Advice to Consider

Colleges and Universities A-Z Northwestern University
1

Hi. I am a current Northwestern student and I would like to give you some advice if you are planning on applying or going to Northwestern. There is an overwhelming amount of information and data thrown at college applicants, but I want to give you the true impression many NU students have. My overall advice is that unless you want to be a journalist, do not attend here. Here are the reasons why:

Northwestern may seem like a great choice for learning and improving career prospects, but there are many drawbacks. Students here are very stressed out for various reasons. The quarter system seems like a nice idea, but the vast majority of the time it simply means that professors try to cram more material into less time, meaning a more hectic workload. You are also expected to take 4 classes per quarter, which, if engineering or premed, means possibly 20 hours of class per week, much more than students at other colleges are expected to take. Professors, especially in engineering, give huge amounts of homework to be completed.

On top of all of this, most classes in econ, math, engineering, and science/premed courses are curved to a B average, not a super high grade compared to other colleges of NU’s academic reputation. Since almost all students at NU are very smart and motivated, this means that to get an A you need to do better than other super talented NU students. To do this takes a huge amount of studying, and often this isn’t even enough. This is intended to “weed out” students that are not smart enough to pursue these paths. The shame in this is that many of the students who get “weeded out” of premed or engineering for not being smart enough would have easily gotten a good GPA had they only gone to another school. If you judge by average ACT/SAT score, NU has smarter students than half the Ivy League, yet students from the Ivy League schools have much better grades. The NU admissions already “weeded out” the students who were possibly not smart enough for these paths.

You might think that NU does not deflate grades based on statistics provided online (university average ~3.44). However, it is simply this high because we have large theatre, communication, education, music, and journalism schools, which are very easy to get high grades in. If these are removed NU would be one of the most grade deflated in the nation.

Difficult grading isn’t inherently bad, students should have to work hard to receive good grades. However, in order to maintain a grading curve where they don’t have to curve down, in some classes professors intentionally make tests excessively difficult. Many tests at NU have averages below 75 or 70% (and often even lower than that).

On top of this the vast majority of NU students care much more about the grade they receive in a class than how much they learn. Essentially NU students care much more about what grad/med/law school they go to and the marketability of their degree much more than what they actually do or learn in undergrad.

On a separate note, Northwestern is extremely expensive (unless you are poor). In addition the room and board and meal plan are some of the most expensive in the country. The level of education often does not support what the cost would warrant. Also remember, the tuition will increase ~$2 each year, so the tuition of your last year will be roughly $6k more than your first year. Unless you are very rich it will be hard to pay for grad school after NU.

The weather at NU is also awful for 75% of the schoolyear. Most people here are from the Northern US, but it is still something where other schools would be better.

All of this culminates in an environment that is very stressful. There have been numerous mental health issues that have come up and an increasing number of suicides in past years. The Princeton Review has ranked us as having much less happy students than other elite academic institutions.

The bottom line is that NU is an overpriced school that fosters a stressful unhappy environment, hurts GPA, has poor weather, and is simply not a good choice for most people. The school cares more about your money than your education. If you have any questions about anything I have just said I would be happy to answer them.

2

You say not to attend unless you’re a journalism major, but out of the 8 main problems you outlined, journalism majors face 7 of the problems. Clearly there is something wrong with that statement.

I’ve spoken to a lot of students who like the quarter system and I look forward to the quarter system.

We provide at the very least the same or better education of all of the Ivy League schools at basically the same price. In addition, you’d be hardpressed finding a private school that doesn’t cater towards wealthy students. I can only speak on my experience and the experience of other students I have spoken to and we have had very positive experiences with the financial aid office.

Again, I disagree with this statement. At NU, my parents will be paying roughly $28,000 per year. At other private schools, they requested that my family and I pay the full $65,000+ to pay to attend.

3

Thanks for your comment CaliCash. The reason I excluded journalism majors is because our journalism program is ranked #1 in the country. Therefore I give it more leniency when it comes to other issues with the school. Also Medill does not have harsh grading curves like math/science/engineering/econ.

As for the quarter system I suppose there are a number of people that do like it. However, from what I have experienced I think that the majority of NU students find it stressful and would rather be on a semester system, although to be fair I don’t have any concrete evidence to back up this claim.

