<p>Hi </p>
<p>I got accepted at both brown and northwestern. I am planning to major in eco . Which would be a better bet?</p>
<p>First of all, congrats on your acceptances!</p>
<p>I think Northwestern's economics department has a slightly better "reputation" for what it's worth. But both departments are great and you will get an excellent education at each school.</p>
<p>What do you want to do with your econ degree? Are you even positive you want to major in econ, or might you also consider majors like math, public policy, international relations, etc? Or are you interested in double majoring, designing your own major, etc?</p>
<p>Since both are great schools with great economics departments, I think you should base your decision on other factors, such as the student body, academic philosophy of the school, location, other interests, etc. Visit both schools overnight, get a feel for the campus and the student body. They're very different schools, and hopefully one will jump out at you and make you say "this is where I belong."</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice. Only problem is I won't be able to visit the universities since I live in India and its really not practical for me to visit right now. I am not sure if i will major in econ but right now that seems most likely.</p>
<p>ilovebrown is great--particularly about being neutral</p>
<p>here's my biased opinion, however-- i can't think of a single good reason to choose northwestern over brown, not one. particularly as a student from india</p>
<p>internationally, brown is considered to be much more elite, which is a more important consideration for those who are not U.S. citizens. it is a much more international school (10% of the student body), has stronger students, more resources for undergraduates, stronger alumni network, better grad school and career placement, a better location, and i believe it is less expensive to boot.</p>
<p>it may have the ivy league tag to it... but rank wise, if you're talking about prestige, Northwestern is ranked 12th in the nation, while Brown is 15th.
Go with what fits, not the name. Think about the program at Brown (very open curriculum) and the liberal atmosphere vs. the options at Northwestern.</p>
<p>edit: Internationally, Brown is not considered to be much more elite.
Rankings: Northwestern:31 Brown: 86
so..... yeah.
<a href="http://ed.sjtu.edu.cn/rank/2005/ARWU2005_Top100.htm%5B/url%5D">http://ed.sjtu.edu.cn/rank/2005/ARWU2005_Top100.htm</a></p>
<p>Those international rankings are talking mostly including grad schools, a distinction that should always be made with Brown in mind.</p>
<p>I think that they both have very strong programs and ILoveBrown is dead on. There are unique outside aspects to each school that may make them fit better. DCircle can chime in with the actual number, but I do know that Brown does very well with students looking to study business on the graduate level getting into programs they want to. I don't know much about Northwestern other than it being in Evanston and having a great journalism school.</p>
<p>I'd rather be near Chicago than Boston or Providence but I am not sure that the access for students from Evanston is good. Something to remember, Brown has economics, but not business per se or other "business" like degrees (though you can focus on business within economics). Things like marketing are not separate degrees at Brown so if something of greater specific interest is available, take that into consideration as well. Good luck deciding, and congrats on having such great choices.</p>
<p>Another program to consider if you're interested in business: <a href="http://coe.brown.edu/concentration/%5B/url%5D">http://coe.brown.edu/concentration/</a></p>
<p>I'd say think about</p>
<p>Brown Northwestern
Providence RI v. Evanston, Ill
More artsy v. More Athletic
Open Curriculum v. Core Curriculum</p>
<p>These discussions of ranking are meaningless and are easily skewed. Don't get me wrong, both have a lot going for them but generally students prefer Brown to Northwestern as seen in the Revealed Preferences Survey. You should certainly look at the campus environment more than anything else.</p>
<p>If you want to do econ, I mean Brown is one of the top schools for getting a job at say Goldman Sachs and Microsoft. </p>
<p>Northwestern has a more quanitative orientation to their econ department than Brown does. You might want to also consider how you feel about the Kellogg Graduate-Level Business School at Northwestern which may offer opportunities but will probably result in less undergraduate attention as well.</p>
<p>Best Wishes and Congrats</p>
<p>Jalan... Im a freshman at brown this year and im from india too...</p>
<p>Id definitely take brown over northwestern.. Especially if your planning to go back to india to work, where the reputation of the college matters so much.. Also, irrespective of reputation, Brown is a great school in general... My first year at brown has been amazing so far.. and even if you are decided on econ, the open curriculum is still a big plus..</p>
<p>PM me if you have any questions... id be happy to help..</p>
<p>dcircle,</p>
<p>Are you from another country originally?</p>
<p>Here's my biased opinion as someone who came from Hong Kong. LOL! I really doubt Brown has much better reputation than Northwestern. The peer assessment score, according to the US News Report, is the same for both, even though Brown is an Ivy. Most people in America, let alone those overseas, have trouble naming all the Ivies and many think Stanford is an Ivy. I came from Hong Kong and over there, Northwestern has better reputation, especially in the business world (Hong Kong is a 3rd world largest fianancial center) and just by the sheer fact that if you look at different rankings, the name Northwestern shows up more and higher. Kellogg is one of the best biz school in the world and is the king in marketing. NU has top-5 journalism and communication programs in the nation. The journalism school even has an integrated marketing program which is very business oriented. It also has better law and medical schools. In engineering, NU outranks Brown in almost all fields. NU's management science department in the engineering school is a top-5 program and you can probably even double major in that. It is no coincidence that anything related to management/econ/business plays into NU's strength. It's true that Brown is more preferred and more selective among American students. But its popularity doesn't stem entirely from academics and certainly not in terms of #ranked programs. After all, you can't deny the popularity of open curriculum--it's human nature to prefer more freedom.</p>
