<p>As May 1st is approaching, I'm becoming more and more nervous. I would love your help!. I'm having difficulties deciding which school would be the best fit. I'm interested in doing premed(in which case I'll probably do BME/Materials Science) and CS. I understand that CS at CMU is the best probably; however premed is probably best at WashU? or Berkeley? Also Berkeley has offered me the Regents Scholarship which, this year for the first time, allows priority in course selection and a $2,500 scholarship. Though I don't know how prestigious that scholarship is. No other schools offered me financial aid. Northwestern is a school that is great in academics I think, but I don't know where it stands in terms of CS or BME. I loved WashU when I went, but I guess there's only BME to study there. I don't know...
I've always wanted to go to a school which is prestigious, academic, great social scene, diverse, and accepting of LGBTQ.
Which is better?</p>
<p>If you live in California and money is a factor at all, go with Berkeley for sure. If money isn’t a factor, you really can’t beat WashU for premed, but be sure that’s absolutely what you want to do. (as a side note, idk if I would recommend an engineering major if your planning on doing med school). But if you have some doubt about going into medicine and really want a great Univeristy where you can explore all of your interests and more importantly get a good job offer regardless of your major (which is my case exactly) you can’t beat northwestern. I already paid my deposit to go and I can tell you after visiting campus you won’t meet a friendlier community of people. Personally I was debating between washu and northwestern for a while but visiting campus did it for me. But like I said, if you live in cal, go with berkeley.</p>
<p>I would point out that if you go to washu you are going to be relatively limited to the premed/be fields as, unlike NU or Berkeley, none of the other programs at wash are that prestigious.</p>
<p>WashU does a great job of attracting pre-meds which means a HUGE number of competition in your core pre-med classes and huge competition for a limited number of premed resources/internships. NU has a huge pre-med population too and the classes are reputed to be highly intensive but hopefully the grading curve is less steep (can any premeds comment on this?). At Northwestern, you still get the benefits of pre-med resources and advising except you will hopefully have fewer premed competitors due to the greater variety of students Northwestern typically attracts. This means more resources for you and more opportunities for internships (Chicago is great for these).</p>
<p>At UC Berkeley, “priority registration” may be a perk but that is something that comes automatically at the private schools. You will not have a problem getting into your classes at WashU, Northwestern, or CMU.</p>
<p>Northwestern has a lot more resources to offer LGBT students. It has a well-resourced, well-staffed center LGBT that offers all kinds of high-quality, well-informed, and sensitive programming. The main LGBT group has weekly meetings and weekly events, whereas at WashU, the meetings are more spread out. Northwestern also has interest-specific groups, such as In Technicolor (focusing on the intersectionalities of identities), bisexual meetings, lesbian meetings, etc. Northwestern has gender-neutral bathrooms and gender-neutral housing options. You could tell the leadership at Northwestern cares a lot about the LGBT community through the quality of the LGBT center, the quality of speakers brought to campus, the quality of the events various LGBT groups put on, and the overall quality of the resources they provide to LGBT students and allies.</p>
<p>Feel free to compare Northwestern and WashU’s LGBT initiatives:
[LGBT</a> Resource Center | Norris University Center](<a href=“Norris University Center - Northwestern University”>Norris University Center - Northwestern University)</p>
<p><a href=“https://getinvolved.wustl.edu/LGBT/about/Pages/default.aspx[/url]”>https://getinvolved.wustl.edu/LGBT/about/Pages/default.aspx</a></p>
<p>Furthermore, a nice thing about NU’s gay scene is you can choose not to get involved in LGBT groups and still have an awesome college experience. Many choose to spend the limited time they have to other non-LGBT causes they care about, and that’s considered perfectly okay. Students recognize that just because you’re LGBT doesn’t mean you have to get involved in everything LGBT. I think this mindset which defines LGBT life at Northwestern is testament to the fact that LGBT students are already well-integrated into the student body, whether they choose to identify with LGBT groups or not.</p>
<p>The gay scene in Chicago is phenomenal. “Boystown” is only 20 minutes away by CTA and has a plethora of bars, restaurants, clubs, etc. There’s also Andersonville and Edgewater, which are even closer and more low-key. There’s a scene for everybody whether you’re looking for a gay sports bar, a gay intellectual bar, a gay hiphop night club or a gay techno club, a cigar bar, a gay pool bar, a gay lounge for young professionals, etc. I’m not sure what the gay scene is like in St. Louis, but Chicago is a national and even international destination for its gay options. It’s a very exciting place to go to college.</p>
<p>NU would be my choice</p>