Northwestern University Top Questions

That we're nerdy, smart, and don't go out that often.

Nerds, stuck up,

Northwestern is torn. It considered a nerd school and a party school. Best of both worlds!

really smart, either you go out a lot or you don't go out at all, if you're an athlete then you're not that smart

That they are huge dorks and don't know how to party.

Nerdy, below-average attractiveness, smart, snow, theater, quarter system, Jewish

Greek life, theaterh

In my home town you're lucky if someone's even heard of Northwestern. And if they have, all they know about it is that it's a "smart" school. Most of the stereotypes I know of have been spread by actual Northwestern students, the Purple Book, or blurbs from the internet. I've heard things like Ivy League of the Midwest, slightly better social life than U of C, a bunch of kids who walk around in other Ivy League school sweatshirts or North Face jackets and ipod headphones on walking with their heads down and don't say hi to many people.

Because I knew little about Northwestern before my freshman year, I wasn't exposed to many stereotypes about its students prior to attending. Since being here, however, I have encountered many (and sometimes contradicting) stereotypes. The first, of course, is that Northwestern students are anti-social nerds. I think this stereotype accompanies students at any top academic institution. Moreover, there is some feeling that all students at Northwestern were Ivy-League rejects and thus their hearts were not set on coming here. Finally, Northwestern students are often thought of as rich and apathetic.

Northwestern is known to be a hard school academically, pathetic school athletically, and full of rich, smart kids who don't know how to throw a decent party.