helloerica

I understand how much it sucks that your friend is unable to find employment, but right now is one of the crappiest times for people to even keep jobs, much less find them. For example, teaching has always been thought of as one of the most stable professions. In my school district alone,around 325 teachers have been pink slipped, and over seventy have already been told that their job is definitely lost. Some of these teachers that I know personally have been with the district for five years or more. In this horrible economic time, it is completely understandable that someone just graduating would have a hard time finding a job, as almost noone is hiring and most companies are actually firing, especially in the financial sector, which is not doing so hot.

Sam Lee

Spotlight Online 2009

Top Majors Percent of students applying who have landed a job
1. Accounting 38%
2. Engineering 23
3. Business Management 22
4. Computer Science 22
5. Health Sciences 22

amaze4

Most would observe my accomplishments at Northwestern this past year and think that I have nothing to complain about. Little do they know, my life here is unfulfilling and I am desperately struggling to get out. I have joined a "top" sorority, become invovled in a variety of organizations, attended lectures and concerts, engaged in trysts with the opposite sex (though most guys here are self-righteous and below the standards of normality: ladies, adjust your hot-guy goggles), attended those infamous but tragically lame frat "parties," and wholeheartedly set out to reap the benefits of every opportunity NU has to offer. While this school may be for the atypical nerds who are perfectly content abstaining from the experiences of traditional college lstudents, then so be it, but I can't stand it here. WaryWildcat, wherever you are, you make a solid argument and I respect your decision to disclose the idiosyncracies of this place.

Some ignorant person made a post about simply transferring. Well honey, it aint that easy. As mentioned before, GPA's comfortably rest in the suckiness realm regardless of one's efforts....here's something I wrote on my transfer applications called "Appendage to Bad Grade:" "It seems a rite of passage to encounter a pompous educator saturated in his own clout and impervious to a student's efforts to do all in her power to understand the obscure material. When opportunities for extra credit remain dismal and nonexistent, countless review sessions wither my clogged brain, and meetings with the ruthless professor end in tears and defeat, I grudgingly accept the blaring "D" on my report card.The subject itself is insignificant in the broad scheme, but it is the reminder of self that I have gleaned from the course; an experience that impressed upon the moral of humility and the reality that GPA really isn't everything, but it is the gray areas between the letter grades that disclose revelations and lessons of the student."

It's honestly devastating having to go through the entire application process again...And its increasingly difficult to get financial aid as a transfer. My family thinks I'm crazy to consider leaving such a prestigious school but I tell them they can take my 2.5 GPA and have fun with all the splendid geeks who roam the campus while attending lousy classes and anxiously awaiting graduation day just so they can frame a piece of paper that boasts 4 years of misery for a name brand. Another thing...Unlike most people here, I had fun in h.s. and was not sheltered like so many ppl were...They then come here with all their insecurities boiling in a cauldron of awkwardness, discover tequila and literally go off the deep end with their incessant need to "pre-game." They take the fun out of socializing because they are literally unable to normally interact without a few shots of Cuervo. I wish someone had told me about the backward culture of this place before I took the plundge and signed my youth away.
Here's more of what I wrote on my application...it was a meditative excericise to vent my thoughts as well....

"Northwestern University had been dream school since I was a naïve seventh grader, when it became the manifestation of success. Throughout the years, the thought of one day becoming a member of the institution's community encouraged me rack up my AP credits and immerse my mind in SAT prep books; it was the land of Oz. In rare instances, however, dreams, once fulfilled, divulge harsh, unexpected realities that lurked beneath the glamorous surface of a seemingly untainted aspiration. The purity and optimism of my withstanding "dream" was depleted by disappointment and exposure to reality. The institution is undoubtedly prestigious and idyllic for some students, but I quickly realized that these fleeting college years are too precious to be spent wishing I was elsewhere.

