<p>Hi guys! I'm a prospective student to NU (thinking of applying early). I've read a bunch of student reviews about Northwestern- while most were positive, there were some negatives that kept coming up. Could someone clear some of these up for me?</p>
<p>1 There's no social life unless you're in greek life</p>
<p>2 The administration doesn't care about its students</p>
<p>3 The workload is crazy and competitive </p>
<p>4 A lot of the people are unfriendly and close minded</p>
<p>Also, if anyone has any other info/advice for a prospective student, I'd totally appreciate it! Thanks :D</p>
<ol>
<li><p>False. It’s just not centralized.</p></li>
<li><p>The administration does care. I know because I’ve personally discussed things with the three different deans of Weinberg and Morty. The bureaucracy doesn’t care though, mostly. Can’t really blame them.</p></li>
<li><p>The workload is pretty hard in some majors. A classmate of mine from Japanese was a Kellogg Grad Student, had gone to Harvard. He complained that we worked too hard.</p></li>
<li><p>A lot of NU students are dbags. I wouldn’t say they’re closed minded.</p></li>
</ol>
<ol>
<li>False. You just have a different kind of social life where you do your own thing (watch plays, go to Chicago, etc). You can also go to Greek parties but which ones will depend on whom you know there to let you in. Some are extremely open, some are exclusive. There are of course other parties besides Greek parties (they’re usually thrown by upperclassmen though).</li>
<li>Higher-ups do care for the most part. I haven’t met Morty yet but there were many opportunities to do so last year. I have spoken with many Deans, however, and one even arranged to meet with me, not the other way around (this wasn’t for something bad fyi).</li>
<li>If you want an A or A-, the workload can be really intense. There are a few exceptions though. If you’re fine with a B, you can probably get it if you put in a decent amount of effort. (this is based on my experience with the social sciences…econ, poli sci, etc.)</li>
<li>There are definitely some dbags here. A lot of them think they would look weak if they act otherwise, so that’s why they do it. Many have other insecurity issues. Most are friendly though and rarely close-minded.</li>
</ol>
<p>As for the engineering work load, getting a B is pretty easy as long as your regular. Getting an A/A- is hard but doable. People usually either work hard for them or if just have the aptitude. </p>
<p>You won’t be partying during the weekdays but you can have a social life. I almost never worked Friday/Saturday and was out in Chicago quite a bit… I had a pretty good GPA.</p>
<p>You have to remember how these websites work: only those who have a (imagined or otherwise) reason to complain will make the effort to write and post their reviews. Everyone else has a life :P</p>
<p>I’ve heard similar stereotypes but can’t speak from experience so I can’t be of much help there ;)</p>
<p>BUT - students review is a terrible website, that’s for sure. Almost all the posts are completely exaggerated and wayyy extreme no matter what school you’re looking at. If you read all the posts for a specific school sometimes you can get a general idea but never take any of it too seriously or too literally. Trust me. It will ruin your opinion of a potentially great school. Just be cautious!</p>
<p>1 This is only true if you’re jealous. Otherwise there are definitely other avenues in terms of social life. Greek life is a big deal, but not overbearing. If you think you might want to join a house, you should, and if it’s not right for you drop out.</p>
<p>2 Not even going to address this ridiculous ‘stereotype’</p>
<p>3 The workload is as hard as you make it really. You can make a schedule that will pretty much guarantee you Dean’s List if you wanted to and graduate summa cum laude. But that’s only if you want it/care about that. If you don’t care about getting all A’s, then it will be more challenging, especially in curved classes. Even language classes can be difficult to get an A over an A-. Engineering will be pretty tough because it’s a lot of work to do that maybe you’re not used to. All in all, it’s what you make of it–kind of like at any school.</p>
<p>4 There definitely are people who are rude and cliquey, but they are a small portion of NU students. I’d say most of them are greek, or athletes. Most people are chill and unique and open to new things. </p>
<p>Find me an engineering school within the top-50 that got:</p>
<ol>
<li>a well-established co-op program with >30% participation rate</li>
<li>a first-year curriculum as innovative and hands-on as Engineeirng First</li>
<li>a strong emphasis to infuse design-thinking throughout the UNDERGRADUATE curriculum</li>
<li>a faculty team that continue to fine-tune #2 and #3 for UNDERGRADS even when it means less time for their research</li>
<li>a school dean that appreciates creativity and recognizes the importance of “whole-brain engineering” for UNDERGRADUATES; a dean that had a vision for #2 and #3</li>
</ol>
<p>THESE STEREOTYPES ARE A LOAD OF BS! Clearly, atop all the aforementioned reasons, all you really need to do is talk to a Northwestern student. Any ONE really. You’ll see that these stereotypes are earth-shatteringly wrong…</p>
<p>possibly due to a disproportionate number being ivy rejects (got the goods for ivy, therefore applied, but there just aint that many slots ), and therefore mught harbor a certain anger or ‘better than thou’ to the ‘lesser folk’?</p>
<p>^Don’t over-analyze. There are many dbags everywhere. It’s not like this country is known for having the friendliest people. And if you think the Ivies have friendlier people, you are probably mistaken. After all, they send even more people to Wall St which is known for having type-A individuals and dbags.</p>
<p>sam, that is my point. If it is true that NU students have the academic goods to get into the IVYs - and in fact cross apply there alot - the students in a sense might be virtually IVYs, aka ‘IVY wannabees’ , and therefore might possess the 'dbag ’ personalities that goes along with IVY, maybe even exacerbated with the rejection.</p>
<p>My cousin’s kid has this in spades - but she ended up in another 'ivy wannabee ’ college, is a senior, and still is seething.</p>
<p>Sorry to burst your bubble, but that’s not why at all. The people closest to the top of the curve here are the least of our problems. It’s more like those that only just got into NU have an inferiority complex to the rest, and are tired of being called Ivy Rejects when many never even applied to the Ivy’s.</p>
<p>@Roderick
I get rather irritated when people make these disparaging generalizations about any school on CC. There have always been, and always will be, students at every school who would rather be somewhere else. It is not unique to NU; in addition, the institutional focus of NU hardly appeals to the D-Bag gotta-work-on-WallSt. types. SESP, Communications, Medill, etc. are not geared towards getting a good paying job, but a certain lifestyle that I doubt is appealing to “dbags.” Even Kellogg emphasizes teamwork and community over how to make the most money. Finally, you are making two false assumptions of: a) anyone who wants to go to an Ivy is a “dbag” and b) that all NU kids want to go to an Ivy. I certainly did not (only applied to 1, which I applied as a harder-to-get-into “backup”), and have no doubt most of the student population now couldn’t care less.</p>
<p>That being said, I have no doubt there will be a lot of “dbags” at NU. They’re everywhere. But please don’t take arbiter213’s comment out of context and make a distorted analysis with a disdainful conclusion. I say all of this in benign criticism. :)</p>
<p>@aequitas, gocha. stereotyping is more chatter, something that cc is full of.</p>
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<p>an ‘Evanston inferiority complex’. hmm, yet another abstraction , or stereotype to think about…I wonder what the symptoms are of this syndrome? :)</p>
<p>I ask <em>others</em> who have experience and knowledge of this place for info since my son is only a prospective student. The tour guide during our NU visit mentioned a cooperative ethos operating at this school. The guide seemed real nice and laid back, too.</p>