<p>Here’s something I wrote to respond to a similar question not too long ago, with just a few tweaks because I was responding to specific stuff.</p>
<p>"First of all, NU is very diverse for a college. It might be less so than your high school, but it’s one of the top in the US I believe (colleges on average are less diverse than high schools, as far as I know). I think that the statistic is 52% minority and international, but that’s off the top of my head. I’ve got a guy from Pakistan, girls from Ghana and Brazil, and an Albanian-American, a Canadian/British/American tri-citizen (and maybe more people I’m forgetting) just on my floor of 50-ish people.</p>
<p>Second, there have been some unfortunate things happening on campus. Some of the incidents were ignorant teenagers/young adults who were sheltered and don’t really grasp how stupid what they did was (racist Olympics/black face for Halloween last year). Others were obviously malicious. However, these are small subsets of the population. When you take 8000 students from all over the place, there’s bound to be a few jerks, and some kids who are ignorant.</p>
<p>Some students self-segregate to a certain degree, but from what I’ve experienced the majority do not. Even the ones who do don’t view it as a little exclusive group, it’s more just a natural social thing for people to hang out with people who presumably have a similar background. Dating isn’t common, so I’m not sure about interracial dating. I think I’ve seen less than 5 couples total so far and 1 was interracial, so it exists (small aside: people tend to want to date people with similar values, and people with similar values tend to view dating the same. I would say that you’re more likely to date if your values reflect dating over hookups if that makes any sense). I don’t think any students would object if they saw it.</p>
<p>I came here for a multiethnic early program so I have quite a few black friends, but I think it’s too early to say whether or not it’s compartmentalized. It doesn’t seem like it to me, but that’s one view, and there’s 8000 other views out there this year alone haha.</p>
<p>This is a tough issue, and one that I don’t think any single person can answer (especially a freshman haha), but NU mostly seems very melting pot-ish to me so far, and I think if you hang out with the right people it will be exactly what you want. There’s going to be ignorant people, and there will be some scum (look at the comments on the Daily Northwestern’s article about the State of the Black Union event) but they are a tiny minority as far as I know. Don’t let it dissuade you from applying; I have friends from every continent but Australia, pretty much every conceivable minority group, a lot of religions, etc."</p>
<p>So there’s my tweaked answer to their questions. You can go check out the exact thing a page back on the “Freshman answering questions” thread.</p>
<p>I think I covered most of what you said, but a few additions: As for income issues, people don’t really divide out by socio-economic status, however it can get grating sometimes to have people going out to eat a restaurants all the time, talking about vacations to other countries every summer, etc. So while people might not make it an issue, you do have to sometimes bite your tongue and not get mad. They’re not being malicious, they are just privileged because their family was wealthy and they don’t think about it.</p>
<p>There’s a difference between stereotypes and reality, so I’ll answer the question as I think you intended it. There are rich kid school stereotypes about NU, but in reality there’s not that many super wealthy kids, or at least they don’t flaunt it. The average kid is upper-middle class, but we’re not talking a ton of 1% kids here or anything, although there are some.</p>
<p>As for not looking at difference unless someone points it out, I’m going to challenge that belief, because I think it ignores something. By being “color-blind” you’re ignoring the different challenges, stories, traditions, etc. people have. I’ve asked a Muslim friend about a holiday that he was celebrating, talked to a French kid about what his hometown was like, etc. When you go to school, I would look at differences and celebrate them. Be curious, ask questions, learn something about people.</p>
<p>So I hope that answers your questions. I wouldn’t discourage anyone from coming here because they thought it wouldn’t be accepting of diversity. Honestly, the majority of NU is the most accepting school I can think of. There will be jerks everywhere, there will be great people everywhere, but NU seems to have a lot of greats, and the jerks tend to be dealt with. NU’s one of the best schools you’re going to get for diversity and acceptance.</p>