Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:We visited and liked it but we know a student there who doesn’t like it much at all and regrets going. Too many ultra wealthy, entitled, out of touch kids.
Quite the sample size there.
It's been like that for decades. In early 90s, over 60% of students received no financial aide. Many universities that cost $75K+/year are like that.
NU was like that 30+ years ago when I attended. I was poor, yet I had an amazing time and found my tribe. 80% of my best friends/core group of friends all had loans and Work-study as part of our FA (ie we were all not rich). So I guess we gravitated towards each other as we had something in common (working, working breaks, and budgeting)
I had friends who were "rich" as well and went on spring break trips to Mexico and Europe---something I obviously was not going to participate in. They learned that when I said "I cannot go out to dinner on Friday and out to an activity on Saturday, I can only afford one of those or I can't afford either this week" that I really meant it. Often the group would then pick just hanging out, or ordering pizza (which only cost me $2-3) and hanging out and sometime someone would just cover the extra $5-10 for me. I had a roommate who drove a relatively new BMW and brought it to campus sophomore year. She was down to earth and didn't flaunt her wealth and I had a ride to the grocery store/target anytime I needed it
I found that only 20-30% of the rich students seem to be entitled rich bratty types. And I suspect just like in real life you will find people like that everywhere, especially at universities that cost $75K+. But as a really poor student (as in, I'm staying on campus for every holiday as long as campus is open as I can't afford to go home), I had a great experience and found my tribe of similar minded people fairly easily