<p>First: Northwestern’s reputation is pretty similar to Duke’s, for comparison’s sake. The school doesn’t have the pretentious feel that I felt at a few of the Ivies (not all, mind you, just some), and we’ve come to characterize it as the difference between awesome people and cancer-curing-at-age-12 superhumans. Most of NU’s differences are in its atmosphere, really. The campus has been built up over ages, so there’s a pile of different architecture, and it butts up against downtown Evanston to the south, the lake to the east, and some smaller shops and residential areas to the west. There’s the School of Communications, with all of its brilliant actors, radio/tv/film majors, and dancers (look up the Dolphin Show. I just saw it, and it was amazing. It’s been selling out all its shows this year, so far), and the Bienen School musicians with all their incredible talent. The student performances are incredible. It’s one of the nice things about having those extra colleges, even if the arts and sciences students like to poke fun at them.</p>
<p>Northwestern pride? USNews can help you there. Can’t say, otherwise. It’s just a good place to be. Good people, fun things… our sports teams are ridiculously solid right now, too. I think it’s really cool how broad the talents here are. Perks of having the various artsy courses of study floating around. It’s sort of the idea of Northwesterniness that floats around campus. We just know that we have things good here.</p>
<p>Class schedules really depend. Music majors have piles of things put into their schedule, pre-med tracks will have a lot of time devoted to chem their first year, engineers have a lot of work and need to meet with design groups intermittently, people who have readings-heavy courses will need to take more time… but it all depends. I have plenty of time for two club sports, and could easily take on a couple more things. There’s really always room for more, depending on how ambitious/crazy you’re feeling. It’s all about managing your time. The website says it’s easy to go to Chicago. Students say it’s actually a pain to get to, and not worth it. I’ve been to a few concerts already this year, and I’ve headed into the city with some friends for kicks. It’s easy to get to, just bring something to do on the train. There’s a lot of blather about student groups, but the most important part is how eager everyone is for new people. I picked up gymnastics on a whim when I got here, and now the team captain’s pretty much trying to shove me into competing. It’s a good time. Oh. That quarter system. They say it moves fast. We’re talking midterms at week 4 and 7, and then a final week 10. Don’t miss class until you have a reliable friend there to help you out. They fly. On the plus side, if you realize you hate a class and it’s too late to drop, it doesn’t drag on and on, which is nice. And the profs are awesome, most of them.</p>
<p>I have no idea what you’re looking for, so here’s a pile of words for your consideration.</p>