In regards to the Ivy League, I do believe from a purely academic point of view we do get taught as much (actually more in depth in some areas). However, the harsher grading (despite equally intelligent students) makes classes more stressful, and Ivy League schools have more name value. However, statistically speaking the Ivy League gives more aid to the middle class (type identical financial data into both financial aid calculators and see).

4

As a current rising junior at NU, I’d have to say I disagree with a lot of these points and would not say that these feelings are representative of the majority of NU students. That’s not to say there isn’t any truth to them. Academics are very challenging. It’s true that the quarter system moves fast and we don’t have the same level of grade inflation as other schools. However, I’ve found the level of teaching to be top notch. I’ve learned a ton and thoroughly enjoyed almost all of my classes. Moreover, NU students do extremely well when it comes to the job market coming out of school, so the grade deflation doesn’t seem to be a huge issue with employers. Furthermore, I would say that I absolutely disagree with the statement that NU “fosters a stressful unhappy environment.” Almost no one I know is chronically unhappy at NU. Sure there is stress around midterms and finals, but I’ve actually found NU students to be incredibly collaborative and helpful, not competitive and cutthroat as you say. I want to be clear: I don’t want to paint a picture of Northwestern as some utopia. Obviously it is extremely expensive and the school isn’t without its problems–as with any school. I just don’t want people to read this post and think that these opinions are representative of all or even most NU students.

5

As a parent I have to agree with this assessment. I have come to regret our decision to send our son to McCormick.
He could have been on his way to earning his engineering degree from a fine public school that has better rankings than NU at a much lower cost.

We were lured into NU with what seemed like a reasonable, “we can do this” COA but they have raised our contribution through the roof for his junior year. And they basically said tough luck when I asked about an appeal. The adviser even admitted that the publication they print dealing with aid is misleading. Am I scraping together the money to make the 9Pay payments? Yes but it’s not enjoyable and I have had to put 401k contributions on hold. BTW we don’t make a lot of money and we are careful with how we spend it.

But my son worked super hard his entire life and I thought this would be a way of showing him that I thought that counted for something. To let him have the best. So here we are looking at a total NU degree costing us about $120,000. State school, higher ranking in engineering, would have been maybe $20,000. Wish I had December 2013 back to do all over again.

His older brother (now has engineering degree) was courted at job fairs and had good offers his freshman year for internships. In fact everyone we know from my older sons school had plenty of opportunities every summer. NU falls far below the mark in this category.

Most (of course not all) of the other students my son has met come from families where money is not a concern. I think NU doesn’t work as hard because of this and they think that the NU brand will carry a student into a good career.

Look at your state schools. If your student is good enough to get into NU they will certainly excel at a public. And you won’t put your retirement on hold for a few more years.

This rant has been building, thanks for letting me get it out.

6

I think it’s great to have multiple viewpoints, so someone saying don’t come to NU is definitely a great thing for kids to hear. I’m not gonna agree, because I love Northwestern, but people need the whole perspective.

First off, most premeds and engineers at other schools, at least from what I hear, have 20 hours or so of class as well. My average hours have been pretty low. Much lower than 15, which is the normal at other schools. Engineering is hard. It’s as simple as that.

The grades at NU are really not that low. Premeds and engineers have it hard, but as an Econ major, I’ve never felt like I’m way below what I would be at at another school. My grades are pretty good overall.

Look, plenty of people do get through the weed out classes, and it’s perfectly doable for most people. Most people I know who dropped out of premed were ultimately happy that they did. It was too much work, just like med school would have been.

A B average curve is a good thing. I’m not sure why you think grades should be inflated above that, but in reality C should mean average, B above average, and A exceptional. That B is the average for many classes shows that we inflate grades over what they maybe should be. Ultimately, most employers will say that they know Northwestern students (in certain departments) are going to have slightly lower grades. It’s well known amongst the top recruiters.

I will say that a decent amount of students care mostly about their job, and that’s sad. But at the same time, there are plenty of ways to make sure that doesn’t affect you. Go to office hours and discuss the professor. Pick higher level classes that buck the trend, hang out with friends who aren’t that way, etc.

Northwestern is very expensive. Our aid is pretty average, and we have a debt cap of 25K or so for most low income people. It’s not great, but it’s not going to ruin most people’s chances to pay for grad school.

I love the weather. I’m from the South, and I’m SOOOO sick of humidity and heat this summer. I can’t wait to get back to the cold weather. Even the polar vortex was fun to me. So the weather isn’t really a factor to everyone.

