<p>Sophomore at NU here. Parties here are generally weak and badly organized. I’ve hosted better parties as a high school senior than some of the ones the frats throw. Getting to meet people is pretty easy, though. I made a lot of friends but no one that I could really see myself spending too much time with. This is not to say that the school helped me in any way to meet these people. I just kind of approached people in my classes and dorms and started talking to them. Easy as that. Don’t expect Northeastern to hold your hand through the process because it wont.</p>
<p>If you’re the quantity over quality type of person, the social life here may appeal to you. People don’t come here to socialize. They’re here to get their degrees, grind out some co-op experience, and leave. The stratification by majors only seemed to worsen as I went up a grade so it doesn’t open up much after freshman year. If you do come here, make as many friends from majors besides yours as soon as possible and keep in touch with them so you aren’t stuck with knowing the same dozen people for the rest of your undergraduate life.</p>
<p>Sophomore NU here as well. While I see light in what everybody here is saying, there is one good thing to remember. College is all in what you make of it. I know people who aren’t into partying and still have friends and fun on the weekend. I also know people who want to party every night possible, and they find the chance to do that too. This is the beauty of being in a major city. The NU experience is all in what you are looking for and what you make of it. If you like hockey, than the hockey games are fantastic. Of course, with the location and lack of football team, NU is missing the whole “rah-rah” but there is still other ways to have school spirit. I thought they were missing that piece until I started heading to the hockey games this season and that provided the school spirit I was looking for. While partying is fun, it is important to not lose sight of the prize while at school. I have lots of fun on the weekends, but I also know when it’s time to crack down and I certainly think that’s a common sentiment at NU. A lot of students here are extremely driven, NU really creates leaders especially with the co-op program. There is definitely a greek life to jump into if you’re into that, and school spirit can be found. As everyone said, it is not at all difficult to make friends, EVERYBODY is in that position and is super friendly and outgoing. To sum it all up, NU is no different than any other college in the essence that your undergrad experience is all in what you’re looking for and what you make it. Best of luck!</p>
<p>One last thing - I can honestly say that the education is superb here. I have enjoyed every class, learned a lot, and could not have asked for me. Which to me, was very important as I want to go to law school.</p>
<p>I am a parent of a freshman and while the first weeks he told me his friends at other schools were having more fun-parties, etc.-he now tells me he can’t imagine being anywhere else. He seems to be making lots of friends-the kids are like him-hard working but social. He also has discovered the beauty of being at a school in the middle of Boston-this weekend alone he went to Symphony Hall to see “The Messiah” at my strong urging-for $15 on a student rush ticket! He loved it and now wants to see the Boston Pops! He also did a number of other things in the city over the weekend-with plenty of other people.</p>
<p>It may take a bit longer to settle in at a large urban school but he is realizing now it was everything that he hoped it would be.</p>
<p>I also agree with what bella said about the academics. He is working very hard but getting a lot out of his classes. Every professor he has approached has been very accessible and generous with their time.</p>
<p>I’m a sophomore now, and as a freshman I lived in IV. When I was at orientation, I felt a little nervous about social prospects because I didn’t really make any friends in those two days. That turned out to be irrelevant.
I became good friends with the people who lived in the rooms around me in IV, and we started out the year by sitting in the hallway to socialize mostly for the purpose of saying hello to whoever walked past and offering them m&ms.
I’m not big on parties or anything… most of my friends I met either through classes or because they lived near me last year or I happened to sit next to them in the dining hall one day.
I didn’t have a very hard schedule my first year because of my IB and AP credits, which probably helped my socializing. (This year is another story altogether… I should really be studying for my last final right now.)
But honestly, don’t stress out to much about socializing/making friends. I hung out with a ton of people in the first few weeks. You just sort of play it by ear and see who you enjoy hanging out with.
