Is Northwestern the ideal school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nonetheless, it is fair to state that Northwestern University has a lot of driven, hard-working, conscientious, brainiac students who are serious students.

Northwestern is not the ideal school for one seeking a rah-rah party school atmosphere dominated by ostentatious Greek social life.

NU is composed of more grad students (probably 55% of the total full-time student population) on two stunning campuses. While the architecture may not be uniform, both the Chicago setting (medical & law school) and the Evanston setting (undergrads, MBA Kellogg School, and many other graduate programs) are spectacular.

Northwestern University is a serious school with Big Ten Conference athletics. NU's overall endowment (#13 overall) places it in the top ten in the country when three system wide endowments are placed aside (UTexas system, U Texas A&M system, & UC System wide endowments) --so it is also a wealthy school.

https://northwestern.edu/recruit/our-students/

NU students do now socialize with U Chicago students/student organizations which is a fairly recent development.

The quarter system keeps kids busy & sober. NU is not a party school, but it is social in a low key fashion.

Any recommendations for kids that: (a) do want this; AND (b) are highly academic (4.0/1500+/high rigor)?

Vanderbilt
Michigan
Duke
USC
UMiami

UMiami?

Even high stats kids need safety schools.

Would Lehigh be a good target for a kid like this? We know it's Patriot League, not SEC/Big 10/ACC. But we've been told kids are highly academic and also really into school spirit and sports, with Greek life as a real option.

Yes. My northwestern kid applied there too and was admitted with merit.

Thanks! While you're here, any other schools you would recommend a kid like this visit? DC is just getting started and looking for targets and relative safeties to go along with the possible reaches (Duke, NU, Vandy, Michigan). Open to anywhere in the country and not cost sensitive. Very good at balancing most rigorous academics with a vibrant social - looking for colleges with that work hard/play hard culture.

Add Wake, ND, USC?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nonetheless, it is fair to state that Northwestern University has a lot of driven, hard-working, conscientious, brainiac students who are serious students.

Northwestern is not the ideal school for one seeking a rah-rah party school atmosphere dominated by ostentatious Greek social life.

NU is composed of more grad students (probably 55% of the total full-time student population) on two stunning campuses. While the architecture may not be uniform, both the Chicago setting (medical & law school) and the Evanston setting (undergrads, MBA Kellogg School, and many other graduate programs) are spectacular.

Northwestern University is a serious school with Big Ten Conference athletics. NU's overall endowment (#13 overall) places it in the top ten in the country when three system wide endowments are placed aside (UTexas system, U Texas A&M system, & UC System wide endowments) --so it is also a wealthy school.

https://northwestern.edu/recruit/our-students/

NU students do now socialize with U Chicago students/student organizations which is a fairly recent development.

The quarter system keeps kids busy & sober. NU is not a party school, but it is social in a low key fashion.

Any recommendations for kids that: (a) do want this; AND (b) are highly academic (4.0/1500+/high rigor)?

Vanderbilt. Describes my kid and all of his fraternity brothers. Engineering, pre-law humanities, econ-consulting, biomed biz.

They’d probably fit in at NU too. Assume they wanted the SEC vibes instead but can’t confirm

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nonetheless, it is fair to state that Northwestern University has a lot of driven, hard-working, conscientious, brainiac students who are serious students.

Northwestern is not the ideal school for one seeking a rah-rah party school atmosphere dominated by ostentatious Greek social life.

NU is composed of more grad students (probably 55% of the total full-time student population) on two stunning campuses. While the architecture may not be uniform, both the Chicago setting (medical & law school) and the Evanston setting (undergrads, MBA Kellogg School, and many other graduate programs) are spectacular.

Northwestern University is a serious school with Big Ten Conference athletics. NU's overall endowment (#13 overall) places it in the top ten in the country when three system wide endowments are placed aside (UTexas system, U Texas A&M system, & UC System wide endowments) --so it is also a wealthy school.

https://northwestern.edu/recruit/our-students/

NU students do now socialize with U Chicago students/student organizations which is a fairly recent development.

The quarter system keeps kids busy & sober. NU is not a party school, but it is social in a low key fashion.

Any recommendations for kids that: (a) do want this; AND (b) are highly academic (4.0/1500+/high rigor)?

Vanderbilt
Michigan
Duke
USC
UMiami

UMiami?

Lol miami. It’s a bro school for sure but otherwise doesn’t belong on a list of elite high rigor prize schools

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

My daughter goes there and is in a sorority. Her crowd is very driven students who all have a lot going on but are not what I would describe as "quirky." Super normal girls. My daughter has a ton of fun.

[Anonymous]

I am so over the quirky word and don’t have a kid at Northwestern. It’s ludicrous to think a school of nearly 9k students is all one thing. Whoever you happened to see in a block of hours on one specific day does not make you an expert.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nonetheless, it is fair to state that Northwestern University has a lot of driven, hard-working, conscientious, brainiac students who are serious students.

Northwestern is not the ideal school for one seeking a rah-rah party school atmosphere dominated by ostentatious Greek social life.

