My view of Northern Illinois

Introduction
NIU is the perfect middle of the road university. A large undergrad of 25k but since so many travel it feels more like 10k. Many good departments for a degree, but without the extensive workloads of a UIC or U of I. Good party scene, but you are also allowed to study and not be ridiculed. A diverse campus with lots of opportunities. A large campus, but the buildings are all within 15 minutes of the dorms.

Campus Life and Social Life
The social life is nice. It's no party school, but there's a lot of drinking. A relatively low drug use school, but if you need to use a dealer isn't that hard to find. This school isn't a top 10 party school, but it's not a Mormon school either. If you wanna drink and get high every night it's easy to do. And if you wanna stay in your room, study, and watch reruns of Gilmore Girls you will find other people that like to do that too. Football is the sport here. It's crazy and one of the most underrated programs in the country. All sports except golf, cross country, and hockey are held on campus and are easy to get to. Unlike other state schools (U of I) you don't have to pay as a student to attend. The basketball team is middle of the road and has an average attendance of 1800 which is pathetic. You can find a club for your interest at any school and NIU is no exception. The Student Association is more than happy to add new clubs. The weekends here can be lame. A lot of people leave. Keep in mind even though a lot of people leave at a school of over 20 thousand students it still leaves a ton of people to party/study with. A lot of great places to hear music and a lot of bands come up here to play. Advertisement
Academics
The TA's here are amazing and most professors are easily accessable. NIU has quite strong Business and elemtary teaching school. If you want a HS teaching degree NIU is fine but ISU (Illinois Stat) would probably be better. NIU has a lot of majors so if you change you major completely from one field to another it is easy to do here.

Student Body
Most students are from the Chicago area suburbs and there are a lot of city kids. These two groups are about 80 percent of the student body. A lot of people come from the Quad City areas and other places near Iowa that want a better school than WIU (which is terrible) It is diverse racially with enough minorities that if you are a minority you won't feel out of place.

In Closing...
If you are looking at an Illinois state school try and get into U of I. I'm not going to lie they are the best by a lot. I am as honest as possible and I believe NIU is the 2nd best state school. UIC may be tougher academically, but there is no college feel to that place at all. ISU may be better if you want to be a teacher. But NIU has a strong teaching program (it was founded as a teaching school) WIU is not a great academic institution and SIU and Eastern are dumps. DeKalb surprised me with a good amount of things to do here. If you think of DeKalb as just boring farmlands go to ISU, SIU, or WIU and drive around those towns (terrible) If DeKalb had a mall it would be a real nice town but there is plenaty of stores. Whatever you do it is better to attend a 4 year school than a JUCO. Your freshman year will be the best year you have in college. GOOD LUCK in picking a school.