I’ve had a really great experience at NEU. I think there are people to befriend for all types of people.</p>
<p>As a current Freshman at NU, i’ll tell you it as I see it. I am considering a transfer, for a lot of the reasons mentioned above. The social scene breaks down into this: Foreign kids with a different perception of college; Urban hipsters and suburban kids trying to be urban hipsters; suburban kids from nearby areas and then very career orientated, fast paced kids. I am from Virginia and feel completely different from everyone else. People here are always trying to go find parties from Thursday night (not everyone) thru Saturday night. People are obsessed with being in the city (they want to see and be seen walking through the streets all dressed up) and there is simply an entirely different way of college in Boston. It obviously has its perks and advantages, but also creates a lot of problems. People are easily distracted and even though there are always parties, they are kept very quiet to prevent the entire city from finding out. This ends up creating an atmosphere where people are secretive about their plans, and at around 9:30 on a Friday night the halls are empty as people shuffle out of the building to head off to MIT, Harvard, BU or house parties. If you are considered “on the outside” on your Freshman floor, and ask someone whats going on any given night, the immediate response will be “don’t know, what about you?”</p>
<p>Now, I like to consider myself a driven but relaxed student. My interests consist of going to hockey and basketball on Friday and Saturday nights, watch football on Sunday, and typically like to have Sports center on the TV in the background while I lay around the room in sweat pants doing homework. Living in Stetson-West, I struggle hard with this. Few people are like me in that they want to go to every game, and there is always a struggle over the communal TV on Sunday. Other suburbanites like me are to be found, but are from nearby areas like CT and Mass, so day to day life is not as disturbed to them, so they feel less displaced by small things like these. If you want to go to a college with all the “ra-ra” associated around it, or not having things like communal activities that everyone enjoys, or campus-wide unity, NU isn’t for you. If you like the idea of having a close-knit group of friends who party together and live together in the city (ala friends) then Northeastern is better for you.</p>
<p>Okay, despite being a die-hard pro-Northeastern person… I have to slightly agree with above.</p>
<p>I’ve definitely gotten sick of the constant stream of people who are absolutely desperate to have someplace to go out to at night, because if you stay in it’s as if you’re a pathetic loser or something. Being a sweatpants and cheerios as 1am kind of person myself, I never really enjoyed the freshman party scene. It changes a HUGE amount when you and your friends turn 21 but… also didn’t really enjoy that either. A simple dinner with friends turned within the first 5 minutes into an intense discussion of which bars to go to, even though none of us had the funds to cover an expensive drinking habit. I can definitely see where the “obessed with being in the city” comes from.</p>
<p>I’m also from a long ways off, so I agree that things that seem simple to New Englanders make me feel uneasy sometimes. I miss Mexican food and Republicans (if only so that there are people to distract students from Vermont). I kind of miss football. And people look at you weird when you say you aren’t going home for every little holiday or day off, even when you explain that the plane would be hundreds of dollars.</p>
<p>Having said that, I’ve found a group of friends that I don’t want to strangle to death, classes and professors I’ve enjoyed, and co-ops that wouldn’t trade the world for. To me, social scene wasn’t exactly the best fit, but Northeastern’s other attributes completely made up for it.</p>
<p>I had trouble making a lot of friends when I first came here - BUT I am naturally super shy and kind of socially awkward, and I also don’t drink or party. I would say that the majority of people have no problem meeting people and my own issues would be better attributed to my personality. I think I would have had difficulty making friends at any school. But luckily there’s also a lot to do around Boston, and in time I’ve made friends not only at Northeastern but from different schools through getting involved with different things in the city.</p>
<p>Also, I’d say most people make a lot of friends from their dorms. Part of my problem was that I really had nothing in common with anybody in my hall freshman year. I’m in honors and lived in International Village - and something about the people in honors… I guess everybody was just a little too overachiever-y in a way, and I could never really click with anybody. Sometimes I think living in a regular dorm would have at least exposed me to a wider variety of people. (But at the same time that also probably would have been a lot more parties, which is also not my thing, so who knows…)</p>
<p>I really can’t imagine the social scene at Northeastern is too different from anywhere else.</p>