Dear prospies: Don’t come here. Or at least know the truth before you do
Congratulations! So you got into Northwestern. On this most fortunate and joyous occasion, I am here to explain to you why coming here is a fairly bad life choice. Maybe not for your future because you’ll get a pretty good education here and maybe even make some nice contacts. Still, there are plenty of reasons why Northwestern sucks.
You will not have the same breaks as your friends because you will be on the quarter system. In May, when everyone’s Facebook status is “Finals, almost done!” yours will be “MORE MIDTERMS. FML.” You will have to pray that internships will accommodate your weird summer schedule (I warn you, they often don’t) and then you’ll be bored out of your mind in September when all your friends are back in school, your internship or summer program is over and you are stuck at home.
You will never feel like you are smart enough or involved enough because someone else will be taking more classes and be on more executive boards than you. You will rack your brain trying to understand how in the world they are managing to function, but then realize you actually don’t have time to contemplate this fear because you have a research paper (or a problem set for you math/science people) due in 15 hours.
The weather sucks, too. I’m from Miami, as in Florida, as in always 80 degrees. Winter here is scary by anyone’s standards. It’s especially terrifying for those of us from sub-tropic regions — and it never ends. Spring always pretends to come but it’s never quite there until we’re practically done. And then we go back home and the weather in Evanston is finally really nice. It’s the irony of our schedule: the two and a half months of gorgeous weather occur when no one is on campus.
Then, there’s the student body. Some adjectives that have been used to describe Northwestern students: homogeneous, pretentious, awkward, superficial and lame. Since we’re all grammar nerds, let’s look at some nouns too: tool, A-type and over-achiever. You’re going to find hard-workers and academic mountain climbers anywhere, for sure. However, Northwestern conversations regularly turn into verbal sparring over who has more midterms while getting less sleep. I don’t know about you, my dear prospies, but that does not sound very appealing to me.
Now I must admit, it really is not as bad as it sounds. There are plenty of wonderful people here, I swear. You probably won’t even run into the pretentious toolbags, unless you have class with them. But if you have class with them, be prepared. They will always make some sort of lame-ass comment in a sad attempt to impress the professor. Take one of my classes, for example: there’s always the same three girls that never shut up, trying to kiss ass for an hour and 20 minutes every day, and by the looks on the faces around me, I’m not the only person annoyed by them. On the bright side, I’m told that it’s good practice for the real world because, let’s face it, there are plenty of sucky people everywhere. They just like to really put themselves out there around here.
Also, any senior will tell you, Northwestern is really just four years of awkward experiences. The people on this campus have a strange fixation with that word that I just cannot understand. Even if something isn’t actually awkward, people will always feel the need to say it is and make it so. A crazy night dancing and hooking up at the Keg followed by a walk of shame the next day? Awkward. Seductively smiling at your cute English literature TA? Not awkward, just creepy.
But no worries — we still have a great social scene. Or at least we could, if we didn’t constantly fear the wrath of the administration. Sure, they want us to be safe and yes, binge drinking is bad. However, monitoring an entire student body’s social activity like Big Brother on a power trip is not how you foster a sense of responsibility and community. It’s how you cultivate paranoia and resentment. It’s perfectly understandable to show concern and take action if someone is so sick that he needs to be sent to the hospital, but pressuring students into tattling on fraternities is ridiculous, and only sends the parties off-campus where safety and security is even scarcer. Nine out of 10 times, it’s not even the fraternity’s fault that someone was over-served. Some people need to learn to control themselves, end of story.
One would imagine that if the focus is really on our safety, the school would at least make sure that we’re putting safety first. But no, Northwestern doesn’t have medical amnesty, something commonly found on college campuses nationwide. A guarantee of no disciplinary repercussions for getting intoxicated comrades the medical attention they need seems like a reasonable and extremely beneficial request. Not here though; we can’t have that because there are “legal complications.” I can accept the enduring legacy of a once dry campus; I cannot accept being afraid of getting my friends in trouble if I take them to the hospital.
