Northwestern University Top Questions

Northwestern University is best known for its research in math and the hard sciences, its acclaimed music and theater programs, and its developing status as a great undergrad liberal arts school.

Variety of course offerings. Has schools in journalism, communications, engineering, humanities, theater that draw a lot of students

My favorite campus tradition is painting the rock. We have a giant rock on campus that students choose to guard and paint in order to advertise for their events. The tradition behind it is that you, as a group, have to guard the rock for 24 hours and then, under the cover of darkness, paint the rock over with your message or event information. Before I graduate, one of my goals is to guard the rock for a total of 100 hours. Starting my junior year, I've painted it 6 times and put in 36 hours at the rock.

N/A.

I love Purple Fridays! The band tries really hard to get everyone to wear purple on Fridays, particularly Fridays before games. Most people outside the band don't do it, but THEY SHOULD, because it's awesome. I also love seeing the rock get painted, because it happens at least once a week. It's like a great big newsfeed on what's going on around campus. The painted rocks by the lakefill are cool, too, because you can see where people have cared enough to paint one for a friend's birthday, a proposal or in memory of a someone who died. They all have their own little stories, and the whole area lies against the backdrop of the Chicago Skyline.

Northwestern University is best known for its ability to provide standards of excellence in academia and research. Along with being a private research University, Northwestern is also a NCAA Division 1 school, whose students are always full of school spirit.

My school is best known for its academic prominence and the success of the journalism program(Medill). Stephen Colbert is also an alumn.

Northwestern is known for its renowned graduate Kellogg business school, its premier Medill school of Journalism, and for 7 of its top 10 ranking engineering programs. Located along the lake shore and half an hour away from downtown Chicago, Northwestern's location is perfect for venturing downtown for jobs and learning while allowing for the peace and quiet of a small college town. Furthermore, Northwestern features one of the nation's oldest and most successful debate teams and some notable alumni such as Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens. Lastly, Northwestern features a daily printed newspaper and an online magazine.

Northwestern has many stand-out characteristics from a national acclaimed theater department, the big painted rock in the campus center, the science majors living a few feet away from the fraternity houses, and to notable alums such as Stephen Colbert. For me, Northwestern's greatest attribute is the well-rounded student body. Students here like to stretch their limits until they cannot go any further. So, it's very common to see chemical engineers taking ballet class with me and vice versa. Northwestern students are known for being fearless and willing to take chances even if it requires pink tights.

Northwestern, I think, is best known for its semi-preppy prestige. People here aren't totally dorky, but they're Type A personalities, intelligent and focused students. I think it's also known for some of its majors and programs- the theater, engineering, pre-med, and journalism majors seem to be what people think of when they think of NU.