NU is composed of more grad students (probably 55% of the total full-time student population) on two stunning campuses. While the architecture may not be uniform, both the Chicago setting (medical & law school) and the Evanston setting (undergrads, MBA Kellogg School, and many other graduate programs) are spectacular.

Northwestern University is a serious school with Big Ten Conference athletics. NU's overall endowment (#13 overall) places it in the top ten in the country when three system wide endowments are placed aside (UTexas system, U Texas A&M system, & UC System wide endowments) --so it is also a wealthy school.

https://northwestern.edu/recruit/our-students/

NU students do now socialize with U Chicago students/student organizations which is a fairly recent development.

The quarter system keeps kids busy & sober. NU is not a party school, but it is social in a low key fashion.

Any recommendations for kids that: (a) do want this; AND (b) are highly academic (4.0/1500+/high rigor)?

Vanderbilt
Michigan
Duke
USC
UMiami

UMiami?

Even high stats kids need safety schools.

Would Lehigh be a good target for a kid like this? We know it's Patriot League, not SEC/Big 10/ACC. But we've been told kids are highly academic and also really into school spirit and sports, with Greek life as a real option.

Yes. My northwestern kid applied there too and was admitted with merit.

Thanks! While you're here, any other schools you would recommend a kid like this visit? DC is just getting started and looking for targets and relative safeties to go along with the possible reaches (Duke, NU, Vandy, Michigan). Open to anywhere in the country and not cost sensitive. Very good at balancing most rigorous academics with a vibrant social - looking for colleges with that work hard/play hard culture.

Well then you can omit all of the above but for Michigan.

[Anonymous]

DD will be applying to NU in the fall, likely not going to ED anywhere.

That said, she would agree with OP’s assessment and it is her number one choice because she (1) loves the quarter system b/c you can take more variety of classes; (2) is highly likely to double major but has very disparate interests, one of them being journalism, (3) loves Chicago and is okay with the weather for the right school and we visited in the dead of winter for this reason (and I still think it may have been too warm a day to get the full experience).

She actually loved U Chicago more than expected on that trip so will be applying there as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DD will be applying to NU in the fall, likely not going to ED anywhere.

That said, she would agree with OP’s assessment and it is her number one choice because she (1) loves the quarter system b/c you can take more variety of classes; (2) is highly likely to double major but has very disparate interests, one of them being journalism, (3) loves Chicago and is okay with the weather for the right school and we visited in the dead of winter for this reason (and I still think it may have been too warm a day to get the full experience).

She actually loved U Chicago more than expected on that trip so will be applying there as well.

Make sure you show enough real demonstrated interest. There’s a lot of ways on the admissions website.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DD will be applying to NU in the fall, likely not going to ED anywhere.

That said, she would agree with OP’s assessment and it is her number one choice because she (1) loves the quarter system b/c you can take more variety of classes; (2) is highly likely to double major but has very disparate interests, one of them being journalism, (3) loves Chicago and is okay with the weather for the right school and we visited in the dead of winter for this reason (and I still think it may have been too warm a day to get the full experience).

She actually loved U Chicago more than expected on that trip so will be applying there as well.

Make sure you show enough real demonstrated interest. There’s a lot of ways on the admissions website.

I actually mentioned that I visited NU during a blizzard in my admission essay (it was true) and was accepted. That probably wasn't the deciding factor but... couldn't hurt?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

My daughter goes there and is in a sorority. Her crowd is very driven students who all have a lot going on but are not what I would describe as "quirky." Super normal girls. My daughter has a ton of fun.

What does this mean?

[Anonymous]

My kid was accepted to NU and really liked it. But for the cold weather he would have chosen it. He's headed to the Southeast.

[Anonymous]

Yeah, it's an alright school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DD will be applying to NU in the fall, likely not going to ED anywhere.

That said, she would agree with OP’s assessment and it is her number one choice because she (1) loves the quarter system b/c you can take more variety of classes; (2) is highly likely to double major but has very disparate interests, one of them being journalism, (3) loves Chicago and is okay with the weather for the right school and we visited in the dead of winter for this reason (and I still think it may have been too warm a day to get the full experience).

She actually loved U Chicago more than expected on that trip so will be applying there as well.

Hopefully you've been on this forum enough to know that if she's not going to ED Chicago, there's no point in applying.

As for Northwestern, I personally wouldn't pay for Medill (the j-school).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

My daughter goes there and is in a sorority. Her crowd is very driven students who all have a lot going on but are not what I would describe as "quirky." Super normal girls. My daughter has a ton of fun.

What does this mean?

It means their nose rings weigh less than a pound.

[imangolia]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

My daughter goes there and is in a sorority. Her crowd is very driven students who all have a lot going on but are not what I would describe as "quirky." Super normal girls. My daughter has a ton of fun.

What does this mean?

I phrased that poorly. What I meant is that with 9k students there is no one stereotypical student. OP was suggesting that because her kids are mainstream and outgoing they would not find their people. My daughter is both of those things and has found hers. Truly believe that anyone can find their people at Northwestern, including the fratty types. That being said, if you're looking for a school where partying is what unites the student body, probably not the right school.