<p>I'm thinking about applying to NU and I really like it, except I've heard there isn't much of a social scene and I'm worried. How often do people party and how?</p>
<p>As much or as little as they like, I wouldn’t worry about it at all. There are so many different kinds of kids at NU because of all the different majors how can you believe such a blanket statement? My daughter was a MT kid dating an Environmental Science major and great friends with two Medill kids, two international business kids, a music (Bienen) kid, a history kid, and a RTVF kid, and those were just her tightest friends. Her “party” friends extended to all majors. Silly question and if you believe what you heard, you don’t belong at NU because it’s illogical.</p>
<p>Ditto what amtc said. My kid’s a theatre major in a fraternity, best friends with a kid from Medill, will be in the front row at the football games, was intensely involved with a major campus “experience” this year and has friends from all the different schools. He’s not a big partier, but has it available to him through his fraternity experience. As an upperclassman now, and more mature ;), he goes out with smaller groups of friends on some weekends. If a major concern about NU is the party scene, maybe you would be happier at a different type of school.</p>
<p>It’s decently easy to find yourself a party to go to if you’re interested, but it’s not the sort of thing where you just step out into the hall and it’s a rager. Usual party nights are friday-saturday, Deuce is on thursday, and other things will occasionally be scattered throughout the week.</p>
<p>The party scene is good but small, so you start to see familiar faces pretty quickly. Theater groups and a cappella groups will throw fundraiser parties, but the frat parties are free. Sport clubs like to throw down, and so do international student groups. Really, most student groups will have something, at least once in a while. If you really want to party regularly, I’d strongly recommend the greek system.</p>
<p>The first few weeks, parties are off campus in frat-owned houses due to freshman freeze. Then they move into frat houses, generally in the frat basements. Others will be in either houses or apartments. Personally, I go to the bars around Evanston instead. More expensive, but I get to stand on dry ground and drink stuff that doesn’t suck (not that fratstar drinks are terrible, but warmish cheap beer and juice gets a little old.</p>
<p>Aside for bar specials info: Bat 17 has about a billion bar specials–find their website, I’m too lazy to type that up. Bar Louie has dollar burgers on Tuesday, and dollar beers on Wednesdays. WOB has 25% off bottled beers if you’re in their loyalty program, and Nevin’s just has really, really good dartboards.</p>
<p>You don’t go to NU for the party scene…What are your other choices? You need to compare with your options. Overall…not a great party scene…</p>
<p>^ Wow, I VEHEMENTLY disagree. I am transferring out of Northwestern because the party scene was way too much for me. I guess it goes to show that people have very different experiences at this school.</p>
<p>@classclown </p>
<p>I would say the social scene at NU is comparable to peer schools. Greek life is prominent, but there are plenty of social opportunities for non-Greeks. While the university actively tries to downplay the “north-south divide,” there is definitely a distinct academic and cultural difference represented among students on either side of campus. Overall, I enjoyed getting to know my NU classmates and found most to be well-rounded, caring people.</p>
<p>Greek life is mainly where the party scene is. Theatre also has its own party scene. There’s a big social scene if you want there to be. Best bar for college kids in Evanston was shut down almost two years ago so the campus is still adapting to life without it. </p>
<p>The party scene is bigger and more prominent than I expected. I went in to Northwestern thinking frat parties weren’t for me and that I’d only go out maybe once a month or so. Now after my first quarter I’ve found that I party at least twice a week, if not more. So if you like to party, you can certainly get your fill, especially if you like the greek scene. If not, there’s plenty of other things to get involved in, you just have to find friends with similar interests who don’t like to party as well. It’s really up to your personal preference. But if you like to party hard I’d recommend living on North campus, specifically in Bobb or Elder. They tend to party a lot more, including having more dorm parties (mainly pregames), and have a much closer proximity to the Frat quad. </p>
<p>What’s freshman freeze?</p>
<p>freshman freeze is NU’s policy of banning greek organizations from contacting freshman in any way during the first few weeks of the school year. So you’re not allowed to go inside frat houses, etc, etc. Of course freshmen disobey it all the time… (speaking as a freshman who doesn’t drink or party all that much)</p>
<p>party scene is definitely real here. But it’s not pervasive. You won’t be seeing “party at xxx frat” flyers everywhere. If you don’t want to party, that’s completely fine. If you do want to party, there’s fb groups and stuff that you can join for news on parties and frat activities, etc. I don’t know where people got the idea that the party scene was bad here.</p>
<p>there’s also a fair bit of non-greek activities, like the res colleges will have activities and events, as well as the dorms. </p>