Northwestern University Top Questions

I wish I had know more about the post-recession job market before I attended. Personally things worked out for me, but some of my friends had trouble finding jobs after graduation due to the recession.

Be prepared to study more than you thought possible. The library will be your friend.

Before coming to Northwestern, I wish I had known about how students view the balance between school, personal, social, and work life. Although each student is different, it would have been helpful to know how students with similar interests have dealt with their priorities. Many students have found success in finding the ideal balance, so having the ability to consult with them and gain advice would have been extremely helpful. All in all, my experience at Northwestern has still been a positive one, and I'm glad to have grown in the past 4 years here.

I wish I would've known how segregated this school is. Coming here I thought Northwestern would be a good mix of different types of people or at least that most people would be open-minded and open to people with new perspectives and experiences but based on what I've experienced since coming here this is definitely not the case. No one can consider themself a victim; everyone is at fault because I see this division even in the smaller sub communities that we've created. It feels like high school all over again sometimes.

It gets COLD. I'm from Southern California and had never seen snow until coming, so I strongly advise in investing in winter gear. Academically, it's a lot of hard work, but not too much. There's still plenty of time to go into Chicago and hang out with friends (and do make time to go in to Chicago while you're here. Evanston as a town isn't too much fun, and there's not really much to do).

It really kind of matters how you dress here. People don't wear pajamas to class.

I wish I would have known how cold it is, chicago is sooo cold!!! I also wish I would have known more about distribution requirements and AP credit policies.

How to cook!

The competition is huge!

That I needed to be able to manage distractions, like Facebook and the internet better--it's easy to get behind on school work and very difficult to catch up.