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Since safety seems to be the big issue being discussed I'll start with that. When I was there I was never, nor was anyone I know attacked or beaten up or anything. I saw a kid get jumped once, but he was running his mouth at the wrong people. Nothing that I hadn't seen visting people at U of I though.
I was at a party once where a kid pulled a knife but I've also seen that at a party in Iowa(one of the funniest things I've ever seen actually. Kind of a long story though).
NIU has always had a very *cough* urban *cough* student body. A lot of african american kids from Chicago end up going there. It's a state school, it's close, it's not very difficult to get into etc, so a lot of the bad habits from their neighborhoods in Chicago follow them there. Just part of it. Recently it seems like "violence" on campus has increased a bit but when I was there or visiting I never felt unsafe or like I had to look over my shoulder. It's like any place and any campus though. Just don't be stupid and make smart choices. There's bad people everywhere.
NIU's police force is really really good and are a pretty strong prescence on campus. A lot of the shootings or bad shit you hear about take place at off campus apartment complexes etc. Campus itself is pretty damn safe.
Party scene is what you make of it. My buddies and I more often than not ended up partying at apartments of freinds. My freshman year one of my really good freinds had an older sister who was there so we partied with her and her group a lot. Great times. There's always a party somewhere. The townhouses north of campus always seem to be hopping. NIU does have a lot of kids that commute home on weekends so campus can empty out at times but there's always a party somewher and if you are friends with people that are on campus it's not a real issue.
I wasn't in a frat there or anything but had numerous freinds who were. Never partied there a lot but when I did it was good. I just always preferred smaller parties though. Just personal perference. Greek life is really active though and the guys that were in frats always had something going on and there was always something to do for them. One of my better friends was in PIKES, and really seemed to like it.
Depending on how old you are or what you were going to do I'm not sure where you'd be living. Grant Towers is mainly freshman and sophomore living. When I was there it was kind of a hell hole. Small rooms..but it was a dorm. I believe they have recently renovated it since. Haven't been in the towers since I left. A chick I was banging lived in Neptune Hall. That place was pretty fucking sweet. Stevenson Towers was really nice too and had a great food court at the bottom of it. Pretty much every other dorm building on campus was pretty nice and has good food options in it. I'd just steer clear from Grant. The townhouses North of campus are a good place to live if you are looking for an off campus housing option.
The town of Dekalb itself I actually kind of like. North east is where all the new stuff is. WalMart, Best Buy, Steak and Shake, all that shit. The old down town area(eastern part of the town) is really cool IMO and has some really good local bars. There's a pretty solid Irish pub/bar towards the end of the older downtown area. I personally never found Dekalb to be boring. Plus it's nice. You are really close to Chicago(hour drive or so), Milwaukee--awesome fucking city--(hour and half to two hour drive), Bloomington(2 hoursish drive) and Champaign(2:45 drive). If you want to get away somewhere it's pretty easy.
Academically I can only speak for the program I was in(History Education). I had some great professors and decent advisors. I wasn't crazy about the way they ran their education degree program but I saw the logic behind it. What program are you looking at? I might have had some friends in it and could tell ya more about it. I know they have a very strong business program and a pretty solid law school. All of my friends who went there found jobs pretty much right away and are succussful. The only people who I knew that couldn't find jobs right out of school from NIU were compelte shitheads while in college anyways, so I'm not surprised. Talking to most any HR person now, as long a you have a degree, unless you are going into something very specialized, you'll find jobs. The place the general BA or BS comes from really doesn't matter a hell of a lot unless you are talking about an upper tier university like Notre Dame, Stanford, etc.
Anything more specific let me know. That's just kind of a general overview and stuff I am thinking of off the top of my head
Also LOL at this answer to a question:
What a ***.
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