Many suburbanites don't like urban campuses/don't care about proximity to major cities. I am not one of these people. But there are a lot of them.

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.

Have you ever been to Chicago in the winter?

Wasn’t crazy about the campus…

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

My kid goes there-we all love it. Evanston is awesome although, yes it can be chilly. Definitely visit!

DP here. Can you recommend a casual restaurant in Evanston for our upcoming visit? We are planning to stay for one night at the Hilton Garden Inn.

I haven't been since it reopened but we loved Prarie Moon back in the day. Lou Malnati's and Giordano's are iconic (I'll cop to not liking Chicago deep dish). We used to like Joy Yee Noodle because they had big portions.

So many places I went to are gone now.

Anonymous wrote:Maybe if you’re rich. The kids I know who went were UMC and felt out of place. Lots of big money, expensive private school, daddy buys me every luxury and convenience kind of money. Not like daddy pays my rent. Like daddy picks me up in a private plane and spent $100,000 on my dressage horse kind of money .

LOL ! The above is pure BS.

Or maybe you're conflating NU with Duke.

Northwestern University does have wealthy students, but wealth is not flaunted or obvious.

Easy to get to Chicago. The campus setting is spectacular, but there really is no center quad. Divided between North side of campus which is mostly engineering & STEM and South campus which is artsy & liberal arts.

Couple of beaches & free sailboats for student use. Spectacular gym placement overlooking Lake Michigan.

Greek life is available if desired, but does not overwhelm the campus social scene.

Fairly low key, very brainy, and accepting.

The campus does make most "Most Beautiful College Campuses" lists, but the architecture is not as cohesive as that found on many small school campuses.

NU students are brilliant, hard-working, ambitious, non-judgmental, & friendly.

To the poster who cried the career office circa 2010, that was during a very tough job market which followed the national real estate market collapse.

Easy access to both US coasts as well as to the largest city in the Midwest (Chicago).

Anonymous wrote:Maybe if you’re rich. The kids I know who went were UMC and felt out of place. Lots of big money, expensive private school, daddy buys me every luxury and convenience kind of money. Not like daddy pays my rent. Like daddy picks me up in a private plane and spent $100,000 on my dressage horse kind of money .

Huh? This does not sound like anyone I know who went to NU or any family I know who currently has a kid there. Like, literally everyone I know who went there was either UMC (kids of doctors, lawyers, tech engineers) or MC (parents are immigrants and own small businesses). Most of them graduated from public high schools in suburbs.

The Gates kids went to Stanford and UChicago and there are a lot of celebrity kids at Brown and Vanderbilt. Never heard of NU being the go-to for the uber-rich.

Anonymous wrote:

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.

My kid goes there-we all love it. Evanston is awesome although, yes it can be chilly. Definitely visit!

DP here. Can you recommend a casual restaurant in Evanston for our upcoming visit? We are planning to stay for one night at the Hilton Garden Inn.

Anonymous wrote: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.

Thank you for sharing your experience. Everyone around me seems to be a rabid fan of their alma mater - and particularly if they met their spouse at their alma mater - so your honest take is refreshing. The part you said at the end is a good reminder for everyone.

Maybe if you’re rich. The kids I know who went were UMC and felt out of place. Lots of big money, expensive private school, daddy buys me every luxury and convenience kind of money. Not like daddy pays my rent. Like daddy picks me up in a private plane and spent $100,000 on my dressage horse kind of money .

If you don't like cold weather or the quarter system, it will not be ideal. Also, while the school is in the Big10, the game day experience and school spirit are nothing close to what a place like say Michigan or Wisconsin would be.

That said, I am a huge fan of the school and its proximity to Chicago, despite having no affiliation with it whatsoever.

Downside is that it is very difficult to get accepted. We had dorm food during DCs admitted day visit and was delicious!!!

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.

Of course there are. The points you have above are not for all. In a cold place.
It is good for journalism and for those thinking of medical school.

Anonymous wrote:

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.

What years were you in PARC?

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.

How far it is from Chicago heavily depends on whether you take the Purple Express or not. Riding the Red Line all the way to Howard can feel like an age.

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.

My kid goes there-we all love it. Evanston is awesome although, yes it can be chilly. Definitely visit!