How are the students at northwestern? When I visited, they seemed incredible- brilliant, but not showing it off to prove a point. Are all of them as friendly as they were when I visited? Also how large is the LGBTQ+ population at NU?
No we are not that great lol. NU does attract outgoing students with the sports and greek life, but other than that, we are mostly just a bunch of people who did well in high school and want degrees and careers.
I’m not sure about that population but I assume it would be pretty large because we are known for our theatre program. We have a lot of clubs and programs related to diversity and inclusion, so you could contact someone who’s in charge of that stuff and they could probably help you out. I just found this page that might help http://www.northwestern.edu/msa/resources/lgbtqia-resources/gsrc/index.html
Thank you so much! how would you say Greek life fits into the social scene? I’m not very interested in joining but are there other things to do and be a part of on campus?
Absolutely, at the beginning of the year they have a HUGE org fair where you basically walk through and have people shouting at you to join their clubs and bribing you with candy. Some of the clubs are competitive to get into, like Model UN, but many of them will welcome anyone, especially the community service oriented clubs or the ones about diversity and inclusion or different cultures. I’m not in any clubs because my work study job is pretty time consuming but most people I talk to seem to be involved in at least 1 or 2. NU culture really encourages people to do many different things (and then later realize that triple majoring with a job and 3 clubs might not be doable haha)
There really are a lot of talented, invigorating, and inspiring people at NU. I think of the flavor at NU is that people are very hard-working (owing to the quarter system) but still like to socialize and have fun. There are parties and events to attend on Saturday nights, but you can bet people are busting their ass come Sunday morning.
I think I was similar to you: an LGBT applicant who wasn’t interested in Greek life and wanted an outstanding education not at the expense of my humanity or social skills. NU is a wonderful music and theater school with Chicago’s boystown just a mass transit ride away, so there are ample opportunities to get involved with the LGBT scene.
I ended up graduating feeling like I had life long friends, a stellar education, and landed a spot at a top 10 medical school so I don’t think any doors are closed to you coming to NU.
One perception that is fairly common is that the student body is fairly pre-professional, i.e. focused on internships and careers and perhaps future networks more than students at some other schools.
^ True, though no more pre-professional than Penn, Cornell, Georgetown, and Duke.
NU sends a higher proportion of undergrads to PhD programs than Penn and Georgetown.
i think im cool
But in all seriousness, in my time here I’ve worked with some of the most capable people I’ve ever met. I came from a high school known for sending students to elite colleges, and NU students honestly blow everyone I met before out of the water. So many people here are born leaders and extraordinary on many levels that aren’t just academic.
I’m a freshman here at NU, and I think one of the good things about the students here is how different everyone is. Part of that is the different majors (you have theater kids and journalists but also engineers, Econ, etc) but I also think our students come from a lot of different walks of life compared to other “elite” schools. That said, the atmosphere isn’t competitive (at least in the classes I’ve been in) like it is other places, kids really want to work together and learn together. They are really friendly and welcoming and there are so many different groups where you find the perfect people for you. I will say one thing about Northwestern (and I don’t think we’re the only place that deals with this) is that there’s a culture of being stressed— sometimes it feels like a competition for who is the most stressed (most work, most clubs, least sleep) and that is unhealthy.
As for Greek life, it’s definitely pretty prevalent on campus (don’t have the numbers in front of me) but as someone who didn’t rush I don’t think I felt in any way left out. I’d describe it as something that “it’s cool if you are in it and cool if you aren’t”. There’s so many different things to do if you aren’t in a frat/srat socially both to meet people (there’s a million clubs that are awesome) and party-wise, so it’s definitely not a situation where if you aren’t involved in Greek Life, you will be left out.
Hope this helps!