"I entered the Medill School of Journalism with the intention of pursuing Broadcast Journalism, and although this profession remains appealing, Medill does not provide adequate training for my interests. The school is simply confused and ravenously searching for a remedy for its ailing approach to an industry that is treading in the murky waters of a transitioning society, technological advancements, and economic evolution. It is struggling to restructure and devise a plan that trains its students not for careers in journalism, but for whatever else will make them marketable in a competitive work-force. My 21st Century Multimedia course never ceased to impound into my impressionable brain the idea that journalism was squandering towards demise. Tragic and depressing as this is, I was not there for print journalism. Physical newspapers will eventually become obsolete as media shifts its attention towards online communities, but there will always be people who prefer to have their news regurgitated by anchors. My "Death of Journalism 101" course bludgeoned my lifelong goal.

"I am unsatisfied with haughty professors who are often too concerned with their own reputations to consider students' needs or efforts, students who are unable to grapple with competition, thus they feel threatened and inhibited to engage in social environments, the campus that is a bubble in a sleepy town (though Chicago is an escape, it is at times inaccessible due to demanding schedules), the feeling that I am confined to textbooks and a common thread of self-inflicted isolation that students instigate for their studies, and the cringing reminder that I am paying a disgustingly large amount of money to reside at an unstimulating, insipid and unfulfilling place that doesn't secure my happiness or desire to experience and see (the weather is another saga)."

Think twice before you come to NU and really do youre research because it's not for everyone!

yummymango

^I really love NU but now I'm scared after reading some of the posts. Is it really... that disappointing and depressing? =/ I already committed to NU... hmm, well, I will make the most out of my years there. =]

arbiter213

You come across as dumb and self-important. My GPA, along with those of all my friends (whose social lives are quite vibrant) are quite fine.

I can't repudiate your experiences, as I'm sure they could be honest. But suffice to say that I think it can be safely asserted that your experiences are in the minority.

Students, take this all with a grain of salt. There are malcontents everywhere.

Sam Lee

Unless things have changed drastically in the past few years, GPA=2.5 is not the norm for Medill which was "embarrassed" several years ago when a report showed its massive grade inflation. Faculty members found themsevles defending their grading policy by saying something lame like "students are great and they deserve good grades"...

amaze4

Arbiter213, you come across as abnormally sensitive to others' posts and are a little quick to judge my intellect based on my unfortunate accounts. Obviously I am one person but I also speak on behalf of the slew of students who are unhappy with NU but can't bring themselves to endure another college transition that may not guarantee satiety. I'm pretty sure prospective students who read this thread are smart enough to discern the benefits and downfalls of the school and not base their decisions on a few peoples' arguments. Assuming NU has admitted independent-minded individuals, people obviously understand that experiences differ for everyone. So don't embark on a self-righteous quest to demean people who are trying to contribute their own notions. Threads are meant for dissent and contradictions, that's the only way people can get a cross-section of opinions. Congrats for having a good experience, and a good GPA on top of that. You'll get far in life especially b/c GPA evidently determines the quality and intelligence of a person. Relax and let people ingest these posts as they will. In the meantime, hold your tongue, get off your high horse and don't advertise yourself as yet another typical, unrightfully cocky person like so many others who litter this campus.

iowejf

there aren't too many times where i feel the need to defend northwestern, because believe me, there are many things about this place that really upset me. however, i must say that it seems that warywildcat is really grasping at straws in an effort to, i'm not sure why, make northwestern seem totally unappealing. i'll address each point it turn. in the interest of full disclosure, i will say that i am only a freshman and have relatively limited experience to draw upon compared to other respondents. as far as teachers not caring about teaching, i have had a somewhat pleasantly different experience than warywildcat. my freshman advisor/seminar teacher was awesome, very engaged in our class and has been proactive in staying in touch with our group the entire year. even though she is the director of a subdepartment here, she found time to even organize a field trip for our seminar where we watched events associated with things we were studying in class as they actually happened. my first quarter language course (101-1, the lowest of the low) was taught by the director of the department, who was one of the most pleasant and congenial teachers i have had here despite teaching people that had no idea what they were doing. she still remembers me by name months later and we still converse when we run into each other. even though the class has been taught by a graduate student for the subsequent two quarters, the level of commitment has increased. for reasons that i could never understand, the guy is almost annoyingly proactive in scheduling extra meetings if we have struggled on a test, etc. i have had a couple of professors that just sucked at their job, and one that seemed apathetic but was at the same time at least professional. as far as gpa goes, as soon as conjecture about what grad school adcoms care about comes into the equation, i do not place any stock in the validity of subsequent points. warywildcat may know more than me in that department, but i certainly wouldn't base my school choice on it if i were you.

