Totally agree. As a student here, and as someone who was choosing between Duke, Michigan and Northwestern last year when making my decision on where to attend in the Fall, I would say that we are "at the bottom of the top, and working our way up," but moreso, the location and curriculum of the school and the friendliness, activity and general vibe of the city are absolutely at the VERY top in my opinion, and is why I am very happy on the decision I made to come here because... LIFE IS GOOD. As far as prestige...
Put it this way:
1. Northwestern Med was ranked 32 just a few years ago. Now we are ranked 20.
2. A guy by the name of Feinberg died and donated something like $100 million to the school, and the school was renamed in 2002 and they are wasting no time spending his money to increase the prestige of the institution.
3. The hospital was just completed in 1998 and is by all accounts amazing.
4. Another hospital is currently under construction, the 2nd largest women's hospital in the country.
5. Northwestern bought the land previously owned by the VA Lakeside, and has plans to break ground in 2007 for yet ANOTHER major hospital.
6. The Lurie Medical Research building, which is brand new and will be completed in April, more than doubles the size of the research space of the school (along with new classrooms, lecture halls, etc.).
7. The current Prentice Women's Hospital located one half-block east of the Lurie Medical Research building will be torn down in 2007 to make way for another new research building.
8. The class of 2008 (my class) has the most competitive stats of any class so far. Our average GPA is 3.70 and MCAT 11.1 which would put it in a Top 15 and almost Top 10 category.
9. Feinberg's applications were up 17 percent this year to almost 7000, while US medical school applications were up only 2.5 percent.
http://www.dailynorthwestern.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2005/02/18/42159c4587896
All in all, there is absolutely no question in my mind this school is aggressively moving in a good direction, and fast. GuyLaroche said it best in another thread--the administration is pissed they are not ranked higher, and they are going after it aggressively. And they are not doing it by fudging any numbers--they are building world class facilities and are getting a ton of help with the increasing popularity of the school and rising number of apps. As for me, to be honest, there isn't a day that goes by that I don't thank God that I'm not in Durham or Ann Arbor and am in a world-class city with, ahem, tons of hot, single women walking around who don't go to my school and are actually my age (25).
There is seriously so much to do here it isn't even worth discussing, I could talk for hours about why being a student here and in this location is an amazing experience. And people here are FRIENDLY--way more than when I was living out east, and this plain and simply makes life better. And we all have so much fun and school is not stressful at all because of our curriculum--we have so much time to study and learn on our own here it is sick.
