Advice for Freshmen

• If you have questions, don’t hesitate to ask! Your Freshman Adviser, the College Advisers, major advisers, peer advisers, the Weinberg College Undergraduate Studies website, and plenty of other folks are out there to help you navigate through Northwestern.
• Balance practical concerns about fulfilling requirements and exploring potential majors with opportunities for variety and exploration—make your education your own, individual experience!
• Make the foreign language requirement a priority, especially if you’re hoping tostudy abroad. Additionally, you should consider continuing study in a language you’ve already studied, or even starting to learn a new language!
• Use distribution requirements to explore possible majors and/or unfamiliar disciplines.
• Plan ahead! Some majors require students to take a prescribed set of courses before beginning work in the major in earnest. Be sure to look over the information in the Undergraduate Catalog and on department websites as you sketch out a plan for the coming quarters…even if that plan changes every couple of months!
• Get to know your professors. Students who make the effort to meet their profs are by far the happiest – and most successful – at Northwestern. Do you have questions about a lecture topic? Has one of your classes made you consider majoring in a particular field or pursuing a particular career? Who better to ask for advice than the person who piqued your interest?
• Start or join a study group. It’s both easier and more enjoyable to master concepts when you think them through with others. (Freshmen taking science courses should consider enrolling in the Gateway Science Workshop Program.)
• Develop your skills as a writer. The rewards for effective writing are enormous; the more effort you put into your writing, the more you’ll get out of your coursework, no matter what your major. Strong writing will also make you attractive to potential employers down the road. The Writing Program is a good place to find out about resources to help improve your writing.
• Get involved! Many NU students say that they’ve learned as much or more from one another and from extracurricular activities as they do in the classroom.