ major, was doing science research from early on through a professor connection.
UVA, where many family members go, is very different. It is a great school, but the first 2 years are all large classes (unless Echols scholar which guarantees some seminars). Engineering there has much smaller intros and more opportunities to get to know professors early. UVA is not a "target" at the same level for the private equity companies, but UVa does much better than other schools.
UVA is a great top US school with 18,000 undergrads. Northwestern is an excellent, world-class school with only 8,000 undergrads.

Totally untrue to say UVAs first two years have large classes. Totally depends on your major but my two have only had a couple large intro type classes first year and the rest have been between 30-60.

You don’t think 30-60(!) is large?

[Anonymous]

Usually freshmen Math and Chemistry classes are weed out courses that are 100 to 200 student class size. I think Northwestern is know for their Journalism, Music, and business programs. DC had an admitted tour back in April and we didn’t see much of engineering

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Usually freshmen Math and Chemistry classes are weed out courses that are 100 to 200 student class size. I think Northwestern is know for their Journalism, Music, and business programs. DC had an admitted tour back in April and we didn’t see much of engineering

Northwestern is known for recruiting for consulting. However, there is no undergrad business program at Northwestern. There is a certificate, but that's all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Usually freshmen Math and Chemistry classes are weed out courses that are 100 to 200 student class size. I think Northwestern is know for their Journalism, Music, and business programs. DC had an admitted tour back in April and we didn’t see much of engineering

Northwestern is known for recruiting for consulting. However, there is no undergrad business program at Northwestern. There is a certificate, but that's all.

Which is great as students get the signaling benefits of a business degree without the large amount of corresponding busywork. A win-win.