<p>This past winter was a LOT nicer than the previous one. You know, each year is different everywhere, mild or not, rainy or whatever.
Insofar as Chicago vs. St. Louis weatherwise, we are in a position to hear directly from students about summers and winters - summers are comparable and winters slightly tougher in Chicago.
I’d still opt for NU over Wash U, and one reason is the incredible city of Chicago – just wonderful.</p>
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<p>Since we live in a spectacular city, I honestly had no idea how much our entire family would come to like Chicago. We all (even D’s younger sibling) absolutely love having frequent excuses to visit. </p>
<p>A huge unexpected benefit of D’s school choice!</p>
<p>I’m vicariously excited for all of you on the brink of moving to Evanston for your first year at NU. I can imagine that you may be nervous, but expect that you’ll all gradually get to discover your own list of reasons to love NU.</p>
<p>Congratulations and best of luck with your freshman year!!</p>
<p>Bumping this as it relates to another thread just started.</p>
<p>My reason is simple; it was the best school that I got in to. All the other schools weren’t bad, they just weren’t as academically challenging, and didn’t have the same reputation. I know it’s bad to go to a school based solely on the fact that it’s famous, but really. Northwestern’s name means a lot, and the alumni association is HUGE, literally worldwide. I know that getting an education at NU may not guarantee that I will have a great job (I’m a film major…), but it certainly puts me at a higher critical thinking level than any other university might.</p>
<p>Our S is on the brink of weighing his final choices (after next week) so I thought this thread might be interesting to others in the same position.</p>
<p>Congratulations to you lucky few who have NU among your options this year!</p>
<p>@NorthwesternDad
Your post #44 on page 3 was the best post I have ever read on college confidential. </p>
<p>Thank you so much for taking the time to write that. During that feverish period of choosing colleges and rushing essays, you gave me more inspiration to apply to Northwestern than anything the school itself had to offer me in circulated emails or college brochures. “Polite confetti” haha, that was an amazing image in my mind.</p>
<p>After fortunately being accepted into the Northwestern Class of 2017, I had to come back to this thread to thank you again for all your help. As more decisions come out in the next week or so, I will make a decision, but Northwestern is definitely in my top three. Let’s go Wildcats!</p>
<p>You are most welcome, michael2013 and thanks much for the compliment. Good luck with your decisions next week.</p>
<p>Haha – S just realized that the author of Game of Thrones went to Northwestern, which would be a novel reason to choose NU. :)</p>
<p>I remember when I realized that. I flipped.</p>
<p>^^ Hehe “a <em>novel</em> reason to choose NU.”</p>
<p>I see what you did there…</p>
<p>Here is a piece that I found interesting (“North By Northwestern”)…
If Northwestern schools were drinks
By Taylor Thomas
([If</a> Northwestern schools were drinks | North by Northwestern](<a href=“http://northbynorthwestern.com/story/if-northwestern-schools-were-drinks/]If”>http://northbynorthwestern.com/story/if-northwestern-schools-were-drinks/))</p>
<p>College is all about finding balance – be it a balance between class and extracurriculars, doing homework or hanging out with friends and, on the weekends, finding a balance between the morning’s raging hangover and finding time in the evening to, well, rage. </p>
<p>With that in mind, it’s important to look at how the balance you strike between the two reflects on your time at Northwestern. Obviously some people are all about shots and staying up to study for six hours before their sociology midterm, while others appreciate the fine art of mixology and get their thesis proposals turned in a week ahead of the due date. If you marry the two – college and drinking – you can figure out what drinking at Northwestern says about its students. So, if Northwestern were a bar, what would the undergraduate schools be? </p>
<p>Judd A. and Marjorie Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences: Jungle juice
Ah, jungle juice, the quintessential college drink. Just like the College of Arts and Sciences, with jungle juice, you’re never quite sure what you’re getting. It could be anything – vodka, tequila, rum, Kool-Aid that the cheap-ass party hosts hope you don’t realize is just Kool-Aid – but to be sure, there’s always some sort of variety.</p>
<p>And it’s the typical college experience. Just like you’re bound to find jungle juice at the latest fundraising party your friends tell you you have to go to, you’re definitely going to see some Weinberg kids at the beer pong table or by the bar. </p>
<p>The Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications: Straight gin
While this selection may seem random to those who haven’t suffered through the night session of 201-1, or 301 in the winter, Medilldos know that straight liquor is about the only thing that can get you through the required 45 credits for a Medill degree. </p>
<p>Seriously, though, you would need a gin, straight up, if your school gave an eponymous “F" for not following AP style and then put a goddamn Oxford comma in its title.</p>
<p>Robert R. McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science: Absinthe
