<p>It almost seems like NU is too perfect.</p>
<p>Great econ, Kellogg certs, BIP, CFS, nice people, great location, job placement, quarter system (this is a plus for me). There are enthusiastic alums like Sam Lee and NUGrad singing the praises of NU, but I rarely hear about the bad stuff. </p>
<p>As weird as it sounds, I almost feel like I'm not getting the whole objective picture if I don't hear about some bad stuff. Is it just me or does anyone else feel the same way?</p>
<p>It's because it is a really great school. I think a lot of the people that come here are the right type of people for this school- very smart, but not SUPER nerdy, and still like to have fun.</p>
<p>The big greek system is a turn-off for many. I say, have an open mind and you will be surprised how your attitudes might change.</p>
<p>Other than that, the weather (duh) is a big negative. I can't think of much else bad to say.</p>
<p>Of course there are complaints/issues - but they are minor/little things that one would find at any school.</p>
<p>i recently started a thread in this forum saying i'd answer questions if people had them.</p>
<p>the reason i did this was because i go to northwestern and i wanted people to know how great it actually is here, because i think it's hard to understand that about a school.</p>
<p>I wanted people to hear from a student that it really is actually a great place, because it's hard to hear these kinds of things or believe them when you read them in books, etc.</p>
<p>If you want to hear the whole objective picture it is this:
northwestern an ubelievable school, full package, i couldn't imagine going anywhere else.</p>
<p>I wanted to answer questions people had so they could know this, because i think this kind of information can be hard to come by or easily doubted.</p>
<p>and it has a lot to do with what dfleish said, the student body is one that you usually don't find at school as highly ranked; it has something to do with it being in the midwest maybe, it is just the right type of people. You don't get the east-coasty-ness (you understand what that means if you've ever visited a comparably-ranked ivy league school), and it's not quite 'we're all surfer bums' california. it's a really good balance.</p>
<p>i think it's also aided by university of chicago filtering a lot of the types of people that, in my opinion, help to bring down the social scene of a school. you pretty much know if you're a uchicago type or a northwestern type.</p>
<p>the location and everything is key, but it really comes down to the student body that attends. You would have to spend a weekend here to understand.</p>
<p>
[quote]
You don't get the east-coasty-ness (you understand what that means if you've ever visited a comparably-ranked ivy league school)
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Not need to visit. Just head to Penn forum and you'll see many smarta*s. ;)</p>
<p>i did see a couple of music majors at studentreview.com who had negative comments about the NU's music department and that their FA was cancelled during their degree</p>
<p>They're right about the Eastcoast- I'm a total jackass, but everyone at NU was super nice. I hope I don't alienate myself. (I'm from NY)</p>
<p>well i chose duke over nw because they were the same cost, nw has not as much of a name, and duke has a better premed program. plus, nw is cold</p>
<p>I checked out studentreview.com - seems like a lot of the gripes were about music majors and the career services office only caring about IB/consulting jobs. Well, it happens that IB/consulting is what I want to go into, so more power to NU!</p>
<p>Duke is a great school, but I wanted to do econ. However, I have to admit that Duke is enjoying a surge in name recognition after the LAX cases haha.</p>
<p>I was looking at Duke as well, but I chose NU... I agree, it is absolutely freezing in Chicago, and Duke does have a better name... But I liked the atmosphere better at Northwestern, and I got a friendlier impression of the students/faculty. And also, Evanston is so much more fun than Durham! Haha good restaurants were a pretty big factor in my decision...</p>
<p>Well, music majors do like to complain - ha, ha.</p>
<p>Actually, the admin is taking steps to address their complaints - the biggest being renovating the building housing the music dept. (in the process of raising funds).</p>
<p>I turned down Duke b/c (1) Durham wasn't appealing (and I wanted to be near a major city) and (2) I much rather deal w/ some cold than hot, humid weather.</p>
<p>Northwestern seems to do an amazing job of addressing complaints. I know people in the past haven't liked their advising system, but when I visited it really seemed like they were working to fix it. They've added pre-professional advisors for upperclassmen in addition to the regular advisors and freshmen ones. </p>
<p>And I definitely agree with k&s about the weather... I want to go somewhere where it actually snows in the winter!</p>
<p>^^^ northwestern has huge questionnaires every year sent out to all its students for dining, academics, advising, etc. an individual survey dedicated to each one, to help improve the next year and find out what the complaints were.</p>