it's inarguable that nu is not the first choice of many. it was not my first choice, and i won't lie that i was disappointed after admissions came back. has that made me judgmental? no. if anything, it has made me apathetic, and that is both what i regret and what i see among my classmates. nu is full of very smart, qualified people that were part of the very large numbers that were arbitrarily cut by the HYPSs of the world. it makes coming to nu kind of a letdown, no doubt. but i think the main result is diminished aspirations. nu is very preprofessional and a lot of the high intellectual aspirations of the students go by the wayside with the disappointment of the admissions process not going well. is this nu's fault? not at all. it's just the nature of admissions, and this effect will be seen among ivy rejects no matter where they end up. i went from lofty intellectual ambitions and contemplation of a career in academia to, well, a lack of motivation. i was very dedicated in high school, as were most, and coming here after a let down just made me wonder if it was all worth it. i am still doing well, but the motivation to learn is not the same as it was. in my experience, it is the same way for most and it is palpable and at times oppressive. however, i have also loosened up and am having a lot of fun here. i'm not sure how much sense that made, but take it for what you will. plus, i am certain that this atmosphere will begin to change because we are admitting better classes every year and the school's prestige is growing, so nu will likely start to move up on people's choice ladder.

this leads me to my major problem with warywildcat that makes me wonder what his motivation is. the citation of collegeacb posts as proof of this "judgmental" nature is ridiculous and can be easily explained. i had never looked at a gossip site until a few months ago. back then, juicycampus was the big show in town. every school had a very active board, from state schools to ivy league. the posts were just as acerbic everywhere. on stanford's board there were even frequent posts calling a particular urm stupid and saying that she only got in because of her status. if that is not judgmental, i don't know what is. when juicycampus shut down and the new site came up, many schools' gossipers did not make the switch because they did not know about the new site. however, at nu, the switch was publicized in the daily in a piece on gossip sites and happened to coincide with a prominent greek weekend on campus. it is no surprise that nu's board then became more active than other schools'. also, a prominent and healthy greek scene, like the one here in which wearywildcat and i participate, feeds sites like this. on top of all this, no one can say who posts on collegeacb, or even if all the posts are made by that gay dude that wrote rumorroyalty's ghost. citing the number of pages is ridiculous and does not prove anything.

i don't know about the sexual assault thing. assuming wearywildcat is speaking objectively, and his acrimony suggests his objectivity is debatable, then it is indeed a deplorable situation.

i do also have some beefs with nu, some major, others just frustrating aspects of student life:

the dorms and meal plans suck. my parents and i were speechless when we saw how small my room was on move-in day, and the place feels like a tomb. when i found out i had one of the biggest rooms in my dorm, my dad asked if the other people were living in squalor. you can read about the meal plan issues in myriad places, but, in short, you wind up paying about a thousand extra bucks more than if you were to pay with cash every time you went to the dining hall. on top of that, they are not very flexible and the best dining hall food pales in comparison to what is in evanston and chicago. the university solves the problem of their meal plans being a horrible investment by forcing virtually everyone in any type of housing to by one. pretty much everyone that works in my dorm's dining hall is a jerk. that's relatively minor but it makes overpaying for mediocre food that much more prominent when you have to deal with dining hall employees giving you the stink eye even when you go out of your way to be congenial with them.

i'm getting tired of this so i'll be brief with my last few. if you would like me to elaborate just tell me.

there is a huge divide between north and south campus, both physically and culturally. it is annoying on both accounts.

the university uses chicago as a carrot to attract students but does little to nothing to make it accessible to us. it does not even match the effort of every other chicago area undergrad institution, and is even now talking about scaling back the efforts it does make.

the dean of students is crazy. what is seemingly hyperbole is really accurate.

in all, i am happy with where i am. would i have been happier somewhere else? i don't know. the undergrad experience would have likely been very different, but in the end, it's whatever.

skigrl2313

iowejf - what dorm do you live in?

sexycani

It angers me that #3 regarding sexual assault is seldom discussed. I know that the thread got off the tangent, but really? I guess this kind of attitude is what OP's friend experienced when she tried to seek justice.

arbiter213

I don't think anyone besides the OP claims to have any knowledge concerning it. I have a close friend on SAHAS (Sexual Assault Hearing and Appeals System), and he says the total number of cases brought before it in recent memory was something like 8.