The drink of choice for McCormick is absinthe, not because you need all sorts of high-tech gear – in absinthe’s case, all the paraphernalia like absinthe spoons, etc., and in engineering’s case, all the like, mini suitcases full of wiring and electric boards and other things . It’s because absinthe was originally developed for alcoholics who were too poor to keep buying wine and lower-proof liquor, so someone made a super strong liquor for super cheap. And if we’re being honest, if you are in an engineering program, you need as much alcohol as you can get. </p>
<p>Update: This designation may change on rumors that the school is considering a name change to the Mccormick School of Engi-beer-ing. Or the pun may just drive more students to drink. </p>
<p>School of Communication: Homebrew
Okay, Comm students, we get it: Y’all were hipsters before anyone else knew who hipsters were. From your independent film productions on the weekend, to studying obscure films in that one seminar “that changed your life” that you tell absolutely anyone you meet about, you obviously have a leg up on us in what’s cutting-edge and avant-garde. </p>
<p>I guess it’s for the best that you won’t share your home-brewed stout with us, with barley you roasted yourself on a woodburning stove with cherry and cedar; it’s not like we’d get it. We’ll just cry in the corner and sip your previous drink-of-choice: PBR. </p>
<p>Henry and Leigh Bienen School of Music: Red wine
Bienen students are similar to Comm kids, in that their tastes are more refined (read: obscure) than the university’s as a whole. If you’re ever in a conversation with a Bienen kid, be prepared to be blown out of the water by their superior knowledge of music, from what Brahms liked to have for breakfast to what prescription Shostakovich wore in his pre-Harry-Potter Harry Potter glasses. </p>
<p>Ultimately, you’ll be left in the dust as they talk about orchestral arrangements and bouquets, so just drain your class as they talk about the tannins that obviously came from the grapes being grown on the west side of the hill. </p>
<p>School of Education and Social Policy: Capri Sun
It’s not just that SESP kids would totally rock out with a pouch full of Pacific Cooler, but it’s also because of those field trips we all took in elementary school. Kids would totally be excited to miss out on classes for the day, and one of the best parts was the *****in’ lunch you got to bring from home. If you were lucky, you got a bag of Cool Ranch Doritos and a peanut butter and banana sandwich with the crusts cut off. If you were luckier, you got lunch in a box. </p>
<p>Yes, you got a Lunchables. Screw all those tin lunchboxes. You’re not going to worry about lugging your lunchbox around all day; you’re too cool for that. You’re going to make your personal pizzas, make mini pizzas with the pepperoni, and drink that Capri Sun like the badass you are. </p>
<p>Of course, at the end of the day, you’re still a four-foot something, tiny (and adorable!) little elementary school kid on a chaperoned field trip, drinking Capri Sun. Such is the lot of SESP.</p>
<p>People choose NU because it is among the best and most well rounded college experiences in the nation. Where else do you get a Big-10 atmosphere, Ivie academics, a diverse, smart, and collaborative student body, and one of the best cities in the US in close proximity?</p>
<p>There definitely is something for everyone at NU.</p>
<p>Let me also now express my gratitude to NorthwesternDad. I’ve found your posts helpful and, while supportive of NU, not bellicose wrt other schools. We sent our deposits today! Communications (R/TV/F)</p>
<p>Do you still have kids there?</p>
<p>Thanks much, tougis. S is a sophomore in engineering and ISP at NU. D went to a Ivy
and both are very happy with their choices and neither would trade one for the other. It is different strokes for different snowflakes and at the end of the road, it is what they make out of it. And NU definitely provides all the resources for one to succeed and so are many of the other top schools.</p>
<p>@tougis, hearty congratulations to your D. She has made a great choice and you all should be very proud. Good luck going forward.</p>
<p>Thanks NorthWesternDad and MomCares, and others above. Your posts were very helpful. </p>
<p>DS is in Chicago now, about to go to Wildcat day! He has not decided yet, still contemplating some competitive options. But there was something that just clicked when we went to NU to visit last year - the sense of balance between outstanding academics and EC activities, the appearance that students were genuinely happy and thriving personally as well as academically. Love the theatre community too… It would be hard to turn down big merit $ at a good school to go to NU but we are heading that way.</p>
<p>It’s always nice to see a old thread pop back up for a good reason, rather than a ■■■■■ trying to stir up madness. I liked the joke about it being <em>a novel</em> reason. NUDad’s post about what drink each school is, is funny, but somehow I don’t particularly want to be any of those :-D</p>
<p>@esteemom - Hope your S has fun at Wildcat Days and appreciates how fortunate he is to have such great options! Our S will follow in his footsteps in a couple weeks and happily I get to join him. We’re both looking forward to spending time in Chicago and Evanston! </p>
<p>We’re really eager to see what S decides to do, but I think it’s a great testament to how well-rounded Northwestern is when both of our kids, who have VERY different interests and many strong options, find NU to be among the best schools in their chosen fields. </p>
<p>@Crimsonstained7 - Haha… I was quite proud of that <em>novel</em> Game of Thrones comment, which once again shows just how lame we moms can be. :)</p>
<p>That’s the kind of joke my dad would tell. He’s quite corny like that.</p>