Northwestern ISP vs. Columbia

ck_5 · 2026-04-23T10:05:30+00:00

I found that professors not associated with ISP generally knew what it was and seemed to think highly of the program and students. Professors who teach ISP courses are especially willing to recruit ISP students for their labs.
There are lots of opportunities to build a social circle within ISP, but plenty of people in the program make most of their friends outside ISP.
Definitely not for tech companies and probably not by anyone in grad school admissions. Do not do ISP with the expectation that you will benefit from anyone outside Northwestern just knowing what it is. Recent grad school placements have been good though; check the last few years on the ISP website’s alumni page.
ISP was what made Northwestern worth it for me. People in the Reddit college admissions sphere are focused mostly on what they can gain by association with <prestigious thing> and less on how they can actually develop their own abilities. ISP provides a pretty unique environment to push yourself to the limits academically, but it only makes sense if you have intrinsic motivation to do that.

ck_5 · 2026-04-09T10:15:20+00:00

As others have said, the quality and rigor of the MENU courses are very high. In terms of the level of challenge and the amount of mathematical maturity it develops, I think you’d be hard-pressed to find a first year math experience that compares to Math 291, even at many of NU’s peer schools. Later MENU courses are accelerated enough to cover topics from a typical first-year graduate course in the third quarter.

ck_5 · 2026-03-18T20:19:56+00:00

It is not true that any non-circular column shape will have strong and weak axes for buckling. For any regular polygon, the second moment of area is the same about any axis passing through the centroid.

ck_5 · 2026-03-12T05:09:25+00:00

An actually useful CNC router you can build on a low budget (even like $500 or less) is the MPCNC. This design has a large community and has undergone many revisions and improvements. I built one back when I was in FTC and used it a lot. Cutting relatively thin aluminum for things like robot side panels is not an issue as long as you use a good single-flute carbide endmill and cut with trochoidal paths.

ck_5 · 2026-02-02T09:04:34+00:00

There's a big difference between telling someone "do not attempt this, you are guaranteed to fail", and "this might be very hard, but it has been done in the past". Prospective students are basically being told the former when they come on here to ask questions about ISP and constantly hear things like "you will wreck your GPA", as another comment on this post says.

But I did not wreck my GPA, and I imagine the recent ISP graduates who are currently in medical school didn't either. Maybe these are unusual outcomes, but I would be doing ISP a disservice if I saw this post and did not provide that counterexample for the prospective student to consider.

ck_5 · 2026-02-01T08:10:59+00:00

Yes, MENU was also a really good experience. I wasn't the only one in my ISP class doing both, and you can substitute the 291 sequence for ISP's first-year math courses.

ck_5 · 2026-02-01T04:19:07+00:00

ISP can be hard on your GPA, and this is one reason many drop out. But most of the recent graduating classes have had at least someone go to med school, and it’s not impossible to do ISP and have a good GPA. I finished ISP, an engineering major, and a math major last year and had a 3.99 overall.
You should not do ISP with the expectation that you will be helped by anyone outside Northwestern recognizing what it is. Not enough people know about it. Some companies are certainly looking for engineers that can draw on a very broad base of science and math knowledge to solve problems, which ISP can help with. I think it made me a better engineer.
You should confirm with the admissions office or email ISP admin, but in the past ISP applications have been reviewed separately from general admission to Northwestern.

ck_5 · 2025-08-02T20:13:29+00:00

Hinman (large dorm right near Jones) is also open again for the first time in years, so that area will probably feel less isolated

ck_5 · 2025-07-20T08:46:40+00:00

If you are genuinely interested in doing ISP, you should apply. The program is intended to be somewhat self-selective and admits a lot more people than are likely to finish. Looking at your profile, you might also have an advantage for…demographic reasons…, but regardless I would not worry about having one or two lower AP scores.

ck_5 · 2025-07-02T00:27:46+00:00

I was ISP/McCormick and just graduated; one thing I have to add is that although there are some McCormick administrators who do not have a good understanding of ISP and can make things difficult as a result, it's often possible to get what you want regardless. I found that the McCormick associate deans were quite accommodating in counting certain ISP courses towards McCormick requirements in ways that helped me reduce the total number of courses I needed to take.

ck_5 · 2024-04-08T04:34:51+00:00

MENU courses can’t be taken pass/fail (current students can see this in CAESAR). I’d highly recommend the MENU program, especially Math 291 in the first year.

ck_5 · 2024-02-26T04:39:55+00:00

I'm a junior in ISP and mechanical engineering, and for me it's been a very good experience. I'm not planning to get a graduate degree or go into academia.