At the end of the day, there’s plenty wrong with this school, and we all love to bitch and complain about every last detail. But there’s a reason I’m still here. It’s not perfect, but I still like it. Hell, I love Northwestern because despite the little annoyances, we’ve got some real gold. From professors to students, from Norris and the Lakefill to Dillo Day and Dance Marathon, there are plenty of reasons for me to stay, so I did. I might hate the tool bags in my discussion section and the contradicting stance the administration takes on partying — but everyone does. It’s part of the common suffering that every Northwestern student goes through, and it’s what makes this place a community. Honestly, after all the shit I just spewed, I’m still really happy I go here, and if that doesn’t convince you that Northwestern is the place for you, darling prospies, then I don’t know what will.
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Instead of coming to Northwestern, try becoming a pirate. Or you can return home.
This was good. I’m from Miami and hate it too, not just because of the weather.
No culture or diversity on campus, everyone is pretty much superficial.
cranorange
April 27, 2009 at 11:22 pm
why would you write this? how about focusing on the positive aspects of NU? yeah there are great and terrible things about each university but in NU’s case, i’d say the good outweighs the bad.
you pessimist!
April 27, 2009 at 11:33 pm
great article – if you like to drink go to a real college
knowledge
April 28, 2009 at 12:36 am
But I love drinking AND Northwestern.I might even say drinking AT Northwestern. That way, even during drunken babble I learn something. Everyone loves Drunk History on YouTube, so live it. Or dont.
blame it
April 28, 2009 at 1:17 am
I love you Alessandra, but you already know how I feel about this article…especially as a transfer student…there is not a single college that is perfect. Comparatively speaking–and I can do that because I have something to compare it to– Northwestern is pretty damn great. I agree with a lot of your points, but show me a college where those things do not exist!
Your writing is amazing per usual but I bleed purple Al, you know that!
Julia Brook
April 28, 2009 at 2:19 am
quite honestly, i know barely anyone who thinks these “bad things” about northwestern are really bad. for example – living in a community of overachievers can be overwhelming from time to time, but it’s so awesome to have people around who are competent and successful.
i think this article represents the opinions of a VERY small part of the student body – it will hinder prospies from coming here, even if they would love it here, which i think is sad. bad job NBN for letting this trash talk get published.
wow
April 28, 2009 at 2:50 am
wow…i could not have said this any better. Except you forgot one MORE reason NU blows — how insanely annoying it is to actually go to school in Evanston, where we are surrounded by crotchety old people or new young couples who are overprotective of their “learning enriched” 2 year old. And they all hate college kids.
Steven Swanson
April 28, 2009 at 9:37 am
Excellent article…I agree wholeheartedly with the writer.
outgoing senior
April 28, 2009 at 10:34 am
I’m so glad someone wrote this. I am contemplating graduating early or studying abroad just to get away from Northwestern and its administration and its students. There are plenty of great people here, but the social scene is horrendous. I hate how the two halves of the campus are so separated. And, yes, the students here are extremely superficial. Nothing wrong with that, but if I’m going to go to school in a USC/Pepperdine kind of atmosphere, at least let there be good weather.
Sydney
April 28, 2009 at 11:30 am
Props to this article. Someone had to say everything she’s pointed out here…it’d be wrong for NBN not to publish this to provide both sides.
Ginger Brew
April 28, 2009 at 12:06 pm
agree on all these points. go to state school.
Anonymous
April 28, 2009 at 1:48 pm
Here’s another take (PREMED TAKE)
I’d say ~1/3 of you incoming prospies are premed, and the experience is a little bit different. Freshman year, you’ll meet a lot of overqualified kids, and suffer through chem with all of them, and bond over the hard tests, ruthless labs, and terrible weather. You’ll take easy classes on religions and philosophies you don’t care about, get blown away, really interested, and maybe a little bit depressed by how awesome Russian lit is, take some kind of calc class taught by a prof you don’t understand, join about thirty clubs who will continue to plague your inbox for the next four years. Meanwhile, you’ll go to a few parties, make a lot of friends, and by the end of the year, you’ll know a good deal of people in your side of the campus, and get really excited for Dillo Day.
