<p>First of all I want to say that this is an OPINION based on another person's experience. I have a friend who will graduate college in '11, and she went to NU as a freshman. She said that everyone there studies all day every day including weekends, but that people get crazy scary drunk because their lives are so horrible at NU. She is now transferring to Wisc-madison. </p>
<p>Is there any truth to that? what do people who go there now think?</p>
<p>From my experience, many people I know who went to Madison last year are OK kids. However, many of those OK kids are also *******s. I can't imagine being able to concentrate at Madison, the day I visited there was beer cups all over the campus (some event went on). No matter how bad it was at NU I would never transfer to madison.</p>
<p>students' lives are horrible at colleges only by their making them horrible.. i wouldn't put much thought into what your friend said</p>
<p>This is not accurate. Northwestern University is & has been soaring in popularity over the past several years. The students are brilliant, high achieving individuals that love NU as reflected by the school's 97% (now 98%, I believe) freshman retention rate.
Not only are applications to Northwestern University increasing in numbers in a dramatic fashion, but so is the Endowment of $7.25 Billion which places NU well into the top 10--ahead of most Ivies--despite the school holding $900 million proceeds from the sale of part of their patent rights on a drug invented by NU staff.
Also check out the class sizes as reported in USNews. NU is the best, including all Ivies (although Yale is close).
With respect to selectivity, Northwestern University is surpassed only by a small group of ultra-elite schools when comparing the 25th percentile of accepted students SAT scores.</p>
<p>Harvard 1400
Yale 1400
Princeton 1390
MIT 1380
WashUStL 1370
Columbia 1360
Northwestern 1350
Stanford 1340
Duke 1340
Tufts 1340
Chicago 1330
Brown 1330
Penn 1330
Dartmouth 1330
Rice 1310
Notre Dame 1300
Georgetown 1300
Emory 1300
Vanderbilt 1300
Cornell 1290
UCal-Berkeley 1220</p>
<p>Also I question the genuiness of the original post as it is hardly likely that a student would transfer to Wisconsin to avoid a party scene. It is true, however, that many Northwestern University students are quite serious about academics & work unusually hard.</p>
<p>Please note that the above post deletes CalTech's stellar 1470 SAT 25th percentile admissions figure since this is a highly specialized research university with less than nine (900) undergraduates.
Also excluded are LACs.</p>
<p>Harvey Mudd 1430
Pomona 1380
Swarthmore 1360
Williams 1340
Amherst 1330
Claremont McKenna 1310
Vassar 1310
Wash & Lee 1310
Wellesley 1300
Wesleyan 1300
Middlebury 1300</p>
<p>Also remember the writings of the recently deceased Loren Pope, former education editor of the New York Times & famed author of Colleges That Change Lives, who wrote in the first & second editions of his acclaimed book Looking Beyond The Ivy League that the Univ. of Chicago, Northwestern Univ., & Rice Univ. were all "...better than most of the Ivies..." for undergraduate education.</p>
<p>To be blunt, lazy, party seeking students should probably consider schools other than Johns Hopkins, Cornell, Chicago, Northwestern, Princeton, Yale, Harvard, Columbia, Swarthmore and similiar schools as the brilliance of the students combined with goal oriented work habits will not be as inviting as other options.</p>
<p>As an addendum: To those who have not visited the Northwestern University campus in Evanston (an upscale Chicago suburb), it is a lake-front setting with two beaches on Lake Michigan. The soccer field also borders the lake and is a magnificent location for watching a game. The other NU campus is also lake-front but is located in the most upscale shopping & dining area of Chicago and is home to the law & medical schools.
Approx. 400 sail boats, lessons & equipment are available for student use. Ski trips to Colorado, jogging along the lakeshore, working out in the gym overlooking Lake Michigan, participating in plays & musical groups and charity fund raising events are quite popular with NU students. And, of course, trips to Chicago which is easily accessed by public transportation. Lots of great restaurants in Evanston. But, the students are brilliant & goal oriented. This is a highly selective university with many students who did not get admitted to Harvard or Stanford and want to prove to themselves that they are just as talented & motivated as those who were admitted.</p>
<p>This is a highly selective university with many students who did not get admitted to Harvard or Stanford and want to prove to themselves that they are just as talented & motivated as those who were admitted.</p>
<p>So it's like Tufts but not as self-hating? </p>
<p>J/k. I heart both NU and Tufts.</p>
<p>Not really like Tufts in the respect that Northwetern University's undergraduate programs are divided among six schools to which applicants apply directly.
