Today was amazing, it was informative and extremely helpful to me. Today my cohort visited Northwestern University, we took a tour and I really got a feel for the campus and the area. After the tour I feel like I know what Northwestern offers, what makes it unique and I further learned what I want in a university. Today we also went to Willis Tower which was nothing short of breathtaking.
The day started with me getting up at 6:00 am and getting dressed and ready around 7:30. I was ready before my cohort so I had to wait for about 1 and half or two hours which was fine because I finished all my class reading, then I read my book (1984) and had a quick nap.
When we met up it was around 9:00. We left right then, went to the metro station and had an hour or so ride to our stop in Evanston. When we walked and got to the campus I immediately saw how pretty the campus was. It had old looking and ornate buildings that had walkways lined with trees and beautiful flowers leading to them. The visitor center was a more modern looking building that was next to a pleasant looking beach. Javaria and I were curious so we went to touch the water and it was surprisingly warm. It was warmer than the ocean around San Francisco.
We went into the visitor center and waited for our tour. There was a really cool set of scenes that had pretty pictures and cool transitions playing. I looked at it because my phone was pretty low on battery. They called us to a theater like room to have a presentation before the tours. I had about 30 or 40 questions that I was waiting to ask, but the presentation was detailed and answered all of them. They went over the campus culture, which sounded really nice because everyone (the students) seemed close together and the university seemed like a community. They also covered academics, I liked the sound of Northwestern's academics because they use a quarter based calendar which leaves a lot of room for more classes or majors. It is very common for people to have double majors and the schedule allows people to dive into different fields and studies I found that very attractive because I have many interests and I don't want to be boxed into just one or two fields of study. The admissions information was helpful. They told us the SAT subject tests weren't needed and the admissions officers don't only rely on SAT scores or grades, which was a relief because I really need to get my SAT scores up.
After the presentation we went on the tour. The tour guides were really excited and jumpy. They seemed very passionate and showed a lot of love for Northwestern. They were also masters of the art of walking backwards. They described many fun traditions and events like Dillo Day which is the nation's largest student organized music festival. I like The Rock which is a rock (shocker, I know) where you can paint whatever you want on it as long as you camp outside and guard it for 24 hours. The tour went by quickly and was fun I learned about the campus and got to see the beautiful campus. Before this tour I was not really considering applying to Northwestern, but now that I actually visited the campus and seen the university I am strongly considering applying to Northwestern because I love the quarter schedule, campus culture and the fact I can study multiple diverse subjects.
We took the train back to downtown Chicago and had a very short walk to Willis Tower. There was an interest exhibit of Chicago's landmarks like the Shedd Aquarium and Millennium Park. After that and a short video that covered the history of the tower we went to the sky deck. The views were breathtaking. The city didn't look real, it looked like a toy model. I was stunned at how many sjyscrappers there were and how incredibly flat the Chicago area was. The actual sky deck was scary, but amazing because it actually feels and looks like you are walking on air.
As luck would have it the restaurant we wanted to go to (Giordano's) was very close. We had deep dish pizza (something I was really looking forward to). The pizza was delicious and a great way to end the day. We went to the hotel early to blog and pack up because tomorrow we have to meet up and leave around 7:00 am for our University of Chicago tour and our flight to Ithaca. I am so excited I am going to have trouble going to sleep. Watch out Cornell!
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