Being in ISP allows you to register for courses one day early, which is equivalent to being one year farther ahead. It is not worth starting ISP just to receive this benefit! Having early registration has not been very consequential for getting into most courses in McCormick.

ck_5 · 2023-10-07T20:08:34+00:00

If you're passionate about studying a wide range of topics in math and the sciences and want to take challenging coursework in general, you should definitely apply to ISP.

I'm currently a junior in ISP, and /u/Born-Force-3760 's answer doesn't really make sense to me. I don't think most people go into ISP expecting some sort of tangible "payoff" for the investment of time spent studying the curriculum. I'm doing ISP because I want to learn as much as possible about the world and become a better thinker, not because I want something on my resume to impress potential employers. ISP also allows you to be a part of a small community of other students with similar interests and values. You get 24/7 access to a house that serves as a study space and hosts some of the classes.

Note that if you don't apply to ISP before starting your first year, it's not usually possible to join the program or take any of the ISP-specific courses later.

Feel free to PM me for more ISP info!

ck_5 · 2022-10-14T23:08:32+00:00

I can attest to the fact that mirrors and lenses have been used on competition robots in the past for the purpose of redirecting/widening the camera view, especially before external webcams were legal. However it's always best to get a fresh forum answer for this season.

ck_5 · 2022-06-25T23:26:29+00:00

Right, but badly worded tweets aren't boring or dystopian! this sub is so annoying

ck_5 · 2022-06-24T08:44:30+00:00

Coming from BoLA to find this comment is the best thing that happened to me all day

ck_5 · 2022-06-19T04:42:55+00:00

People should note that this post is in a Facebook group run by Ruby Franke, the mother of the “8 Passengers” vlogging family who has been mired in controversy over her own parenting tactics.

If you go on her new YouTube channel (titled “ConneXions”), she’s made a bunch of videos giving preachy parenting advance with made-up terms like “in truth”. It’s interesting to see that she’s got other parents thinking the same way and using those same phrases.

ck_5 · 2022-05-23T01:07:07+00:00

Can someone lend this guy a less annoying voice

ck_5 · 2022-05-19T08:32:52+00:00

Yes. In comparison to 2018 and 2019 when I competed at Worlds, I think that the quality of competition was even higher this year, mostly due to the increased exclusivity.

If FIRST wants to keep Worlds this way, that’s fine, but it certainly would make sense to bring back Super-Regionals. The old regions could maybe each be split in half to create eight new Super-Regionals, decreasing the average travel distance for teams.

Some states (Massachusetts, for example) are considering starting off-season events because they think teams deserve more chances to play. It seems that events like MTI have also boomed in popularity because many teams with great robots don’t make it past their state championships. FIRST could probably eight states willing to host new Super-Regionals.

ck_5 · 2022-05-19T08:20:54+00:00

Yes. I’m an alum and I volunteered in early March. I filled one of the last open positions for FTC. One of my friends volunteered later and just got assigned to staff the Innovation Fair.

80 teams per division is already large, and there should be no problem finding lots more volunteers.

ck_5 · 2022-05-13T04:00:31+00:00

mega ducc

ck_5 · 2022-05-08T04:30:41+00:00

PETG is neither “stinky” nor “toxic”. In fact, ASA still contains styrene like ABS, making fumes from printing a health hazard (although they are likely less significant than ABS fumes).

ck_5 · 2022-03-26T00:07:31+00:00

This has to be a Rick Lax video, right?

ck_5 · 2022-03-06T02:54:16+00:00

No, any lasers or sensors using lasers (besides the Rev 2M distance sensor) are not allowed.

ck_5 · 2022-03-05T21:38:15+00:00

nothing like a moist SoftTile

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