The Summer Academic Workshop (SAW) is an intensive two-week academic and orientation program offered annually to approximately 45 first year students. SAW has been offered yearly since 1966. The specific academic and social objectives of SAW have changed over the years to reflect the changing backgrounds and needs of first-year students. The overall program goals have always been to facilitate social networking and academic stability, and to ease the transition of program participants into their first year at Northwestern. Currently, the academic focus is on writing, particularly critical analysis and research.

The co-directors of SAW are a faculty member who plans the academic portion and a staff member from Student Affairs who coordinates the out-of-class portions. Additional staff members are drawn from professional academic and student affairs staff, and undergraduate students, usually former SAW participants-who serve as live-in counselors.

The SAW staff works with the Office of Undergraduate Admissions to select SAW invitees. SAW participants are selected from freshmen entering all of Northwestern’s undergraduate schools except the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, which runs its own summer orientation program.

SAW is held in the two weeks just prior to Freshman Move-In Day; participants are housed in a university residence and eat at a university dining facility. There is no cost to SAW participants; families are expected to pay for travel from home to Northwestern, however, and to provide modest spending money to their daughter/son.