<p>Since Brown doesn't actually have a law school, it would be hard for Northwestern's to be worse.</p>
<p>If you are going to decide where to spend 4 years of your life and probably $160,000 on an arbitrary number in a magazine whose purpose is to sell then you have a bigger problem than deciding where to go to school </p>
<p>Northwestern has fine GRADUATE business and journalism programs. But, this is not a discussion of graduate programs.</p>
<p>Im from india, and Brown still commands more respect there..</p>
<p>Also, Northwesterns school of journalism, and Kellogg, are both graduate schools, so it doesnt make any difference to an undergrad going there... If its a question of prestige, it still doesnt make a difference because you can hardly say that you graduated from Kellogg when you leave with an undergrad degree..</p>
<p>Also, about the rankings, the same argument applies.. Most rankings incorporate the grad school as well, and northwesterns grad schools are admitedly better... Yet for undergrad, Brown is way better...</p>
<p>Also, even though many people back home dont know that brown is any ivy, the people who matter definitely do - namely employers at large companies..</p>
<p>Brown is also better known in the US, especially for undergrad, and this really helps when applying for grad school (assuming to want to go to grad school after this)...</p>
<p>And to round up this mammoth post, Brown has amazing connections and networking opportunities if you want to take internships in the US once you graduate.. Just an offhand example, but Brown is a major target school for firms like Morgan Stanley and Deutsche Bank just to name a couple.. (I think Morgan Stanley and Deutsche Bank, to stick with the same example, have pretty large offices in Bombay too, so this helps back home also)..</p>
<p>I might be slightly biased since i am at brown, but then again i was in the same position as you last year and i chose brown over schools of the same calibre as northwestern.. And i havent had any reason to regret it..</p>
<p>Northwestern's journalism school is undergrad...but that's kind of irrelevant since he's asking about econ. </p>
<p>Isn't Brown like the school most heavily recruited by Goldman Sachs? Or something to that effect? </p>
<p>Really, the cultures at both schools are very different. Since no one on the Brown board actually goes to Northwestern, I'd advise you to ask over at the Northwestern board about school culture and search the posts on this board, since there are many, particularly this time of year. The school that will serve you best is the one you're most comfortable at.</p>
<p>watercannon,</p>
<p>I am sorry that I wasn't clear. I threw out graduate ranking because like it or not, schools get their reputation from their graduate programs. Berkeley is a perfect example. That's why I don't believe Brown has better (let alone "much" better) name in India. If I am not mistaken, most students from India came here as graduate students. It's very much like China. In China, the schools most known to them are the ones with better grad programs. People overseas usually don't make the distinction between undergrad and grad programs as far as reputation goes. Anyone with a econ diploma from NU can feed off Kellogg's reputation because people often associate econ with business. Those in the knows would know NU's econ is one of the best undergrad programs anyway.</p>
<p>I also don't know if Brown is really more known in the US. The only place you've lived in the US so far is RI. I'd live in MA, midwest before and now reside in California. In the northeast, people know all about the Ivies and certainly Brown is more known there. But in Chicago, NU is more known. Here in California, I'd met only one Brown grad. Brown is definitely less known than USC. Northwestern is also less known than USC but more known than Brown since the alums are pretty well-represented at least in the tv/film industry.</p>
<p>Although you didn't state that explicitly, you seem to imply Northwestern isn't as much or a target school by top firms as Brown. But please look at <a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=108904&highlight=core+top+consulting%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=108904&highlight=core+top+consulting</a>
Looks like any list of target schools that has Brown on it also has Northwestern. The I banks/ consultant firms that recruit at Brown also recruit at Northwestern. A investment bank isn't going to pick a Brown grad over a Northwestern grad because he went to Brown and vice versa. If you want to get into real facts, we can start by saying that Northwestern has more Fortune 500 CEO's than Brown.</p>
<p>I live in the Pacific Northwest (above Cali) and most people here have heard of Brown, but many have not heard of Northwestern (or get it confused because of its compass sounding name). So the reputation of a school will fluctuate wildly as you move through the U.S.</p>
<p>Umm... Sam Lee... Id probably know more about the reputation of a school in india given that i live there...</p>
<p>And no, you cant "feed off" kellogs reputation with an UNDERGRAD diploma from northwestern.. atleast not seriously atleast... for anyone who knows anything, there is a clear distinction between undergrad and grad...</p>
<p>Also, most indians coming to the US from india arent grad students - the trend has reversed and its predominantly undergrad now..</p>
<p>Id check my facts if i were you..</p>
<p>
[quote]
While 72 per cent of students from India studied at graduate level during the academic year, 20 per cent enrolled in undergraduate level and 7.2 per cent in other courses.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I am surprised you don't know this one. So much for checking facts.</p>
<p>By the way, you didn't read what I wrote carefully. For average people, econ and business are often mixed up and therefore an econ grad can feed off Kellogg's reputation. Those in the knows would know NU's econ is a top-10 program. Either way, NU's econ has great reputation.</p>
<p>I was talking only in reference to Brown and Northwestern for undergrad vs. grad students... And there are more indian undergrads then grads at both...</p>
<p>Also, even if average people mix up econ and business, an econ undergrad cant feed off a kellogg's graduate business degree.. And definitely not while applying for a job or a masters degree, where it counts the most..</p>