I
am the author of the previous review. That said, I
am transferring back to my Big 12 school. Here is
what I have learned in my experience at North Central:
North Central, the positives:
1) Faculty are trained appropriately
and demand a higher standard of work and performance from
students.
2) Smaller class sizes gives faculty the ability to
devote themselves to students, and become mentors.
3) Naperville is
a thriving suburb with an abundance of opportunities.
4) BNSF
Metra is one block away from the campus, making Chicago
an easy destination for students. Express service puts you in
the city in around 30 minutes, and for regular service
around an hour and a half.
5) That said, Chicago
is used as a major “satellite campus” for North Central
students within their classes.
6) Administration cares about students being
“central” in the colleges operations, and they follow their words.
7) As a whole, academics at North Central are of
high quality.
8) For a small college, the facilities are
nice.
North Central, the negatives:
1) Commuter campus. It's
empty on the weekends. Around 95% of the student body
is from Illinois. Of that group, most are from nearby
suburbs.
2) Not many activities are planned due to the
frequency of students leaving campus. In addition, the variety of
student organizations in which to be involved with is also
limited. Of course, you can form your own!
3) 70%
of North Central students are athletes. If you remain in
the 30% minority, it becomes harder to seek out similar
students. Not impossible, but harder. Many students here have their
own “team” of friends to belong to.
4) The cost
of attending is near $35,000. On the whole, almost every
student at North Central receives some sort of financial aid,
but you can only cut the tuition tag down so
much.
5) Naperville is a tremendous city, but it is
not a college town. High-priced retail stores and restaurants dominate
the scene, and for most college students, it's a problem.
There are only 5 inexpensive restaurants within walking distance of
campus- Noodles & Co., Potbelly, Jimmy John's, Subway, and Burger
King.
6) Being in close proximity to Chicago, there is
a similar “cold” social environment like what you would find
in the city.
7) There are many “cliques” at this
college. Most of them derive from which sport team you
are a member of.
Final Advice: for those of you
out-of-state students looking to attend college near Chicago, hear me
on this: attend a school IN the city of Chicago.
After attending two colleges near Chicago, I have witnessed how
students leave campus for the city or surrounding areas. It
creates an empty campus with little remaining. If you want
to experience college near Chicago, you might as well be
IN it. Look at DePaul, Loyola, UIC or IIT. Make
Chicago your college environment; don't be left on a deserted
suburb.
Articles
I agree with you to a point. Social life is minimal, and I'd agree with the notion that it's more of a campus for transitioning or nontraditional students (ie. adults, 2nd bachelor's, etc.)
IIT isn't much better--man grad students, mostly anti-social nerds. Also, Chicago is FAR from cold, as one newcomer said, "It's like a small town with 20 million people."
Certainly, for the non-athletes, the disparity with the athletes is considerable.
At best, North Central is a great transition school with supportive faculty. I'd stay at most a year or two, but then move on to bigger and better things.
