I lived in Nashville and spent a lot of time on the Vandy campus and my kid is going to NU. The weather factor is obvious but kids adjust. The Vandy campus is very inter-meshed with the city, while NU is more segregated. Greek life at Vandy is huge and dominate, while NU is about 40%. Country Music Capital of the World is completely irrelevant. Nashville is one of the most conservative places in the country but Vandy is an elite university so it is more moderate. NU is more liberal. Vandy and NU are both great schools but the culture is completely different. Just some things to consider.
Cha, Northwesterns campus is not huge , but its long and thin. So it might be small.in acres but that does.t mean the walks are short, especially when the dorms tend to be at the north and south tips. I didn’t say all the classrooms were at the ends, but they certainly.aren’t concentrated in the center like you imply.
Note the half-truths I’m being attacked with…Alex claims its a.small campus, which is true,.but since its long and thin it requires the long walks he scoffed at…so long that Purple had to use a bike all the time. The n Cha says the classrooms are more central, but doesn’t dispute that the dorms tend to be way at each end. They are more central than the dorms, but they still aren’t in the middle. Everyone agrees the weather is horrible, but hey,that’s not THEIR problem so they are quick to assume it won’t bother YOU much, either. Look,.its a wonderful school in a million different ways…great faculty, beautiful location, there is no reason to whitewash some minor issues.
@moooop, I can only speak for myself, but I didn’t have a problem biking in the rain or snow or at night (get a mountain bike). It’s not as if there are hills (or cars on most of campus) and there are lights all over so if you can bike and aren’t going crazy fast, snow and rain (and night) just shouldn’t be a concern. I also didn’t drink much, but folks who did weren’t drinking before they headed off to class.
You must be an excellent bike rider. I would wipe out every day if I tried to ride in snow rain, ice, dark. I didnt mean they drank before class, but certainly some of the long walks i was referring to.would take place at night to/from social events.
Vandy mom of 2 here. Yes greek life is big but overall only about 43% of students are Greek not much more than the 40% mentioned above for NU. My daughter was in a sorority, my son did not join a fraternity. My daughter had many friends from the Chicago area, it seems as if there are a lot of students from Chicago at Vandy and they appear to fit in just fine.
The campus is near downtown but It definitely has a defined campus and is easily walkable. There are many businesses and restaurants surrounding campus. I guess you could walk downtown but it would be quite a walk, it is a quick taxi ride away though.
Vanderbilt Medical Center is located on campus and there are many research opportuniities. My daughter majored in ChemE and was able to work for one of her professors for 2 years doing research.
Both are very good schools and you can’t go wrong either way.
Moooop, we get it! Your kid hates the weather at NU. My kid absolutely refused to apply to Rice because she thought her hair would be too frizzy. But again, the student who asked for our advice LiVES in Chicago and did not use weather as a factor. But I do agree with you about biking in the snow, if this kid loves to bike, I would send him to Vandy!
Moooop, I see you are still very annoyed about the weather over in your wash u v. Davison inquiry. I’m not going to repeat what you called all of us on this post but I do this for fun and I’d like to think I help a kid or two. Not quite sure why you get so worked up about it.
Davidson
moooop,
Except those with tiny campus, I don’t know any school that would have most classrooms AND dorms clustered around the center. At Stanford, it’s a far longer walk from dorms to many academic buildings (so almost everyone has a bike). At Williams, the buildings are literally all over the map. At Duke, there’s even a freeway dividing the east and west campus. At Vanderbilt, the walk from the dorms is in most cases longer. By the way, med school, clinic, and hospital, and garage occupy much of the central area there. Compared to that, having the main library in the middle of NU isn’t that bad after all.
When I mentioned all those other schools, I had already taken the shape of NU campus into account. It’s more compact any way you look at it.