<p>As a current student at Northestern, I can largely affirm Wildcatalum’s, and MomCares’ comments. Although the attitude is competitive (as one would expect from any top-notch university), it is anything but cutthroat, and that general midwestern friendliness pervades almost all parts of the campus.</p>
<p>With regards to music, I myself am a music major (among other things), but there are definitely a plethora of opportunities for the non-major community. In addition to the institutionalized non-major ensembles (both run by the school and student-run) that MomCares and Jakeami mentioned, there are lots of other options: People (mainly jazz students) also play in local restaurants (I actually just got asked last if I wanted to play for a couple of afternoons in a sandwich place called Soulwich), student-run musical theater productions occasionally use non-majors in pit orchestras, and composition students are always looking for people to perform their works, just to name a few. The bottom line is that Northwestern (musically speaking) is open to any group or person that has an idea and the initiative to achieve it; an all whistling acapella group was started last year, and an entirely student-run extracurricular orchestra was founded this year, and there’s no reason why you couldn’t carve out your own musical niche as well if the current options available don’t suit you.</p>
<p>As far as having philosophical discussions go, I have nothing but anecdotal evidence to really give you. My general experience is that most students are intellectually engaged on a range of issues outside of their areas of focus, and that if you make the right friends, you can converse with them for hours on any number of topics. There are plenty of more institutionalized paths for discussions as well, like the residential colleges. (On the subject of anecdotal evidence, I met a recent graduate who studied neuroscience at Northwestern and now does research for them downtown. He also played piano on the side and dabbled in violin, I believe. We had a number of interesting conversations ranging from the music of Wagner to the nature of Eastern Orthodox Christianity to the role of different sensory receptors in determining taste. Like I said, just an anecdote, but I thought it might be relevant.)</p>
<p>As a student at NU, I’m obviously biased. I can’t confirm whether or not Harvard or other universities offer the same experiences as the one’s I’ve describe above, but I can say with certainty that my experience at Northwestern has been all I could have asked for.</p>
<p>One final point: consider the location as well. IMO, Evanston is every bit as good as Cambridge and Chicago beats the pants off of Boston.</p>