<p>Northwestern University’s average freshman retention rate is 97% which is the same for Chicago, Georgetown, Duke, Brown, CalTech, Virginia, Rice, WashUStL, Berkeley & UCLA. Pretty nice company. If any of these 97% schools increased their retention rate by one (1%) percent, then they would be equal to Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, Penn, MIT, Columbia, Dartmouth & Notre Dame. BK22889 may be one of the three (3%) percent at Northwestern. I think that everyone can live with that. Of the USNews Top 50 National Universities only Yale offers smaller average class size. Northwestern has the only SESP school in the country. Medill School of Journalism is regarded by many as the best in the world. The School of Communication is widely considered to be the best in the nation, and its theatre/acting/drama major is conservatory level training unavailable elsewhere except Juilliard. Only Yale & Northwestern have successfully sold patent rights near the billion dollar mark. Northwestern’s endowment is much larger than Georgetown, Chicago, Brown, Penn, Duke, Cornell & Dartmouth. In fact, only Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford & MIT have larger endowments than Northwestern University as Northwestern is now probably tied with Columbia University.(The Univ. of Texas system–multiple universities–also has a larger endowment.) Most students at Northwestern are not “laidback”, they are busy. Compare Northwestern’s Law School & MBA School to any school in the country. Number 8 & number 3 or 4, having fallen from number one several years ago. If the OP’s criticism is of Northwestern’s engineering school or college of arts & sciences, then the argument is weak as Northwestern students work as hard as those at Penn & Columbia–two of the most demanding Ivies–and harder than at a few others.</p>