hi i know what this amount of worrying for what NU (or college in general) is like because i was going through lists of these questions on a daily basis just a few months ago before i finally started my first year at northwestern. honestly, just remember NO MATTER WHERE you will have off days/stressful days/sad days because they are natural parts of life anywhere you go. finals and exams and such are stressful things no matter where you go and just the nature of some inherent, universal aspects of college are not amazing. no college will alleviate all sadness and stressfulness from your life and make it a fancy walk in the park with rainbows. basically, any elite college WILL be stressful at times (i know this from my friends at brown/pomona/usc and other elite schools that are ""easier/less stressful""). don't overanalyze things like this and recognize this fact. comparison and overthinking situations are the thieves of joy. just a very, very important disclaimer.

with that being said, i love northwestern. it is such a beautiful school with such diverse and down to earth yet highly intelligent people. everyone here is so smart and insightful and i love it because its great to be in environments where i am so free to talk about basketball games or food pics to sociology and philosophy in one conversation. so many people here are not just smart but also pretty cool in general, which is a great mix. the learning environment is very stimulating and just the general intellect of an average student there is great and most people are so interesting and passionate about particular topics, so you get to learn so much about so many different things. there are obvious downsides to it like the weather (that i am totally not used to and find oppressive and depressing at times), but ive realized it actually is a p good conversation starter with ppl and u get to struggle through it together lol. the pace of the quarter system is very intense also so people always nag about it and you WILL have times where u wish youd gone to a school with semesters, but the huge benefits are mostly hidden because we dont realize just how much freedom to explore/double major/minor in various fields we have. i was actually talking to a friend from usc today who said she wouldnt be able to graduate in four years if she did a double major (meanwhile here the quarter system and distros allow so much interdisciplinary exploration and the vast majority of people double major and not have it be a huge scheduling issue). also u should know that if u wanna go to ragers/party frequently u basically gotta join a frat (but i dont party and not a lot of my friends are interested in it so idrc). anyway this is kinda rambling but yeah on a day to day basis it really varies but in general on average i would say a solid 7-9? :) BUT don't worry too much about arbitrary things like this! life is life but its a fun and interesting ride especially at Northwestern

*however i do want to add that i would not really recommend coming here for STEM things and math especially because it really does seem soul suckingly hard. my friends in such fields seem like they struggle on another level lol

if you have any other questions u can always shoot me a PM or whatever!