Yes, there are quite a few stressed people. However honestly, people do that to themselves by overcommitting to student organizations. I found a good balance for me, but other people go past their balance. If we collectively stopped overextending ourselves, we’d be fine. I think our students are more likely to end up being stressed regardless of where they went.

So I’m gonna disagree with your synopsis. It’s only expensive for some, and it has a lot of opportunities that make it worth it, and the stress isn’t necessarily caused by the school. Our GPAs aren’t lower than other schools, at least there’s not been any proof presented. The weather is a matter of preference, and there are plenty of things to make up for it. You didn’t show that it was not a good choice for people. There are plenty of amazing things at NU that make it worth it. We get an amazing education, and I don’t think there are many who would disagree.

@Originalapple I don’t think that there are many parents who would agree with you. It sounds like you have a unique financial situation, because they wouldn’t just randomly raise the COA for nothing. In general, Northwestern students do have better opportunities than people at public schools. On average, we have better academics, networking, professors, and outlook. There aren’t many schools with better reputations and better faculty.

7

Thank you cfnu2017 and OriginalApple for your comments. I would like to respond to your comments.

To cfnu2017. I agree with you that the teaching at NU is top notch. Although there are some bad professors I think this occurs at any university and course and teacher evaluations (CTECs) can be read to hopefully avoid these professors. I think my comment that “The level of education often does not support what the cost would warrant.” is being taken that the level of teaching is subpar. What I meant by this is that the same high level class material, professors, and opportunities could be found at another university for a lower cost. Also I agree that while classes are graded on a curve and are competitive, the students are certainly not cutthroat and do collaborate.

To OriginalApple. I would like to venture a guess that you live in Illinois. NU engineering is more expensive than U of I (and is lower ranked for engineering). For the rest of your post to be fair I am not sure if your particular financial situation is representative of all NU students. As financial aid is completely need-based I doubt that financial aid would decrease unless your made more money. However, the bottom line is that I believe NU is lacking in financial aid for the middle class. Considering NU has one of the highest endowments in the country it is upsetting that more money doesn’t go towards financial aid when the university could certainly afford it.

8

Rising sophomore in McCormick here and I will offer my perspective based on my experiences so far.

First off, I’ve really enjoyed my time at NU! You (usually) only do undergrad once and I think the best advice anybody can give you is to make sure that YOU are happy wherever you are. Make sure you visit the campus and talk to students to get a feel for any school you are seriously considering. If you ever end up at NU or any school and find yourself unhappy, please take action!

I personally really like the quarter system (and based on last year’s student survey, so do most NU students). You get to take more classes AND classes move quickly enough that when the final comes around you aren’t having to recall lectures from 4 months ago. Thanks to the quarter system I will be double majoring and still graduating in 4 years. I’m just an average student here, but I do not think the work load is overwhelming. Yes as an engineer, you will have some long nights but in talking to my friends at state school programs I know that this happens in any engineering program. You still have plenty of time to enjoy college life and I personally take advantage of Chicago being near as I go into the city once a month to do lots of fun stuff with friends!

As for grade deflation, I can’t really speak much on that because I don’t have the stats. What I can say is that I came in with a 33 ACT (which for NU is not impressive at all) and I have done well my first year and you can too. Even IF (again I have no data) our GPA’s aren’t as high as other schools, I point at our alumni as examples to the opportunities a NU degree opens up. Our graduates consistently get into top graduate programs around the WORLD! Within a year of graduation, almost all of our graduates who are looking have a job (look up these stats online) and many of these jobs are high paying and/or prestigious. You can also receive very personalized career counseling which is very valuable.

We can’t control the weather, but you know what you are getting yourself into. I’m from the south and I can honestly say that the winter is not that bad. I had a lot of fun new experiences like sledding and ice skating! With friends and desire you can make the most of your winter, but generally speaking you just bundle up well and minimize the time you spend outside. Weather in the fall and spring I have found to be mostly enjoyable so I would say the assessment that the weather sucks 75% of the year to be highly inaccurate.

The cost of attending can certainly be a huge hurdle for some people and I recommend every family evaluate the financial aid package they are awarded. Generally speaking, however, the degree will be well worth it in the long run. The return on investment stats show that NU graduates go on to make money, some more than other but hey that’s at all schools. I would also argue that the network of wildcats across major organizations in almost all industries is a priceless benefit.

