Northwestern Questions

Colleges and Universities A-Z Northwestern University
1

Is the school academically challenging? 2.) Is the food good? 3.) Is the social life fun? 4.) How are athletic events? 5.) How is financial aid? 6.) How are the dorms

2

  1. Yes, especially if you find something you are interested in, work hard in it, and take advanced courses in the subject. Many undergrads add to their normal academic plan by conducting research.

  2. Depends on your standards for “good”. There’s a fair amount of variety in what the dining halls offer; some dining halls are better than others; and there are always gluten free, vegetarian, halal, and kosher options if you go to the right dining halls. I even managed to find something every meal as a gluten free vegetarian. However, home-cooked food is better than what you get in the dining halls. Also, there are many good restaurants with prices that make sense for students within a few blocks of the university.

  3. The social life is what you make of it; I think almost all people have a good time. There are losts of opportunities to find a group of people you want to hang out with / social niche with all the organizations on campus, too. Many students are in frats/sororities or go to frat parties, but there are lots of people who don’t and who havev a great time anyway.

  4. Athletic events can be a little underwhelming. Not that many students show up to games, probably because their busy with other things or they just don’t care.

  5. Financial aid is good. Lots of people get their full need taken care of, though some students need to do work study as a part of it. There are only like 10 merit scholarships per year, so don’t count on getting one.

  6. Most dorms are adequate or nice; the few that aren’t are getting renovated. The university is also building new dorms. Most dorms house around 100-200 students, and allow you the students to foster a community and make friends. Some dorms are called “residential colleges”, which means they are supposed do have events and discussions focused around a theme. This plays only a small role in the day-to-day social life of the people in the dorm though. However, there are plenty of chances to make friends outside of your dorm if you don’t feel like being that social there (like me)!

Overall, I find NU fantastic because of the challenging academics, the fact that everybosy there is so smart and you can have an intellectual discussion with pretty much anyone there, and the cool people/friends I’ve met and adventures I’ve went on. In my opinion, the dining halls, athletic events, and dorms played only minor parts in my student experience.

Feel free to ask if you have any more questions!