Northwestern University of Qatar is the second campus of Northwestern University, which is located in Evanston, Chicago. NU-Q is a part of the system called Education City of Qatar - a student city with eight different universities.

Application Process & Scholarship

I decided to study at Northwestern because I was awarded a full merit scholarship and also because of the possibility of pursuing a major in communication. The advantage of the communication major is that it is a very broad field of study and, thus, you can apply the knowledge you gain in any domain, from public relations to filmmaking. In addition, the university offers a major in Journalism and minors in Strategic Communications, Film and Design, Media and Politics, Middle East Studies, and Africana Studies.

Besides Northwestern Qatar, I applied to US universities and was admitted to some top 30 universities. The application process to US universities and NU-Q was almost the same because you use CommonApp for that. I should mention that in CommonApp, there are two different sections - one for the main campus from Evanston and another one for the Qatar campus. When you search for the name of the university on the website, you should choose whether you want to apply to Northwestern from the US or Qatar. The application process for both these universities is the same. However, the only difference was the financial aid portal. NU-Q has a separate portal, called Qatar Foundation. Each applicant is tested whether they can apply for the scholarship or not. There are two types of financial aid for international students. The first one is a loan from the Qatar Foundation, and the other one is a merit-based scholarship directly from the university, which I got. The difference between these two options is that the merit-based scholarship doesn't need to be paid back. But the loans are funded by the state of Qatar and you need to pay them back some percent of the amount that they give you. Therefore, after you graduate, you need to work two years in Qatar and a certain percentage of your salary would go back to the Qatar Foundation.

Stats and extracurriculars

At the time I was applying, my GPA was 4.0, my SAT score was 1370, and my IELTS score was 7.0. Regarding extracurricular activities, I think that I was doing almost everything. I did robotics, was a member of our national robotics team from Kyrgyzstan, and participated in the FIRST Global Challenge. Besides that, I was engaged in a charity fund in Kyrgyzstan, where I interned as a social media manager. I also had some work experience as an English teacher for middle school students. I was a founder of a summer camp where we taught different subjects to elementary and middle school students. Furthermore, I participated in MUNs and I achieved some honors there. I also had rewards from essay competitions and was a nominant for a governmental awards program in our country. I don't think I can say that one specific activity was more important than another, because the application review is holistic and each aspect matters.

Application essays

NU-Q required a ”Why us?” essay. To generate some ideas for it, I just went through Northwestern's website and looked for some programs that I wanted to apply for and wrote my motivation for doing so. In my personal statement, I connected my childhood to who I want to be in the future. Therefore, I advise you to be sincere and know what exactly you want to write about in this essay. Just try to be as genuine as you can.

Also, I would advise prospective applicants to NU-Q to submit a portfolio. Although it's not necessary, I believe that this would be very helpful. Even if you include something small, which in your opinion is not that significant, it would help you anyway. You should definitely try to do something by yourself and be proud of showing it to someone. The pieces of art included in the portfolio could be anything - video, photos, paintings, designs, or music. Any student can upload anything and the level of quality doesn't matter.

Majors in Communication and Journalism

At NU-Q, freshmen students don't have to declare their major right away. Instead, we have to declare our major only at the end of the first year. The two majors we have are Communication and Journalism. I would say that they are pretty interchangeable. Personally, I chose the Communication Major, as it's more flexible than Journalism. For journalism, certain types of courses are required. But for communication, you can choose whatever courses you want.

Since we don't declare our major from the very beginning, all students follow the same program. In the first semester of the first year, we had four courses, and three of them were required. The first course was Intro to Journalism and the second was called Media, Industry and Technology. The third course is English Writing and the fourth elective is up to your choice. Now, during the second semester, we follow a similar system. We still take the course Media, Industry and Technology, but it is now divided into two parts - filmmaking and journalism. This course is practical since the students have to make their own film and news package.

Regarding the academic workload at NU-Q, I wouldn't say that it's intense. Instead, I would say that our activities are more practical and, thus, fun because we get to work with equipment such as cameras, sound recording, and lighting.

Cross-registration at the universities from the Education City

One of the advantages of studying in the Education City of Qatar is the opportunity to take courses at other universities - a process called cross-registration. For instance, we can take classes at Carnegie Mellon University of Qatar, Virginia Commonwealth University, Georgetown University, and Texas A&M. Each of these universities focuses on one field. For example, VCU is the best option for design and Texas A&M is for engineering. These cross-courses are pretty helpful because we can explore something that is not related to our field of study.

Extracurriculars, programs, research and study abroad

One of the advantages of studying at NU-Q is that you can start working on campus from your freshman year in different departments. It is allowed to work 20 hours per week. Currently, I work in two places: the Admissions Department and Media Majlis, which makes themed exhibitions each year. The university holds various events such as TEDx Qatar, for which I was a part of the Press team. Recently, the students organized the MUN for high school students, for which I was the Head of Press. Northwestern provides a lot of grants for students’ different projects to complete during summer. These include grants for internships, research and language learning. Regarding study abroad programs, during the spring semester of junior year, students from the Communication Department can participate in an exchange program with the main campus from Chicago. At the same time, journalism students can do a JR (Journalism Residence), which is an opportunity to intern for half of one semester at a journalism company abroad.

We also have a lot of research programs, such as The Institute for Advanced Study, which comprises research connected to the Global South. The students have the opportunity to make their own projects such as research papers, documentary films, and other creative digital forms.

Adapting to the campus in Qatar

Before moving to Qatar, I thought that it would be hard for me to adapt because this is an Islamic country. I supposed that people here are closed, but, in reality, it's not like that at all. I am currently living on campus, in the Student Housing in the Education City of Qatar. Each university has its separate campus here and there is a tram which arrives at each destination. Additionally, there is a student center, where we have pretty much everything - a pharmacy, a grocery shop, a nail salon, a gym, sports courts for basketball and volleyball. There is a golf court and a horse riding academy on the territory of Education City as well. Usually, each university has its own sports club, and during a specific time of the year, all universities compete against each other.