The School of Music is by audition primarily.
The School of Journalism is the best in the world & students apply to Medill as a first choice school over all other colleges & universities (similiar to Penn's Wharton School of Business or Georgetown's School of Foreign Service).
The School of Communications has the best theatre/acting program in the country & is also a first choice school which enables students to double major in the College of Arts & Sciences.
SESP-The School of Education & Social Policy-is the only undergraduate program of its kind in the country and is also a first choice school without peer.
The School of Engineering is well known for several top offerings including nanotechnology.
The College of Art & Sciences is competing with the top tier Ivies.</p>
<p>Those students admitted to any of the five schools other than the College of Arts & Sciences are permitted to double major & minor in the Weinberg School of Arts & Sciences. It is easy to double major at Northwestern in four academic years because students typically complete 48 courses over 4 years versus 36 to 40 at the overwhelming majority of the nation's four year colleges & universities.</p>
<p>
[quote]
The School of Journalism is the best in the world & students apply to Medill as a first choice school over all other colleges & universities (similiar to Penn's Wharton School of Business or Georgetown's School of Foreign Service).
[/quote]
The best journalism school in the world would probably be UM-Columbia but Medill is probably the most sought after because of its strong liberal arts grounding and respective strength of those departments.</p>
<p>I'm sorry, my original post was worded poorly. I recognize the brilliance of Northwestern's students and admire how often they study. However, this student isn't transferring in search of parties, they are transferring because the "partying" at Northwestern consisted of people getting so drunk that they couldn't function- escapism? They weren't partying to party- but to escape the crazy academics at Northwestern. I think thats more accurately what she told me, anyways, not necessarily the truth.</p>
<p>No, I think people party to have fun, just like everyone else everywhere else. I find this is a VERY hard place to be unhappy because there is something for everyone. You have to make a serious effort to not find at least some niche at NU.</p>
<p>For someone wanting to escape a hard-partying scene, UWis/Madison isn't exactly a move in the right direction.</p>
<p>I second Pizzagirl.</p>
<p>NU is never known for heavy drinking. I suspect your friend was trying to justify her transfer with an excuse.</p>
<p>
[quote]
However, this student isn't transferring in search of parties, they are transferring because the "partying" at Northwestern consisted of people getting so drunk that they couldn't function- escapism? They weren't partying to party- but to escape the crazy academics at Northwestern. I think thats more accurately what she told me, anyways, not necessarily the truth.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I'm afraid your friend's outlook was tainted by the people she was surrounded w/.</p>
<p>There probably are some student who "party hard" in majors like engineering or who are pre-med (happens at schools like MIT and Cornell as well), but most of the people that I knew (including engineering and pre-meds) partied b/c they liked to party.</p>
<p>Heck, based on the amount of studying that I saw my friends do (not much), you'd be surpised that some are successful doctors, lawyers, etc. now.</p>
<p>My sister went to NU and graduated a couple years ago (she's now at Stanford for grad school). She worked hard, but she didn't study all day every day by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, she may have spent more time playing Ultimate Frisbee than studying. She liked NU a lot. Since I don't live all that far from Evanston, I met a lot of her friends, and they seemed like normal kids who worked hard and played hard - I didn't meet anyone who seemed unhappy at school or who partied to excess or for any reason other than liking to party.</p>
<p>I'm really happy to hear that. This girl was definetely not the brightest although so she was able to get in, but I think she struggled to keep up. She was one of those girls who squeeked by with A's in High School but did it by staying up until 3 or 4 every night. I'm assuming that caught up with her once she went to one of the best schools in the nation</p>
<p>^if that's true, it would explain why she's not transferring to schools with students of similar/higher caliber as one would expect for typical transfers.</p>
<p>Most NU students don't study all day every day. Engineers/premeds do study a lot and many students are very driven and goal oriented. But if you are not an engineer/premed (more so for engineers; worse if you are an engineer AND premed and worst if you are chem engineer and premed..lol), chances are you should be able to find a heathy balance.</p>
<p>There was a sliver of people who fit the "heavy partiers" description while I was at NU. They were not necessarily those students who were studying the hardest, though. There is an element of truth regarding pressure in what the OP described. Competition between students was fierce (pre-med major) and I witnessed some ugly cutthroat tactics. I felt, if anything, students drank to escape that element, more than the academic pressure. Of course, all this was back in the dark ages (80's) so lots could have changed since then.</p>