<p>Hi I'm considering coming to Northwestern in the fall and I had some questions I was hoping current or former students could answer about life at NU.</p>
<p>Dorms: how strict are the dorms? are you allowed to have overnight guests (same sex or opposite sex? - and how strictly are these policies enforced</p>
<p>Social life: is it possible to do well in class and still go out frequently on weekends? how common is participation in intramural sports?</p>
<p>thanks</p>
<p>I’m a current junior-- two years in a residential college, one year in one of the nicer residence halls.</p>
<p>Social lives:</p>
<p>There will be a couple of times every year that you find yourself in the library on Friday after 5pm. But it won’t happen too often. Pretty much everyone I know does homework at some point during the weekend, but it’s almost never gets in the way of having fun most of the time.</p>
<p>Intramurals:</p>
<p>A lot of people participate, a lot don’t. There’s no expectation that you participate, but if you want to, you’ll absolutely get a chance. Really, most people here are pretty laid-back about that sort of thing.</p>
<p>Dorm strictness:</p>
<p>You can have same-sex overnight guests, though if you’re in a double/triple, your roommate(s) have veto power. So if your best friend from home wants to visit overnight, it shouldn’t be a problem.</p>
<p>(Parents, don’t read this next part.)</p>
<p>Even though (I think) it’s against the rules, I’ve never known <em>anyone</em> having trouble with opposite-sex overnight guests. I mean, my off-campus-dwelling girlfriend was at the library late last night, didn’t feel like walking home, and came and stayed with me. As I opened the door for her at midnight or whatever, we said hi to my CA (RA at other schools), and he didn’t care. I’ve never seen those policies enforced, and they probably won’t be unless you give your CA a reason to.</p>
<p>The same goes for NU’s double-occupancy rule. Technically, you can’t have more than double the number of people who live there in a room at a time. As in, a double can’t have more than four people, a single can’t have more than two people. It’s silly, and it’s only enforced if you’re bothering others around you.</p>
<p>Alcohol policies are enforced a bit more strictly, but again, only if you give your CA a reason to enforce them. If you’ve got a keg in a student lounge (which has been attempted), you’re going to get in trouble. If you’re being truly disruptive, you’re going to get in trouble. If you’re having fun with a few friends and not bothering anyone, you’re probably okay.</p>
<p>So, not too strict. Basically, don’t be dumb.</p>
<p>Poster above me pretty much nailed it. </p>
<p>Overnight guests are never a problem with the university/security guards who do sign ins. If you have a jerk roommate, it might be a problem sometimes, but generally its fine.</p>
<p>I would say alcohol in dorms is relatively strict. If you get caught, you WILL get in trouble. So just dont give your CA a reason to come in (play loud music). Sometimes you will get a super chill CA who wont even do that, sometimes you will get people who run on the CA power trip and will write people up just for double occupancy (ridiculous). The former are more common than the latter. Both of my CAs were premeds who were never around as they were studying. The one time I got written up, it was because I was in a room of a person I didnt know and they were playing loud music RIGHT NEXT DOOR TO THE CAs ROOM. <em>faceslap</em>. </p>
<p>IM Sports? The biggest players are the frats, club sports players, or varsity players doing sports in the offseason. There are usually a few teams of people from like their floor in elder that do well. You wont have trouble finding a team. </p>
<p>As for going out, depends on your major, expectations, and ability. I have a friend who smokes weed far too much and gets a 3.8 with a hard major. I have friends who waste their time watching espn and staying up late and pass by with their 2.5 as a comm major.
Generally, the only people who consistently study every Mo/Fri/Sat nights are premed engineers who are trying to get med school GPAs like 3.7+. You wont have any trouble drinking a lot and still getting an above average gpa.</p>
<p>So if my boyfriend from New England came to visit/slept in my room, so long as my roommate didn’t mind, nobody would put up a fuss?</p>
<p>And what if your roomate did mind? A lot of hard feelings both ways. That’s why the policy is in place and why it should be enforced.</p>
<p>At the beginning of the year, you and your roommate will make and sign a contract together and turn it in to the CA. If you get into a dispute later in the year, the CA will pull out that contract and hold you to whatever you two agreed to. So if you’re planning on having overnight guests, make sure you’re happy with what you agree to in the contract about guests, because if your roommate makes a fuss later, you’ll want to be able to fall back on that contract.</p>
<p>I’ll also second everything TDozer said. Just don’t be stupid. Don’t blast loud music, and don’t try to squeeze too many people in one room (going a little over double occupancy probably won’t be a problem, but don’t try to pack 20 people into one room. That’s asking for trouble). Also, don’t spray inordinate amounts of febreeze around and outside your room to hide the smell of alcohol. I’ve heard a CA say that there’s almost no better way to send up a red flag than having a CA making the rounds walks through a cloud of febreeze. (Tip: Although I can’t personally vouch for this, I’ve heard that the BEST way to hide the smell of alcohol is to bake cookies. Just don’t burn the dorm down. :P)</p>
<p>And I’ve never had problems with the night guards. First of all, if your guests come over before 8, the guard won’t even be there to see them come in. Second, even if the guard is there when your guests come, how does he know they’re planning on staying overnight? For all he knows, they’ll visit for a few hours and leave. So yeah, just be nice to the guards, don’t give them any reason to suspect you, and you shouldn’t have any problems with them.</p>
<p>Are there any dorms in particular that don’t really look too hard at opposite-sex overnight guests?</p>
<p>to bake cookies… so are toaster ovens allowed? how about crock pots?</p>
<p>Nothing that generates heat is allowed. People bring these things anyway.</p>
<p>^ What he said. But I don’t see how you would bake cookies in a toaster…</p>
<p>However, there are usually several kitchenettes in each dorm that people can use to bake stuff.</p>
<p>@stressed23: Bobb-McCulloch probably doesn’t. It has the reputation for the most lax standards. But I’ve never personally been there, and I’m not close friends with anyone who lives there, so I only have the general reputation to go by. Can anyone verify this?</p>
<p>toaster oven is like a mini oven. so you could bake stuff.</p>
<p>they told me stuff that generates heat is allowed, but sempre mentioned cookies so i was wondering.</p>
<p>Maybe we’re picturing different kinds of toasters. I’m picturing the kind with two vertical slats into which you can stick slices of bread or bagels. If you stuck globs of cookie dough in those, that would get pretty messy. Not to mention it would take forever to make a whole batch of cookies that way. But anyway, it’s a moot point, since like I said, there are kitchenettes that students can use to bake and cook stuff.</p>
<p>What stuff did they tell you was allowed? According to the Rules and Regulations on NU’s website, “Northwestern University forbids the use or storage in sleeping rooms of microwaves, hot pots, toaster ovens or any appliances for cooking or
heating food or beverages. In addition, other heat producing appliances such as irons may not be used in sleeping rooms, and refrigerators with
interiors larger than three cubic feet are prohibited.”</p>
<p>[Amazon.com:</a> Toaster Ovens](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/Toaster-Ovens-Toasters-Small-Appliances/b?ie=UTF8&node=289937]Amazon.com:”>http://www.amazon.com/Toaster-Ovens-Toasters-Small-Appliances/b?ie=UTF8&node=289937)</p>
<p>those are toaster ovens hahahaha. literally mini ovens.</p>
<p>oops i meant to say that stuff that generates heat is NOT allowed lol</p>