jchen3

juniorjunior, i bet you, the OP, and amaze had no friends in high school

arbiter213

juniorjunior's comments are certainly fair. I will say, however, that I don't know where he heard Medill students are more satisfied, or that McCormick students are dissatisfied. All the engineers I know are enormously satisfied, and most of the Medillians unhappy with the school to one degree or another.

I also don't really know where this relationship thing comes from. Maybe me and my friends are just incredibly lucky, but I can count at least 10 long term relationships amongst my friends (including several multi-year ones).

But NU's not some perfect wonderland, and juniorjunior's points aren't egregiously off base (though I don't really know whether I agree with them or not).

OldNUGuy

This thread is toxic!

There is a simple fact that is being missed here. Undergraduate life varies greatly student to student, and depending on your background, talents, and goals, NU might be a horrible place, or an Eden on Earth. I found my experience to be in the middle.

The statement that NU is full of Ivy rejects is simply untrue. I turned down three acceptances to Ivys to go to NU. That is because NU (at the time) fulfilled my needs to a greater extent (or so I thought). I am no defender of NU or McCormick (I majored in BME), but the toxic rantings of the people in this thread are incredible.

If you want to be spoon fed classwork, grades, and the delusion that life will be "easy" after graduating, go to Harvard, not NU. NU weeds out the weak VERY FAST. In my graduating class in BME, the people who were left were tried by fire, and there were not many of us left. More than 2/3 of the students dropped out over the four years I was there. I can make this comparison with Harvard because I completed some of my surgical training there so I have direct experience with the students on all levels: undergrad, medical students, etc..

If the concern is strictly getting the best grades to go to med/law/grad school, you are right, the system is structured to deflate grades- not inflate them. So you will work harder for your "A" at NU than you will at Harvard or Stanford. That is a fact. Now, if you don't really care about that, all the rantings mean nothing.

Anyway, the only lesson from this thread is that you need to understand that picking a college is somewhat of a crap shoot, and how you feel about your experience is more important than where you "are." If you hate your college and college experience (for whatever reason) you will have a very difficult time. You point of view has great power over you and your future during this unique time in your life. The only good thing about that is that you have the ability to change your point of view, and make further changes (transfer, take a year off, etc.) if necessary.

If you do not want to take responsibility for yourself, NU is a VERY inhospitable place. If you are the type that makes your own way, NU will serve you well.

InvisibleMan023

wow, this is a really informative thread.
OldNuGuy, Im planning to do BME too..should i go to NU?
I'm most definitely going to pursue either mba or med school. What is your experience of teachers as a BME? Would i be better off at University of Texas, a "public ivy" state school, for my gpa, job resources, etc.??

apersonwithaname

I am a senior at NU, and here are my 2 cents:

1. Academics vary a lot. Generally 300+ courses are very good (and this is what you really care about anyways), but it really depends. Professors at all research universities are hired solely for their research, but good researchers are often good teachers. Some classes are very easy some are really hard.

2. Do research with a professor. He/she will guide you into the best classes and mentor you throughout the experience. The benefits of this are immeasurable.

3. Social life is meh. Frats and sororities are huge here. I had many friends freshman year who stopped talking to me after they joined frats. I highly recommend joining one. Some of them are low key and without one you will have no social life.

4. On campus living and eating is horrible. Just put up with it for a year.

5. Social organizations are underfunded and politics rule funding. ASG, the student government gives out money but it doesn't have much and fights result over who gets small sums of money. Most of it goes to the big organizations. This means that the only organizations that are really active are the "major" ones, like chess club, intermurals, etc.

6. Unlike other posters, I think the campus is very safe. crime data

Poik

You can still have a social life even if you don't join a frat/sorority. And the food isn't that bad. It's what you would expect from college dorm food. People get robbed or mugged every so often, and sometimes there's the occasional sexual assault, but otherwise it's pretty safe.

NamesAre4Lames

Can someone who is not part of a frat/sorority talk about the social life. I applied ED to nu and will be staying home if admitted. I understand this tread is meant for stating ones opinoins but I'm really starting to feel as if this school is quite depressing. Is there something someone truly LOVES about the school.

C'mon people lets be optimistic.

Sam Lee

I was not part of a frat/sorority and I found plenty of stuff to do. I belonged to a Christian group and an ethnic student association. We hanged out and went out to Evanston or Chicago. There were always tons of shows and performances (theater/movie/musical) on campus. Then of course, there's football game to go to. This thread was meant to be negative at the first place; so take it with a grain of salt. As far as student retention rate goes, it's on par with most other top schools'.

Like arbiter, I found the engineers were very satisfied with their education. I was one of them by the way and we all thought our school was great with excellent research opportunities and industry connections. It also has an excellent co-op program that many schools don't have (or even if they do, theirs are not as established and structured as ours). The Engineer First curriculum is way ahead of other engineering schools and has gotten very positive feedback from students. The only complain seems to be the workload but engineering is supposed to be intense in many places anyway.

cclolzftw

Can someone describe the "low-key frats"? I mean, to what degree does the NU Greek scene differ from the stereotypical preconception?

TheRoad

Wow, I was just getting warmed to Northwestern
I went to the website he cites about the gossips. The college that I dream of has less than a page! Perfect. Although this obsession is becoming unhealthy for me

arbiter213

This thread is mostly one extremely bitter malcontent- take the negativity with a mine's worth of salt.

As for a low key fraternity/ how the scene differs: It differs extremely. Animal house this is NOT- the students are NU students, no matter how much some will want to forget that. The low key fraternities (mine is one) have no hazing, drinking is an occasional, but definitely not central element to our social lives. We mostly hang out at the house, play video games, have movie nights, play cards, boardgames, go see movies, etc. It's like a big group of very close friends who have an awesome club house, and the budget to do cool things like massive group dates (salsa dancing, ice skating, whirlyball, etc.)

The people who go Greek generally love it. The vast majority of people who don't don't care at all. About 10% are virulently anti-Greek based entirely on pre-conceived notions, and are VERY vocal about it- just like the whiners who started this thread- the few people really unhappy at NU tend to be vocal without attempting to improve things.