Northwestern University Top Questions

Evanston is definitely one of the greatest assets about Northwestern. Though the suburb is a bit snooty, it has a large variety of fantastic ethnic restaurants and an excellent survey of stores that you don't have to travel to Chicago for. CVS and Whole Foods are the closest grocery stores because Jewel-Osco is a bit of a hike away, which can be a pain, but CVS has many of the typical student grocery items needed. The El is also a very convenient and close connection that can take you to Chicago in only about 30-45 minutes, depending on where you want to go. Most students tend not to take advantage of Chicago's proximity as often as they would like to because there are so many things to do on campus. There are always plays, a capella showings, dance group performances, or skit comedy acts occurring during any weekend of the year, and they are great for a weekend night event with friends. In addition, there are tons of student groups to get involved with, especially socially-active ones. Dance Marathon (DM) is probably the hugest event on campus, with hundreds of students participating in a 30-hour dance to philanthropically benefit a different organization each year. Nearly everyone on campus gets caught up in the excitement of helping out DM each year. The atmosphere of involved people is another one of the great things about Northwestern, although it does present a problem for many students in that they want to be involved in more things than they can be involved in. Though football games tend to be farely well-attended and well-tailgated, there seems to be a critical awareness of Northwestern's susceptibility to sports failures, which leads to a lack of school pride at athletic events. No one is ever exactly diehard about Northwestern sports, though there are a few very committed fans. When Northwestern plays well, the student body becomes much more fervent about its school's athletics. Additionally, no one attends as many basketball games as they do football games.

We are all slightly nerdy. live in kinda shitty weather, and then also go out together and get drunk, so I think it's a pretty interesting place to go to school. I'm only a sophomore but I know I'll look back on it and love it even though sometimes the homework and exams seem overwhelming.

northwestern's a cool place. students complain about lack of a good social life on campus and lack of school spirit. but i mean, who needs school spirit anyway? it'd be cool, but not necessary. we don't party like a state school, we just can't. but we can party like a medium sized private university, and that's still a decent party. northwestern's best attribute is its size and location. evanston is a good place to be. the campus is beautiful, and it's pretty isolated from the world around it. and, the downtown evanston area is a pretty nice college town. plus you're far enough from the city so its not overwhelming, but close enough that you can get there when/if you want. only thing that sucks is the weather.

The best thing about Northwestern is being around such smart, interesting, well-rounded people and having strong academic support and career opportunities and connections. There's not much I would change. Being on an athletic team for the first time in my life, I feel I have an in-between perspective of the relationship between athletes and non-athletes. I think non-athletes think athletes don't work hard and got in by virtue of their athletic talent. I've been guilty of such prejudices at times. I would strengthen non-athletes understandings of athletes. Having the quarter system and taking fewer classes than kids at other schools makes it hard to maintain continuity in areas I'm interested in, especially languages and theater. The school is a little larger than I'd like, but it feels much smaller when you discover the smaller communities within the larger community. Half the people I talk to are clueless as to where or what Northwestern is - they confuse it with a religious school called Northwestern College in Minnesota, much to my dismay! - while the other half are impressed. I think Northwestern is easily on a par with the Ivies, but because it's in the Midwest and doesn't have the Ivy name it doesn't command the same respect with the layman. I spend most of my time at the Patten Gymnasium. College town - yes, though I haven't spent much time exploring it because of fencing obligations; Chicago's also very close and people like spending a day there. The biggest recent controversy on campus was when the Medill dean used quotes from anonymous students in an article, and was accused of fabricating the quotes. This was mostly of concern to journalism majors, because we're taught to attribute quotes in an effort to be honest and transparent with our readers and audience. There is a lot of school pride. Most of the people who come here love it and are really happy they chose Northwestern. On the other hand, for Wildcat pride, the football team arrouses the most pride. Though we're a Big 10 school we're not known for our athletes, so other teams' accomplishments remain under the radar (such as fencing). Unusual about NU - the location gives us a small town environment with the opportunities a city like Chicago offers; the people are smart yet friendly and not full of themselves or competitive memorable experiences - traveling and competing with the fencing team; the residential college experience (ISRC!); braving the elements for Medill complaints - food (not as bad as they say), inconsistent wireless internet (my dorm is the only building in our area that doesn't have it), tuition

Northwestern is beautiful and personally, close to home so I love it. Academics really are great, as are resources. There is not a lot of guidance at times though, so you're a bit on your own. But, you can always find help when you need it. Evanston is a great college town. Size is good. Not a lot of hangouts if you live on north campus.

It's perfectly sized--not so big that you're just a number, and not so small that administrators know exactly how you caressed your girlfriend last weekend, or which hallucinogenic you did. When people hear that I went to Northwestern, they react in one of the following ways: many look very impressed, especially those from the Midwest or West Coast; others say something like "you must be smart;" however, when I return home back East, people often ask me how I liked going to school in Boston, (i.e. NorthEASTERN.) Northwestern's lack of name recognition back east, especially among the random run of society, is mildly depressing--that is, until you realize that the person who doesn't know about it is the garbageman. In other words, it ain't Harvard back here, but close enough. Evanston is a fine college town with excellent options for food and entertainment--it's the Midwest's version of Cambridge, MA, i.e. a small, cool city right next to a big, exciting city, and just a short subway ride away. There is a lot of school pride at Northwestern, but it's mostly academic because its sports teams suck, (except for like, girl's lacrosse, and I mean seriously, who cares about that?) The biggest complaint that I heard about Northwestern (from other students) was that the North side of the campus did not mingle with the South side of campus, and that each side had a different personality. The north was fratty and more like a traditional Big Ten school, whereas the south was artsy and more like, for example, Yale. This is absolutely true.

Northwestern, wow what can I say? BORING. Everyone reacts well when I say I go to Northwestern, like "oh, you must be really smart and hardworking" which is great, but I'd still like to have a little fun once and awhile. There is not much of a college town here and only about 6 acceptable reasonably priced places to eat around here which gets old really fast. The dining halls suck and the dorms are dirty. No one is really into sports because all of our teams suck and when you come for a tour they will stress how close we are to Chicago, but unless you like visiting the northside where there's not much going on, be sure to allow an hour for travel each way, unless you have a car.

I absolutely love Northwestern's campus. It's right on Lake Michigan, and it's so gorgeous. If I could change one thing, it would be the weather! It gets really cold during the winter, and winter lasts for a long time. It does make you appreciate spring more, though. I love the size of the school. There are about 8,000 undergraduates, so it's almost certainly bigger than your high school, but a lot of your professors will still know your name.

Lots of opportunities, whether they be social, academic, or extracurricular. I like how everyone is really involved. People are impressed when I tell them I go to Northwestern, but not super impressed. Evanston has everything you need, and if you can't find everything there you have Chicago. Biggest problem is the fact that all bars are 21 and up. School pride is there, but not over the top.

It's really in a lovely location. Apart from the weather, being in Evanston, so close to Chicago really opens a lot of doors, particularly for journalism students because you have such great resources out there. The number of students is nice. You feel like there are a lot of people, but you can stand out here and make yourself heard.