<p>So, my top choices are Brown and Northwestern, but for a few reasons I can't decide if I want to apply early to one and risk never applying to the other.</p>
<p>Northwestern, I know, has one of (if not THE) top BA theater programs in the country. Thus, I'm EXTREMELY interested in the school. On the other hand, I feel like the more liberal/for lack of a better description: "hipster intellectual" campus culture of Brown is a better fit for me.</p>
<p>So, if anyone has any information about the northwestern campus culture that would replace my current idea of it - moderately political, pretty greek, relatively intellectual - it would be greatly appreciated!</p>
<p>“moderately political, pretty greek, relatively intellectual” more or less nails it. There’s pockets of almost everything, but that’s the best general description I could come up with in under 10 words. I might add “highly segmented”.</p>
<p>I suppose there was a time when “athletic” could accurately be applied (FHM rated NU number two or something for fittest campus a few years back). Not sure its still true, but definitely could make an argument.</p>
<p>Brown’s campus culture is more uniform than most and does sound like a great fit for you. Northwestern has always been a more typically diverse place, one with no single overriding culture, one that succeeds in allowing pretty much anyone to find their niche. Here, hipsters, goths and punks will peacefully co-exist with jocks, preps and Greeks. </p>
<p>Northwestern’s theater program is, indeed, dramatically (pun intended) stronger than Brown’s with inumerable on-campus productions and Chicago theater beckoning at your doorstep (Steppenwolf, Lookingglass, Goodman, etc., etc.). Providence cannot come close to competing with this. It’s about as great a town-gown pairing as anyone in theater could hope to find.</p>
<p>I guess I could have learn a lot of information about Northwestern University recently when they came to my school ( where I would be able to answer your question). Though horribly, I mistaken the school ( when it was announce) for Michigan Northwestern University in Traverse City, Michigan. When I actually found out it was Northwestern University in Illinios, I felt horrible… still can’t believe it.</p>
<p>My D is in the theater program and I find the kids there to be more intellectually grounded than those at most other theater schools. There is an intellectual component to the entire study of theater at NU and while she is getting great practical experience, she is also around super-smart very analytical theater kids. Even when she had to apply to the MT program last year as a freshman, she had to write several essays on the current state of theater! From what I can see, many of the theater kids can be deemed by this mom to be “hipster intellectual”. Yes, the entire campus is diverse (and that’s what my D likes about it), but you will not be disappointed by the theater department and the kids in it.</p>