The Pros and Cons of Northwestern

What is Northwestern’s reputation?

“pre-professional” “econ bros” “AND is in our DNA” “toxic hustle culture” “beautiful lakeside campus” “freezing cold winters” “popular Big Ten sports” “$1,000 Canada Goose jackets” “we have our own beach” “wide diversity of interests” “segregated student body” “top programs in theater, music, engineering, and education” “something for everyone”

Northwestern is a leading private university of 8,000 undergraduates located in the upscale college town of Evanston, Illinois, 45 minutes north of Chicago. In runs on the quarter system, which means you get to take more courses, but for shorter periods of time. And it’s worth noting that one quarter of all students at Northwestern come from the state of Illinois. In many respects, the university feels like the Midwestern version of UPenn: it’s about the same size, it’s broken up into different undergraduate colleges, and there’s a strong pre-professional “always on the go” bent that makes it feel like everyone is passing you by on the super-highway to success. Also, it sits on a big lake, and it’s freezing cold.

Something for everyone.

It’s not easy to put your finger on the defining personality of Northwestern. It has the feel of an Ivy League University: Midwest Edition. It’s roughly the same size as most Ivies, always ranks in the Top 20, and is known for excellent research. But unlike most top universities, it doesn’t stand out as “particularly this” or “particularly that.” Most top schools have a strong, somewhat polarizing personality that you either love or hate. Harvard is impressive but elitist. Brown is open-minded but radical. UChicago is intellectual but weird. Cornell is hardcore but remote.

Northwestern, by contrast, is like the vanilla of the ice cream world, perhaps in a good way. It’s a little bit of everything, and not too much of anything. It’s competitive, but not overbearing. It’s progressive, but not excessively woke. It’s elite, but not snobbish. It’s in a pleasant town, but close to a major city. And maybe that’s its secret strength: it’s a well-balanced, top-tier research university, with lots of great undergraduate programs, and something for everyone.

The Pros of Northwestern…

#1: With Northwestern, you get six different schools for the price of one. The university is broken up into six undergraduate colleges — 1) Arts and Sciences, 2) Engineering, 3) Theater, 4) Music, 5) Journalism, and 6) Education — and what’s great is that you can freely take courses from any of them, and even double major from two different colleges (which is not always the case at other schools). Also, each of these specialty programs is among the best in the nation, so no matter what you dabble in, you’ll get first-rate instruction.

#2: Because the school has so many different undergraduate programs, there’s a real diversity of interests on campus. You’ll meet students who are budding musicians, future SNL cast members, soon-to-be CEOs, potential Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists, etc. This is much more interesting than going somewhere where everyone’s on the same career track.

#3: There are abundant undergraduate research opportunities on campus, and plenty of school funding. The university is heavily invested in supporting student research, even if it’s in a field outside of your major. Compare this to some highly competitive state schools like UMichigan, UCLA or Berkeley where you have to fight tooth and nail to land a research gig. Here you basically just sign up.

#4: The “stunning” campus is located along Lake Michigan, and some of the student buildings sit right on the shoreline and look out across the water. The campus is in the upscale college town of Evanston, which is fairly safe (except for bike thefts) and downtown Chicago is just 45 minutes away. The campus even has its own beach, though you’ll only get to use it if you’re here for the warm summer months.

The Cons of Northwestern…

#1: There’s a saying at Northwestern: “AND is in our DNA.” It means that you can always do more — and by extension — that you’re never quite doing enough. This kind of “hustle” mentality is meant to motivate and inspire, but really it just makes overworked, over-anxious students feel even worse about themselves. In this respect, the career-obsessed culture at Northwestern mimics the climate at UPenn, where students are perpetually striving to keep up with the Joneses to land that summer internship, get into the right investment club, etc. Perhaps because of that, almost a third of students here pursue a double major.

#2: You can’t talk about Chicago without mentioning the weather. Winters here are long and brutal. They don’t call it “the windy city” for nothing. It’s no coincidence that the guy who wrote the book series behind Game of Thrones (George R. R. Martin) and who kept warning us that “winter is coming” is a graduate of Northwestern. Clearly he was traumatized by his time on campus.

#3: Northwestern’s social scene is experiencing some growing pains. Not long ago, Greek Life enjoyed a prominent place on campus. But around 2020 there was a highly-publicized social reckoning where students began to quit their fraternities and sororities en masse due to accusations of systemic sexism, racism, and classism. Currently, about 30-40% of students participate in Greek Life, but it’s a tender issue and things might change suddenly.

If you like Northwestern, you might also like…

Assuming that you’re interested in applying to the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences at Northwestern for a liberal arts education, there are a few other similar schools to consider.

UPenn is probably the most similar: it’s also divided into a number of undergraduate colleges and has a very strong “pre-professional” air that caters to students who are always itching to advance their careers. Princeton is like this as well, though Princeton is more academically demanding and about twice as hard to get into (4% vs. 7%).

If you’re looking to stay in the Midwest, the University of Michigan is a good choice too. It’s a lot bigger with 33,000 undergraduates (vs. 8,000), and it has a much better social scene, but it shares a strong sports culture and a variety of really strong undergraduate programs. UChicago is another option about an hour away, but the academics at UChicago are much harder, they have a much more prominent core curriculum, and the students are much quirkier. (There aren’t a lot of “econ bros” at UChicago.)

How to get in?

The best way to get into Northwestern is to apply Early Decision. The regular decision rate is only 7%, but the Early Decision rate (which requires a binding commitment) is 20%. That means, all things considered, you’re three times as likely to get admitted if you apply ED. Also, bear in mind that Northwestern fills roughly half of their freshmen class with ED candidates, which means that if you wait to apply Regular Decision, half the seats will already by gone. For more info on the pros and cons of Early Decision, click here.

Should you submit your SAT or ACT score?

Northwestern is technically “test optional,” which means you can apply to the school without submitting your standardized test scores. And each year, roughly half the applicants do so. But when you look at whom the school actually admits (Class of 2026), 78% of admitted students submitted either their SAT (47%) or ACT (31%). That means that the vast majority of admitted students (almost 4 out 5) submitted their scores. And remember: those who got in without submitting their scores likely had other factors working in their favor, such as being recruited athletes, children of faculty, legacy students, etc. The median SAT for admitted students is 1530, and the median ACT is 34, so you want to make it a top priority in your test prep planning to get as close to those numbers as possible.