What students say about college experience at NU

Former University President Michael Schill announced his resignation shortly before the start of the 2025-2026 academic year, so it isn’t surprising that over 60% of freshmen said they have no opinion on his tenure.

Sophomores don’t have strong feelings either, with about half saying they have “no opinion” or neither approve nor disapprove of his leadership. Only about 30% of juniors and 30% of seniors said the same.

Seniors have the worst opinion of Schill by far. Around 32% somewhat disapprove, while 19% somewhat approve of his tenure. For juniors, those numbers are practically flipped.

Compared to The Daily’s Fall 2024 poll, a much higher percentage of students now have no opinion on Schill’s job performance, likely due to responses from first-year students.

Numbers across all opinions decreased between Fall 2024 and Fall 2025, except for “no opinion,” which increased.

As sophomores begin their search for affordable off-campus housing, The Daily’s poll suggests they should look to seniors to find cheaper living.

Over half of juniors and seniors pay between $1,000 and $1,400 for rent each month. About 66% of seniors pay less than $1,200 per month, compared to 57% of juniors.

Students were almost evenly split this Fall between using AI in academics daily, weekly, infrequently and never, with numbers between 20 to 30 percent for each choice.

Over half of students use ChatGPT or generative AI for classes daily or weekly. Seniors use the tool the most, with about 30% reporting that they use it daily, while only about 14% of freshmen do.

Compared to the results from The Daily’s Fall 2024 poll, many more students now use AI every day for academic purposes — 24.6%, up from 9.1% last fall.

Across all grade levels, a majority of students applied to 20 internships or fewer in the last year. Approximately 60% of seniors and 59% of juniors said they applied to 0-20 internships.

On the other hand, almost 16% of juniors applied for more than 100 internships last year, while only 7% of seniors reported applying to this many.

Depending on their major or career path, some students may not apply to traditional internships at all, instead opting to search for other types of opportunities, like being a research assistant. This may have impacted how students responded in the poll.

Following NU’s $790 million federal funding freeze in April, the University implemented cost-cutting measures to mitigate the impact.

Less than half of sophomores, juniors and seniors reported that they felt no effect or were not sure of the impact of the budget cuts. Students who said they were impacted cited fewer research assistant roles, cancelled research, reduced resources and changes in financial aid.