Thoughts on Northwestern?
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Anonymous
Well, isn't there always a reason? And I doubt the Cornell hotel management graduates run a Ramada Inn so you were really just being dismissive. |
Anonymous
What's wrong with Ramada's? |
Anonymous
| Heard that many students dislike the quarter system at Northwestern. |
Anonymous
Besides you, who said there was anything wrong? |
Anonymous
Maybe. The quarter system allows students to triple major which may not be the best option for such high achieving, driven students. No wasted time in a quarter system. More real world like. (Dartmouth College does it best as students just take 3 courses per trimester which is the same as a quarter system. Life is good at Dartmouth.) Northwestern students are serious students even though kind & down-to-earth. |
Anonymous
Sounds like a overgeneralization. Depends on the individual. |
Anonymous
I think that, in terms of the students and classroom experience, it’s probably more like a cushier University of Wisconsin than any of the schools on your list. It’s a big, polite, Midwestern, sports-supporting tough, very practical school, not a haven for nerds like Columbia. Johns Hopkins or the University of Chicago; not courtly, like I imagine Vanderbilt might be; not cold and isolated, like Cornell; not New York-ish, the way Duke and parts of Columbia seem to be; and not really as pre-professional as Penn seems to be in a hard-edged, suit-wearing. It has a lot in common with Wash. U. and Emory, on paper, but it’s like the expensive, high-quality but ultimately soulless Adobe Stock photo that Deloitte put on its interesting new report; Wash. U. is like the dreamier watercolor version, by an artist with a short entry in Wikipedia; and Emory is like the oil painting version, done by the artist who painted the portraits of all of the board members at Daddy’s bank. If I wanted to apply to a school that was like Northwestern, but have a much better chance of getting in, I’d apply to DePaul if I loved Chicago; the University of Wisconsin or the University of Minnesota if I wanted big, solid, friendly, research-focused university in the Midwest; or maybe a place like Syracuse University, Fordham, or the University of Miami if I wanted a comfortable, practical private university with some name recognition and without an insanely low acceptance rate. But if I had high stats and wanted a bit more prestige, but without extreme admissions insanity, I’d aim for Boston College, Boston University or Northeastern. |
Anonymous
| Best way in is through ROTC. |
Anonymous
Spectacularly wrong. |
Anonymous
| Northwestern is in a unique category. It has top notch academics, but is also part of the Big 10 sports league. It’s a school for really smart kids who are also social and like to go to games, parties, etc. In that way, it’s probably most similar to Duke. But Northwestern also has a great college town a few blocks away and is half an hour from a major city. I can’t think of other schools that have these same characteristics. |
Anonymous
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^^^ this exactly. My DC is a rising senior at NU, and loves the school for all the above reasons. DC is a very independent, motivated, organized student who is pre-med, thriving in a stem double-major while enjoying a great social life, extracurriculars, and attending all the Big 10 sports events, as well as going into the city regularly for more sports, museums, and live music. We're from the DMV, and I would never have predicted that NU would be such a perfect fit. (For me, the only downside is that it's far away.)
Agree with all the previous posters that the quarter system is not for the faint-hearted. Academically, it's very intense, so know what you're getting into (in fact, we've dissuaded our other children from going that route). |
Anonymous
How is that? |
Anonymous
And not at all my niece’s experience. |
Anonymous
Same for all the most selective schools. |
Anonymous
Like PP said, one individual |