The last, and most important, message from me is this: I’ve loved my time at NU. I’ve made some great friends, gotten to know some amazing faculty, and just being an NU student has already opened awesome opportunities for me. I have genuinely enjoyed my college life so far and I would say that this is possible for anybody who comes to NU. The key is to make sure you take care of yourself!
Students here are very involved and passionate in an array of different areas. There really aren’t many places where a future top engineer, journalist, actor, musician, and scientist might sit at the same lunch table! Priceless.

9

Thank you for your opinion Crimsonstained7. I would like to respond to your comments.

From what I have heard from friends from other schools most engineers/premeds there only have 17-18 hours of class per week. But to be fair I don’t have concrete evidence to support this. Also 2-3 extra hours isn’t very significant so I will let this slide. Econ majors typically have less than engineering/premed majors as there are not labs.

As for grades I agree that “ideally” a C should be average, and it was 50 years ago. However, grades at other comparable elite colleges are much higher than that now and grades there are either not curved or curved to a B+/A-. By having grades lower than this it gives the impression that our students are less intelligent or hard working, which is simply not true. Also, most of the students that fall at the bottom of the curve would have easily gotten good grades and stuck with their major at a state school or other elite institution. Believe me, I disagree with grade inflation, it’s just that when other institutions do it it puts students at colleges with tougher grading at a disadvantage (dominant strategy anyone?).

If you want evidence of grade inflation at other colleges simply look them up on gradeinflation.com (about 8 years old, should be even more by now) or search their frat GPAs (which are generally indicative of the the student body).

As for the weather, in the summer the Evanston weather is better than Southern weather. However, most NU students go home for the summer so this doesn’t really help much.

10

Really? 15 is pretty normal for regular semester kids, most kids in tough majors like premed or engineering I know have a lab, in addition to some longer classes adding up to around 20. Our normal class hours are only about 14 or so. 3 hours per class plus a few discussions. Only people with lots of labs end up with that much.

Here’s the thing, I don’t think that we should have to inflate our curves to match other schools. That’s just falling to their level. Big level recruiters know that our grades are, on average, lower sometimes, and smaller places are going to be impressed by Northwestern regardless. It should be common sense that you will get slightly lower grades at better school. Higher level of peers, harder classes, lower grades. Maybe it’s not true at other schools, but that should be obvious, and it makes sense. I don’t think it puts us at a disadvantage, it’s as simple as that. I can’t find sources at the moment, but our job placement is, if I recall correctly, equal or higher than most schools, even peers.

I mean that I like the freezing weather, not that Evanston summer is better than Southern summer.

11

One of the things I brought up was lack of opportunity for summer internships.
Those that pay decently, offer great experience in your major, aren’t necessarily obtained by alumni connections, and offered to 2nd year or even first year students.
It would be great to hear what some of you and your fellow students have found this summer. After all if employers have such a high regard for NU then I would think that would be reflected in abundant opportunities.

12

I haven’t really tried that hard to find things for the summer. I know that I’m gonna probably end up working 40 hours a week in some regular old job, I’d rather have a free summer the first and even second summer. I have a good job at school that provides research experience, and I’ll do an internship in the normal junior summer. So I can’t really comment on this.

13

Crimson I hope the job you land after NU isn’t just a 40 hour gig but your outlook doesn’t sound encouraging.

A good internship will take you to many parts of the US or even the world. My son spent one summer near Lake Tahoe living off the grid with a couple that hosted him during his assignment. His friend was in France interning at a vineyard. Another at the NASCAR R&D center. One was in China, another on oil rigs in the gulf. Some in Washington. Too many to list. And now they have great jobs that they are excited about.

These assignments not only provide you with work experience but also “how am I going to find a place to live for only 3 months” experience. I was very proud every time my son was able to pull his temp living arraignments together by himself.

I have a unique perspective of comparing my older son’s experience to my youngest. #21 Northwestern to #6 Purdue (USNWR engineering rankings). Sticker priced tuitions $46,836 to $10,322 (in-state).
The world recognizes Purdue and can’t get enough of their engineering graduates. Northwestern is sometimes confused with another school of a similar name (or so I’ve heard).

Trying to stay within the confines of the original post here. Very glad that someone had very honestly laid bare their counterpoints to the usual “this is a great school and it will be worth the outrageous price tag”.

14

Again thank you for your comments.

