What is the general vibe at Northeastern?
It is fairly small (you can walk from one end to the other fairly easily), the campus itself is very pretty (flowers, koi pond, big quad), not a party place (parties are off-campus), not dominated by frats (a small percentage join the few that exist), not a big sports rooting place (no football - nice support for ice hockey), students are fairly serious (I would say they all have “direction” some idea of an end goal after they graduate), not competitive (kids work together on computer projects for example), not extremely diverse (some minorities, some foreigners, but a good chunk is white middle-upper class), not preppy or snobby (you will see some expensive designer clothes, bags, etc. but not the norm), and students are generally friendly,
Sounds like my kind of place. Coming from a black male Californian LOL
Great post on #1, only thing to add of course - it’s in the middle of Boston, and you’ve got the T running through it. While you can tell a city is around you, it’s still a very central campus feel in most places. You walk a block off and you hit 100% city. For reference, “small” means about a 10 min walk from one side of campus to the other.
I think vibe varies depending on your frame of reference. My D is a freshman at NU who grew-up in a small town in Hawaii. The vibe for her has been based almost entirely on the access living in an awesome college city provides. Transportation (the T, Uber, GrubHub delivering any food you desire right to your dorm), the zillion (give or take) events to choose from both on and off campus, and the fact she has a lot more interaction with people from different parts of the world and with different viewpoints than she had back home. And of course for her, more so than most, the vibe of icy rain that falls sideways thanks to the wind penetrating her soul like a million tiny ice picks. 