<p>I wouldn’t mind the $200 million difference between Northwestern & Penn, but I think that it is actually a bit higher–approximately $7.3 billion versus Penn’s $6.8 billion. The point is that Northwestern University is one of the best schools in the world, let alone in the U.S. If you want to complain, you are free to do so–but some specifics would be helpful to understand your feelings of disappointment. Northwestern publishes to the world that 3% of its students won’t or can’t return for their sophomore year. Does the fault lie with the school as in an unmet promise? Or is it the student perhaps dealing with growing pains, changing interests or simply an improper match? “Laidback” is a mischacterization of the typical Northwestern student; perhaps it is the social life & nightlife that is too laidback for one who wants to be in NYC & Manhatten. patlees88: you miss the point. The point is that NU is great when measured by objective, verifiable standards. Trying to denigrate NU as a place for “Ivy rejects”–which is verifiably inaccurate–when it is just one unhappy camper venting his frustrations without specifics is unfair & unwarranted and immature. But he is free to do so, just as I am free to respond in a factual & verifiable fashion. Also, patslee, the answer is “yup”, not “nope” as Wikipedia’s $7billion does not determine NU’s endowment. NU has at least $7.3 billion after the patent rights sale.</p>