To HungryHippo271, it is interesting that NU students said in the survey that they prefer the quarter system. From my own experience and what I hear from others it is not well liked, but I suppose it is possible that this isn’t indicative of the entire NU population.

To address the comment you made about the success of our graduates. It is true that many NU graduates go on to do great things. However, I personally believe that this data is quite confounded. What I mean by this is that if an NU caliber student went to a state school he or she would almost surely be one of the top students in his or her class, going on to do great things after college. So going to NU isn’t what makes these students do well after college, NU just simply aggregates a lot of students who would do well after college regardless of where they went.

To address the weather, maybe the 75% of the schoolyear being bad weather was a bit high. Maybe it is more like 50-55%. Either way, it is colder and less pleasant than a school further south. People talk about seasonal affective disorder (more depressed mood in the winter months) and this is definitely evident with NU students. I’m glad that you like the winter activities, but I think that the vast majority of people would agree that the weather winter quarter at NU is not pleasant.

Again with your other comment on return on investment. NU students do go on to make money after college. However, with the same motivation and intelligence that NU students possess they would likely do just as well at a cheaper college.

To crimsonstained7. Schedules can vary a lot student to student, so I don’t have any concrete data that I can give you about average hours per week of class. Typically labs for engineering or premeds are huge time drains as they add 2+ hours of in class time per week plus about another 2 hours out of class to work on them. This is not even mentioning that labs are often graded by TAs who don’t really care about their duties but must nitpick perfectly fine lab reports in order to create the ever-present “grading curve”.

Also, you may be right that most big level recruiters may (or may not) know about NU’s lower grades. Even if they do I doubt that they give it enough weight to make as significant of a difference as it should. Studies have been conducted showing that even if employers knows that a school inflates grades he still chooses candidates from that school over ones with harsher grading (all other things being equal). Here is a link to an interesting article on the topic https://www.bostonglobe.com/ideas/2013/08/31/the-trouble-with-grade-inflation-works/tL6am7MEz56f3PA2MD7I3I/story.html.

And on the topic of internship opportunities. I have heard that NU has good opportunities for internships, although I have no personal experience with it yet. Most employers don’t want to hire freshmen for internships as they don’t have as much experience as older students. Therefore it is quite difficult to find an internship as a freshman at any school (although some do find them). I personally didn’t look for one this year as I knew that the odds of me finding one would be slim. So this summer I personally spent at home with family working part-time locally. I personally was okay with this as it gave me time to relax and enjoy the summer. Every other summer in the future I will be busy so this is really my last time to just enjoy it. I also think it is nice to get a break from academics and learning and gives by brain a little time to recharge its batteries. That may sound stupid but I think it is good for me.

Also OriginalApple, Turns out I was wrong about guessing that you were from Illinois. Darn!

15

I mean, I’m fine with a 40 hour semi-boring job if I work for people I like, doing something I somewhat enjoy. I don’t need anything that exciting haha.

I don’t have money for unpaid internships, and most paid internships, at least in fields I’m looking at, are only for Junior summer. Would have been nice, but at the same time, they aren’t necessary, and lounging at home, volunteering, reading, watching Netflix has been great.

You are in one of very few states where the state school has better engineering. I’m thinking that Georgia (GT), and Illinois are about the only other states where you have better in-state options. The sticker price also only matters if you have money, or at least some of it. I’m coming out with about 10K lower than average debt for the US, and my parents are paying a manageable amount. They’re not living high on the hog for these four years, but it was their choice.

I know that there are plenty of things people can say negatively about NU, but the price tag comes with a lot of caveats.

16

http://issuu.com/nucareeradvance/docs/sp15_beyond_northwestern_booklet__f

Here is a link to the data about 2014 graduates a year after graduation. You will find incredibly high success among graduates in finding jobs and graduate programs. I will also point out that many of the companies that these graduates are at (there’s a select list in the link above) are very open about only recruiting from select programs.

There are some insightful posts on this thread and I appreciate the different perspectives.

On rankings: I’m always a bit skeptical on eng rankings b/c I think state programs send out more students at “cheaper” prices. Idk what the actual stats are but I imagine that avg. engineering salaries between a top state school and NU are probably not too different. I would bet that NU’s average salary would be just slightly higher but that rankings refute that with the higher sticker price at NU. I thing a big part of coming to NU is the diverse options you have. Engineering students here are more likely to come out with a minor or another major which can be a huge assets for students. I guess the point I’m trying to make is that the sky is the limit for NU students. Yes, maybe some of our graduates go on to have the exact same job as a state school graduate with more debt. No, I’m not saying if you go to a state school you can’t land the dream jobs but I think at NU you are set up to succeed and are given the tools to go after the dream job should you want to (think CEO of IBM, or manager of the New York Yankees)!

