As Bienen freshman Patrick Hockberger prepared for college last year as a high school senior, he applied to a scant four schools. Northwestern was his top choice, the school where his father, Feinberg Prof. Philip Hockberger, had worked since 1987.
“The idea was that he would be at the med school, so he wouldn’t be around all the time,” Patrick Hockberger said.
Unbeknownst to him at the time, Hockberger’s father would be taking on a new position as director of core facilities in the Office of Research, which Patrick Hockberger said means his father now spends two days a week in an Evanston building not too far from his room in Willard Residential College.
This sets up a quandary for Patrick Hockbergerand other students like him: College is often the first extended time period away from home, yet a parent is often close by.
“I’ve never seen him just walking around or anything,” he said. “I see him from time to time. My dad is pretty understanding that I’m at college and I want to be on my own and do my own thing.”
Wendi Gu, whose father Prof. Licheng Gu is director of the Program of African and Asian Languages, said she came to NU partly because her father works at the school.
“It’s interesting because I know that I can see my father on campus everywhere, but it also has its conveniences,” the Weinberg freshman said. “I don’t have the same independence of some college students, but I can go home at any time.”
Children of NU employees may receive tuition breaks depending on how long parents have worked at the school. According to the University’s Human Resources website, an employee with at least 12 years time served may receive a benefit of 90 percent of tuition, with employees with less time receiving a lesser percentage.
Still, Philip Hockberger said it isn’t guaranteed professors’ children will be accepted to NU.”It was always my impression that it would be difficult for the kids to get into Northwestern,” said Philip Hockberger, whose daughter Heidi Hockberger also goes to NU. “It’s not something that’s discussed very much.”
Even without an admissions advantage, it’s no surprise professors’ children do well in school, Philip Hockberger said. His son said he thought his parents wanted it to seem like he was expected to get into NU, and the idea was to aim high.
“It’s no different whether your mom is a kindergarten teacher or a professor at a college, education is very important,” he said. “That does not necessarily mean that they’ll do well in life.”
Of course, there’s the awkward possibility of taking a class taught by a parent. Patrick Hockberger doesn’t have to worry much because he said he doesn’t plan to attend medical school, but it might not be so easy to avoid for Wendi Gu.
“It’s like a pretty obvious conflict of interests, but at the same time he’s the only person that teaches high-level Chinese,” she said. “I will eventually end up taking year four Chinese, so that might be a problem.”
Patrick Hockberger said a nicety of having home so close, in Aurora, is his parents can attend some of his concerts. But he said he doesn’t usually raise the fact his father is a professor.
“The only thing that can be annoying is that sometimes I’m hesitant to tell people because maybe they’ll think, ‘You only got in because your dad works here,'” he said. “It’s not a big deal, but I think a couple people have made me not want to bring it up right away.”[email protected]