I would just say this: wary obviously has some axe to grind, and it's at the very least a second hand account of a friend, meaning at least 2 sources of bias, if not 3. So I would perhaps take that with a grain of salt unless you can find another source of similar complaints.

I was under the impression that despite standard under-reporting, NU actually has a particularly low incidence of sexual assault, as far as anyone can actually know anyway.

iowejf

1835 Hinman. If I could do it over, there is no way it would have been in my top 10. It is not close to anything except the beach and journalism classes, which have no bearing on my life whatsoever. It's not even that close to downtown Evanston. So unless you are a really lazy journalist then I wouldn't recommend living here. It's an 8-10 minute walk from everything that matters at NU.

Poik

What's the difference between north and south campuses? just curious

glido

I'm bettin' you'd be an unhappy person wherever you went. "Oh my God, the glass is half empty -- nobody should ever apply to NU again!!!"

Grow up.

juniorjunior

As an NU student who has just finished his junior year, I feel compelled to throw in my two cents. My goal is not to persuade anyone to accept or reject admission but rather to present my own experience for consideration.

It's true that many students at NU, like arbiter, are satisfied with it. But just as many, like the OP, amaze4, and myself, are not. Here are big factors which no one has yet mentioned:

1) NU is comprised of six undergraduate schools:

Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences
Bienen School of Music
McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
School of Communication (which includes NU substantial theatre dept.)
School of Education and Social Policy (SESP)
Medill School of Journalism

Your undergraduate experience, including your overall satisfaction, will be heavily, HEAVILY dependent upon which school you choose to matriculate. As someone who was in SESP for one year and in WCAS for two, I can tell you that the experiences, advising, opportunities, expectations, peers, and day-to-day schedules are worlds apart. Having friends from each school confirms this; the fact that we all attend the same university often seems circumstantial compared to these other differences.

2) That being said, the students at NU who tend to be the most satisfied with the university are those who came to pursue a very specific degree in a specialized, comparatively rare program and thus belong to either the School of Music, School of Communication, SESP, or Medill. This makes sense: When deciding among national programs during their college search, not only was their choice of schools more limited than those wishing to pursue liberal arts or engineering, but their programs here are tailored directly to their goals. Thus, they are more content to be here and have fewer hypothetical greener pastures they could have pursued. These programs also tend to be smaller, allowing for stellar advising, smaller peer groups with people of similar interests, and a closer proximity to professors which one does not generally find in Weinberg or McCormick.

3) Additionally, I've noticed that the students who seem satisfied with NU are those who are NU students *first* and people *second*, by which I mean that those who enjoy being part of the university system and who strictly adhere to its standards of success and entertainment tend to enjoy the university immensely. On the other hand, those who attempt to fit the university's resources and opportunities into their otherwise established lives tend to become disillusioned with the place fairly quickly. This is the opposite of what I experience at, say, NYU or Berkeley, where those who attend seem to be people first and university students second and had complete lives outside of the university.

4) Socially speaking, I must heartily agree with the OP. Northwestern students are, in my experience, exceptionally catty and gossip-obsessed. (Good luck attempting to develop a romantic relationship without it being dramatized and discussed at great length.) I'm not sure what to blame for this predisposition to immature judgements and insecurity, but it is certainly worse here than at other universities where I have siblings/cousins/friends. However, I must again stress that those who belong to smaller academic programs in which their extracurriculars neatly tie together with their studies tend to avoid this with the close circle of friends they tend to create.

In conclusion, it is perhaps unsurprising that those who are happiest here are the same who feel as though they are getting something at NU which they could not get anywhere else, whether it be a heavy Greek scene, a large theatre program, a respected music school, etc. I have no other agenda than providing my honest observations - I wish someone had done as much for me.