Hi, I’m a junior in high school and I am thinking of applying to NU ED. However, one of my concerns is the grades. I have heard that NU is cutthroat and that most people don’t get good grades. If I were to get admitted, I’d probably study Econ, which is a competitive major here, and I have heard that grades are bad. In your experience at NU, how are grades? Do they actually matter? I’m used to getting all As, as do many NU students. What is it like to get low grades? How stressful is it here? Thanks!
Grades at NU are not remotely cutthroat. In 2015, the average GPA at Northwestern was a 3.48, which is a very high average. I know plenty of kids who were Econ + MMSS or Econ + Math or much more hellish combinations who got 3.9+ GPAs. If you put in the hard work, you’re likely going to get a great GPA. It’ll be stressful (much more stressful than high school), but that’s college for you. I cannot stress how NOT cutthroat Northwestern is. People work together 24/7. If someone doesn’t want to work with you, it’s more likely that they prefer to work alone or have some irrational fear of people than it is for them to be cutthroat. Like I said, work hard, get to know your professors, and don’t spend Th-Su partying, and you’ll get great grades. Grades do matter. The second most annoying myth, behind colleges being cutthroat (they aren’t and haven’t been since the introduction of grade inflation), is that grades don’t matter. They do matter. The Northwestern name will get you in some doors you wouldn’t be able to get into at many other universities (e.g. McKinsey, Google, etc.), but you’re likely not going to get hired with a 3.1 GPA. That’s just how things work. There are too many applicants with great GPAs from other top schools (Ivy, Stanford, MIT, Vanderbilt, Chicago, etc.) to be taking anywhere below the medium- to high-GPA crowd from those schools. Overall, it’s not worth worrying about. There are plenty of classes to take to pad your GPA and no class is an impossible A. I don’t know what it’s like to get low grades at NU. I had the exact same performance as I did in HS (A/A-). All my friends were in the 3.7+ range with me. What united us all? We worked hard until we knew we’d land that A/A- and then played in our extra time. Sometimes that doesn’t lead to a lot of play, but, again, that’s life for you. Northwestern isn’t very stressful, imo. If you surround yourself with optimistic people who are excited about their futures and take engaging coursework, then you’ll feed and grow off their energy. However, if you surround yourself with alcoholics, the depressed, and people who hate that they aren’t at a more prestigious school or some other melodramatic nonsense, then you’ll likely get stressed easier. Life is always easier with better company. There’s enough events, nice professors, and awesome peers around to make life great, if you want that kind of life (who wouldn’t). Northwestern doesn’t provide much hand holding, so you’ll need to be a go getter if Wildcat Welcome is bust for you and you hate your roommate. By go getter, I mean that you might need to join a couple clubs or show up to discussion classes to actually meet people to make friends. Neither of those are very hard, so I guess you don’t even need to be much of a go getter.
Thanks! Does anyone have any other opinions?
I’m going to NU this fall, and this just made me more stressed out, even though it wasn’t supposed to… today was my last day of high school…this is getting too real 
I’m sorry @soontobecolleger. Congrats on NU though!!!
@perspectivestude thank you