Like I said, every family should evaluate the financial package they are awarded, but a lot of the benefits of NU are priceless that you won’t find at many other institutions.

17

Thank you for your opinions. I believe that HungryHippo is correct that NU engineering is better than rankings would indicate, simply because of the higher sticker price. An article from The Daily Northwestern stated that the average starting salary for NU engineers is $69k, which is pretty good and comparable to top public schools such as Georgia Tech and U of Illinois. HungryHippo231, I think you should also mention that UC Berkeley, UT Austin, and Michigan are also state schools that have just as good engineering schools as NU for much cheaper (in-state). NU has especially good programs for materials science and industrial engineering (which often lead to careers in finance/consulting). However, as NU has smarter students (judging by average ACT/SAT scores) than these public schools we should in fact be expected to have better salaries.

Again, I want to emphasize the point that I am making: I agree that a large number of NU students do end up going on to have successful careers (more than state schools). My point is that if you took an average NU student and dropped him into a state school he/she would not simply be average for that school, he or she would likely be one of the most successful students there and go on to get equally prestigious jobs as he/she would have had if he/she would have gone to NU, but just with much less debt.

Also it is true that certain companies (usually financial) hire from NU but not others state schools. Plus NU students have access to Kellogg, one of the most prestigious business schools in the US (typically ranked 6th nationally). Students can earn a certificate from here as an undergraduate which is nice. Also econ majors at NU have a smaller workload than some other majors such as engineering or premed. Plus some students study Mathematical Methods in the Social Sciences which from what I hear opens a lot of doors. So overall I would say that if you want to study econ choosing NU may be a better option than doing premed or studying engineering here. However, again I will state this. If NU students went to a state school they would get great grades and likely be smart enough to get a good job in finance or get into a good business school anyway.

That being said I do have a few problems with NU economics as well. The way that the classes are taught is very theoretical and I am not sure about how much any of what is learned will actually be useful in real life. Maybe economics programs at all colleges are taught like this though, I have nothing to compare it to. Also, the attitude of a lot of NU students is that they go into economics simply because it pays well, they don’t necessarily have an interest in consulting or investment banking. This is certainly not true for all students, but I think many people who have this attitude when entering finance careers is what highly contributed to the cause of the recession.

18

Just another quick comment. The new Princeton Review college ratings just came out and NU was rated as having one of the lowest qualities of life of any college (the ratings were based off of self reported student surveys).

19

We also just moved up three spots on the Forbes list to #16 in the nation and this was the first year they took into consideration feedback from students on how satisfied they are with their school. So there is evidence that supports that students here can thrive!

20

A few thoughts:

  1. Yes, people would definitely get higher GPAs at other schools (likely your regular state school, for instance), but at other Ivies/equivalents (Harvard, MIT, UChicago, et al), the coursework is just as or more demanding.
  2. NU is extremely expensive . . . just like the other Ivies/equivalents. Only a handful of them (as in you can literally count them on one hand) offer better fin aid than NU.
  3. Stressed out students is an issue at all the Ivies/equivalents.
  4. I strongly disagree that the Ivies (outside of maybe HYP) have more name value than NU. In terms of how well NU grads do, we do just as well as the non-HYP Ivies. In terms of opportunities, I challenge anyone to name any type of opportunity that is open at any Ivy (outside H and maybe Wharton) that an NU grad would not have access to.
  5. If you just want to be an engineer, have a top-notch cheaper in-state option, and are fine with the restrictions of that school (for example, at UIUC, it may be quite difficult to transfer in to the more popular majors even if you decided that the major you initially entered into & CS is currently extremely overcrowded with some required classes that CS majors essentially can’t get in to until senior year; non-CS majors can forget about taking the vast majority of the CS classes there while at Purdue, not all students in the engineering school manage to get in to the engineering major that they want, which may make students less collaborative, while I found my classmates in Tech at NU to be very collaborative) that indeed may be the smarter choice.
    NU does provide engineering majors with more opportunities in consulting and finance, though. Also, if you ever leave engineering, NU’s name and network will likely be more beneficial.