Northwestern University Top Questions

Northwestern is not as liberal as we portray ourselves to be. There is hardly any student activism and segregation is a big problem. Northwestern as the ivy league of the midwest is a pretty fair assessment. Many students come from a wealthy background but not the majority.

Yeah.

Although I would definitely say this isn't a party school, I've never been bored here. I think what's great about Northwestern is that, though it's a small school, almost everyone finds their niche and interests within it. If you like to be social, it's pretty easy to find something to do on any night of the week.

For the first one- only during the day. And on weekdays. For the second one- depends on who you're talking to.

In some ways, they are. Northwestern caters mainly to economics students when it comes to careers, and the theater population is definitely huge. But we actually aren't nerds at all - I go out just as much as friends at state schools, and because we go out in Chicago, the experience is definitely heightened. The money stereotype is harder to pinpoint as accurate or not - there is not a ton of variation among my friends, for example, most are fairly wealthy, with the exception of a few.

Some more-so than others. For the most part, every kid you meet here is intelligent. Whether they let on, or act otherwise, they are at least fairly intelligent and academically motivated. There are absolutely a ton of Jews, Asians, and rich spoiled kids, but the student body is diverse enough so that you get a pretty good mix of kids. Also, despite the inherent social awkwardness of about 90{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} of the student body, a small sect of the fraternity and sorority scenes are similar to a toned down version of a state school greek social scene. They drink, go out, smoke, skip class, but all on a smaller scale, and while each of them still subconsciously worries about succeeding.

NO! Before I moved in, I would complain to my friends from high school about Northwestern's reputation for being a non social (no parties/bad parties) university. It is not true! I enjoy the social life at NU. There are plenty of parties and they are more tame than state school parties.

for the most part, yes

To an extent, but they are really just generalizations

I feel like there is some fragment of accuracy to these stereotypes, as with all stereotypes. But at the same time a lot isn't really true. I am from CA and this was my dream school, I didn't apply to any Ivy Leagues. Also, although the social scene here may be smaller than at some other schools, those of us that do go out love to party and there is never a lack of things to do. I think we may even party harder than most schools because we work so hard that we want to let loose and party really hard. I could easily find a party/bar any night of the week. Also there ARE actually hot, hip people here. Not everyone is Midwestern (no offense, my stereotype is that Midwesterns are ugly and unhip). And people do have sex!!