User Profile

herefordjohnson

Northern Illinois University '15
Majoring in Electrical and Electronics Engineering
Member since 2/18/2011

Academics at Northern Illinois University

C-

Average Depending on Your Major

Don't get my wrong the professors are amazing and truly care. I'm just a freshman (2nd semester) engineering student and I've noticed that most people find it hard to find a job afterwards, even those who have 3.5gpa+ and did clubs, job fairs and what not. NIU doesn't really have a lot of big companies recruiting from it. There are a lot of unknown private companies, and most engineers seem to go straight to John Deer or Catapillar but that's about it. A lot of business majors go to Kholes, or Sears. You really get what you pay for I guess. Go to an average school and average companies recruit from it. Nothing wrong with those companies, but the majority of grads go to these companies from what I've noticed. I want something more.

Back to the academics. Gen eds are a joke. What kills Northern is it's chance program. It caused a huge flood of inner city kids from Chicago who didn't do well in HS in the University. Thus we have a "ghetto" reputation. As a result a lot of classes are dumb'd down a lot, and you won't feel challenged here at all, unless you choose a difficult major.

What Northern should have done was let the kids from the inner city go through a 10month program at a junior college before throwing them into a university, and instead of lower the universities academics for them, they should've brought those kids up to their level.

It boils down to this. If an employer had two resume's on his desk, both applicants had the same gpa, and qualifications and one was from NIU and the other from ISU or UofI, NIU would get thrown away.

which is why i'm transferring

Jan 22, 2012

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Parking at Northern Illinois University

D+

Do Not Bring a Car

You'll have no where to park except the weekends when everyone leaves.

Jan 22, 2012

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Overall Experience at Northern Illinois University

C-

Choose Somewhere Else If You Can

NIU has potential to be a great University, however it relies on the funding of the chance program so much it doesn't look like they'll get there anytime soon.

I've always been ashamed to show any family or friends my campus and dorm. They all tell me how ghetto, dirty, and average it looks (in a nice way of course).

There's nothing to do here, the night life on campus is non-existent. The student run clubs are mostly average and have a high-school feel. Since I've been here, I haven't experienced anything where I've been like "wow, now this feels like college." Overall, this place for the most part feels like a big high school.

The professors truly do care and are amazing, however, there are a lot that aren't. A lot of foreign professors are difficult to understand and speak in low voices, and overall just aren't helpful.

Some professors are strictly do research, and are more concerned about their research than helping or teaching their students.

Some of our classes move at a slower pace than the surrounding junior colleges.

If I could do it all over, I would've just went to my nearby junior college for a year, saved up some money and transferred somewhere else. Rarely are people proud to say that they attend NIU.

Like I said, this place has potential, a lot of the ghetto kids really put a damper on this place. Not saying it's their fault, I'm just saying a D-1 university shouldn't let kids who are unprepared for academia into a school without a prep program.

A lot end up failing their entire first semester here.

Overall, you're better off going to a junior college and transferring somewhere else. Little opportunity for jobs unless you really want to stick around in IL and the surrounding farm area of Dekalb

Jan 22, 2012

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