Is Northwestern the ideal school?

[Anonymous]

Curious to hear people's firsthand experiences there. It seems to check all the boxes for a classic college experience:

1. Greek life and football
2. Excellent academics across the board
3. Strong arts programs and a thriving school newspaper
4. Prime location outside, but not right in, a major city (best of both worlds)

Are there any down sides to this school? It sounds almost too good to be true.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Curious to hear people's firsthand experiences there. It seems to check all the boxes for a classic college experience:

1. Greek life and football
2. Excellent academics across the board
3. Strong arts programs and a thriving school newspaper
4. Prime location outside, but not right in, a major city (best of both worlds)

Are there any down sides to this school? It sounds almost too good to be true.

The weather.

[Anonymous]

It’s an ideal school particularly for humanities and business/finance. But its stem side has grade deflation, that might discourage some premed kids.

[Anonymous]

There is no ideal school. Some people don’t want Greek life or a football focus. Some people want smaller/larger. Some people want very strong engineering. Some people want sun. Etcetcetc.

[Anonymous]

For some, my kid and I would hate the Greek life, architecture, and weather, but for some, it’s the best fit possible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Curious to hear people's firsthand experiences there. It seems to check all the boxes for a classic college experience:

1. Greek life and football
2. Excellent academics across the board
3. Strong arts programs and a thriving school newspaper
4. Prime location outside, but not right in, a major city (best of both worlds)

Are there any down sides to this school? It sounds almost too good to be true.

$95k/yr isn't ideal

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For some, my kid and I would hate the Greek life, architecture, and weather, but for some, it’s the best fit possible.

We haven’t visited yet, so please share more about the architecture and physical feel of the place.

[Anonymous]

Quarter system isn’t ideal.

[Anonymous]

Have you been there? I agree on paper it’s got a lot going for it. It felt a lot further from Chicago than I had imagined. The campus was ugly and forgettable other than the lake, though the lake is unusual and pretty. I wanted to love it but the blustery weather was probably part of why I didn’t. But it does have some unusual strengths. I don’t know.

[Anonymous]

I went to NU and the weather/dark definitely makes winter quarter tough. I had a couple professors in STEM who were frankly a bit nuts. Like class average on an exam in an advanced class was a 12 nuts. Their career office was terrible and gave a lot of outdated advice.

I mean and the cost is insane. It's doubled since I went there in 2010. I got financial aid, fortunately, but they did drop my grant lower every year so my initial calculations for what I would owe were off.

Ultimately I had a great time there, as did my spouse who I met there. But every school has its quirks and no school is perfect for everybody, it's about fit. I'm not going to be pushing NU on my kids, if they go for it, great, but if they find somewhere else thing think would fit better, great.

[Anonymous]

The student body is heavily quirky. My very smart but mainstream, outgoing kids (jr and sr) toured and didn't see their people at all. This was the same report given by many of their friends when they also visited.

Your mileage may vary and every kid is different so do your research in person! We really wanted to like it---we liked many things but ultimately my kids gave it a strong veto.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Have you been there? I agree on paper it’s got a lot going for it. It felt a lot further from Chicago than I had imagined. The campus was ugly and forgettable other than the lake, though the lake is unusual and pretty. I wanted to love it but the blustery weather was probably part of why I didn’t. But it does have some unusual strengths. I don’t know.

Yes! I was surprised by this. There really wasn't any heart to the campus but just a bunch of buildings assembled in random fashion. The visitor's center is the most lovely part. We visited in the summer and you could see multi-colored sailboats through the giant window in the auditorium--it felt like a resort. But then the rest was completely forgettable--no real feel at all.

[Anonymous]

One thing that I found interesting back in my day (a very long time ago so perhaps these have been phased out?) was the concept of residential colleges -- you could select a dorm based around interests, such as public policy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:One thing that I found interesting back in my day (a very long time ago so perhaps these have been phased out?) was the concept of residential colleges -- you could select a dorm based around interests, such as public policy.

I lived in one of these and they varied a lot. Jones (the performing arts one) had the most going on. I lived in the Public Affairs one and we didn't really have a lot of specific stuff going on.

[Anonymous]

If you have a child who wants intellectually challenged, yes, it is (along with Chicago).