Then next year, you’ll meet a whole new set of people, take harder, more sciency classes, work A LOT, get into a lab, become really active in one of the clubs you joined, start to meet profs and laugh about all the douchebags in your discussion section–hey, maybe even you were a douchebag in your discussion section! I was for a day! Oh yeah, you’ll take HUMAN SEX and you will love it and be reminded why you came here. Your research will be really cool, and you will find you have lots of inside stories with people you don’t know all over campus about your profs and lab and all the funny/horrible/awesome things that happen in the mildly dangerous and somewhat absurd realm of premedom. But mostly you’ll just study or feel like you should be studying right now…which I need to be doing.
Also, read the end of the article...
April 28, 2009 at 2:31 pm
ahahahah… love the french book in the picture. very reflective of our time together a year ago, julie.
shi
April 28, 2009 at 2:32 pm
Basically agree with everything you’ve said. About two thirds of N.U. kids aren’t just uncool –it’s like they don’t know what *cool* is, and have confused it with…well…joining a fraternity or sorority, or becoming president of some group.
However, it’s worth mentioning that my education, in the sense of what I’ve learned about myself and the world, has actually been pretty great.
my 2 cents
April 29, 2009 at 12:58 am
pretty much agree with all points.
socially its worth mentioning that if you really know how to PARTY, and i do mean PARTY, theres about 5 people who go to NU who you can get down with.
if u dont want to go 2 frat parties for 4 years, don’t come here.
also: the admin has the policy of calling the police on people smoking weed in the dorms without even knocking.
alphabetagaga
April 29, 2009 at 9:23 am
Let me just start off by saying that I am just finishing my first year, so other people may disagree with me. However, an issue I think should be addressed for prospective students, as most are applying as freshmen, is that many people are not just pretentious but pretenders. They procrastinate until they don’t have any wiggle room for doing their assignments and then they complain about how much they have on their plate. The truth is that a lot of people (myself included) don’t always handle their time well and instead of sucking it up and finishing what they started they complain that they have to write a x-page paper by tomorrow even though it was assigned at least 3 days ago. I think that NU would be a good place to transfer into as a junior or senior.
Student
May 4, 2009 at 6:57 pm
If you really don’t like Northwestern, you should transfer to a different school. We won’t miss you. You should also feel ashamed because when you decided to go here, you took a spot that some other person could have used to make a positive contribution to our campus life.
student
May 26, 2009 at 10:01 pm
I agree with student above. True, there are negative aspects of this school, but people who complain about them are not making anything better. They’re just being bitches.
whosyourdaddy
May 28, 2009 at 5:21 am
I am currently abroad to get away from NU for the reasons mentioned in the article (particularly the weather), and for those of you suffering in Evanston, I can assure you that you’ll miss Northwestern once you’ve been away for a few months.
Away
May 28, 2009 at 5:25 am
Sure, complaining in unproductive, but honesty is important in allowing students to make the right choices from themselves as well.
As a recent alum, I agree with the article. I had times I wanted to run through tour groups yelling “DON’T GO HERE!” Going to school with so many talented and intelligent and successful people can be incredibly overwhelming and wearing, no matter how much you admire your peers.
However, it is also safe to say, you will meet awesome people at NU. When you graduate, you will miss them. You will miss the brilliance and potential you felt around you.
You will also have drunk nights, nervous break-down nights, nights you hate the pretentious entitlement, nights you realize how fortunate you are to have the opportunity to be studying at NU, nights that blend into the next three days because you haven’t slept, nights you wish wouldn’t end because tomorrow you have to bust out a 10 page paper, the football team actually won nights, it’s so freezing we’re not leaving the dorm for the whole weekend nights, nights you’re jealous of all your state school friends, and nights you do the things you dreamed of doing in college.
I hated 2 and a half years of my time at NU. The last year and a half were pretty good. I would have transferred, but my parents refused to help pay for it if I did.
But in the end, I’m glad for the education and the experience. Most of all, I’m glad for the people I met and opportunities I was offered at NU.
Alumna
June 9, 2009 at 3:29 am