The Wildcat Expierence

After a night of some much-needed sleep, we woke up bright and early to head out on today’s adventure which was visiting Northwestern University's campus in Evanston. Because the campus is quite far away, we would be taking the train there. After meeting up in the lobby of the hotel around 8 AM, we headed towards the train station nearby. On the way there, Maxime spotted a small Italian shop he wanted to check out. We saw that they sold breakfast sandwiches so we decided to just get our breakfast there in order to save some time. 

After a short breakfast, we walked to the train station and took the two trains necessary to make our way to Northwestern. The train ride went by pretty fast and we got to see more of the city on our way there. 

Great view of the campus right
outside the Segal Visitors Center

Once we finally arrived in Evanston, we walked towards the Segal Visitors Center, where our tour of the Northwestern campus would begin. During our walk, I was surprised to see how truly beautiful the campus was. It was located right near Lake Michigan so the university had great views.

Before heading on our tour we got a presentation from an NU student and an NU admissions officer. They spoke in great detail about what the Northwestern experience is like. Being a liberal arts college, they encourage their students to take courses in different disciplines in order to become well-rounded students. Northwestern also prides itself on being a top tear research university and allocates three million dollars annually to research grants awarded to students. Something that stood out to me during the presentation was Northwestern courses operate on a quarter system. This has always been a daunting concept to me because instead of having 15 weeks to learn the material, you only have 10. It was later explained by our tour guide how NU splits up their courses so enough time is allotted to cover all the material in one quarter. 

The Rock

After the presentation, we split up into tour groups led by NU students. Unlike what I have seen on other university tours, we got to pick our tour guide. We decided to go with Tucker, a NU student majoring in Theater, Dance, and Sociology. On the tour, we heard more details about the campus, courses, and different resources the university offers its students. Along our tour route, we also encountered “The Rock”. “The Rock”, as you may have read in previous blogs, was originally a fountain on the Northwestern campus. One winter, its pipes froze and the fountain was rendered useless. Students of NU at the time painted over it and since then it has become a tradition for students to paint the rock and write whatever message they want to share. 

The time spent today at Northwestern really made me realize the bubble we live in California. It is hard to envision yourself somewhere you have never been before, so I had never really thought about applying to many colleges outside of California. With everything we learned and experienced at Northwestern I now really find myself wanting to apply there myself. The aspect that most sold me on Northwestern is how much they encourage students to explore different interests not just academically but also with the campus life that they foster. Our tour guide mentioned that on campus there are residential colleges, which is a housing option for students. What is special about these colleges is that they are built around a special-interest theme. For example, there is a residential college for people interested in communications. The house includes a room specifically reserved for the house to put on a Model UN. There are also a variety of clubs to join on campus. Our tour guide mentioned it would be hard to be unable to find something that interests you. This stood out to me because although I want to pursue a career as a healthcare professional, I also have other interests like dance and music that I would like to continue exploring while in college.

After our very informational site visit at Northwestern, we hopped back on the train and headed back to the hotel. This time around the train ride was more eventful. On the train ride, we met Angie, a Chicagoan software engineer who moved out to the Bay Area for her job. We spoke to her about the ILC and our experience in Chicago so far. She was really interested in the program and our thoughts on Chicago. It was nice to meet someone from the Bay Area who gave us more insight into the connection between the two cities.

When we arrived back in Chicago, we spent some time at the hotel before heading back out to visit Millennium Park. At Millennium Park, we saw iconic structures like the Jay Pritzker Pavilion, Cloudgate (the bean), the Crown Fountain, and the Buckingham Fountain.

Cloudgate (the bean)

After a long day, we have all retired to our rooms to write our blogs and pack since tomorrow we move into our dorms at UChicago. I am really looking forward to getting to not only have a site visit but also get to experience campus life for ourselves in the next couple of weeks we will spend here. Our first university visit of the trip was great, I hope our next one will be even better.