<p>I’d second Alexandre on most points. But while Cambridge as an institution will carry more name recognition internationally, the poster is asking very specifically about Northwestern’s MMSS program.</p>
<p>“Mathematical Methods in the Social Sciences” is a rigorous specialized program that carries significant prestige. In the world of finance, it recruits at least as impressively as HYPS and Wharton. Many complete the program combining it with a similarly prestigious Kellogg School of Management Certificate in either Managerial Analytics or Financial Economics. From an academic perspective, the program is top notch - intensive with a lot of personal attention and support. Again, recruiters absolutely love these grads.</p>
<p>On the social front, Northwestern and Cambridge will offer similar campus-centric experiences. LSE, certainly a much more city-centric one. </p>
<p>It seems as though the biggest question here for you to answer is: US or UK?</p>
<p>to OP:
Based on my experience, your friend is definitely NOT the minority!! I did my undergraduate at Peking univ, one of the top 2 univ in China, and currently at UMich.</p>
<p>Tons of my friends treat oxbridge the same way. In Tsinghua univ, Peking univ and iit(India), students who apply to the top 10 universities in US always use oxbridge as their back-up. The top 10 students in my class did not even bother to apply to oxbridge. The general opinion is that, oxbridge = HYPSM rejects. I am telling you the truth. If you don’t believe that, just ask the top students from Asia. I am sure you will end up with the same answer. oxbridge are good, but they are not in the same league with US top 10.</p>
<p>BTW, I was rejected by HYS, Berkeley, Columbia, Cornell, and Chicago last year, but got accepted by Cambridge and UMich with full scholarship.</p>
<p>I know you want us to focus on your question, but I can’t get past your apparent willingness to ignore the ED commitment you made. The world would be a better place if we all honored our commitments, legally binding or not. Good luck to you.</p>
<p>LemonHunter - I am an NU MMSS alum (though the program was a bit different in my day - it was more focused on social sciences than Wall Street prep). It is a fabulous program and really unique. I wish you much luck whatever your final choice is.</p>
<p>If you want to go to Cambridge, make sure 1) you are allowed to compete for internship opportunities and 2) you won’t be at a competitive disadvantage in doing so. It’d be a shame to get the exact opposite of what you want, given that many MMSS students have got pretty good internships.</p>
<p>I think the OP should stop making things more complicated and just accept the Northwestern ED agreement. As PizzaGirl and Same Lee stated earlier, the MMSS program is extremely prestigious and you will have access to many job opportunities. Wall Street and other firms respect NU. Chicago is a world-class city, and NU offers a traditional campus experience. Really, most NU undergraduate students are under the age of 24 years old. I enjoyed my time at NU because it offered many diverse programs.</p>
<p>Thanks. This is also one of my concerns. We all know and are educated in that way that liberal arts education is good. But sometimes I wonder whether it just “looks” good? Compared with the British focused and specialized courses, US education is ideal to someone who hasn’t chosen his career, but what about to those who are determined? One of my friends who was admitted by Dart and Columbia last year went to Cambridge, but is planning to transfer back to the US. To my surprise, one of the reasons why he chose Cambridge and then transfer is to skip the liberal arts education…</p>
<p>Thanks for your response and your concentration on MMSS. I really care about the personal attention stuff so LSE which offers 500-1000 people lectures and classes taught by graduate students cannot compete with Cambridge’s tutorial system and NU’s small class size. Also I dislike citi- centered school like LSE and NYU-- no sense of belonging. </p>
<p>But What Im not sure at this point is that how many people outside NU know about MMSS?</p>
<p>Thanks buddy. Congratulations on your full scholarship!! It’s really amazing. You mentioned top10 League but NU is ranked #12 I think. Do you think NU is better than Cambridge? </p>
<p>To pbr,</p>
<p>Thanks for your comments first. I really agree with you on what you said. But I think we disagree on one point: at the time I signed the agreement, my counselor told me that it only works within the US and apparantly you think it works globally. I have to clarify that I am not “willing” to ignore the agreement, it is just we are all not sure about what it means. I respect the agreement and I will take full responsibility. Good luck to you too.</p>
<p>Thank you all first. When all the NU graduates all said how prestigious MMSS is, it really shows something. I could see how much you love NU after 4 years of studying and this attracts me very much. </p>
<p>What still remains in my mind is first how MMSS is recognized outside NU? And second, now MMSS has around 40 people (20 freshmen 20 sophormore), so the classes are not that small aren’t they, given that the average class size at NU is less then 20…</p>
<p>I’m pretty sure the bachelor’s degree programs at Cambridge are 3-year programs. Also, be aware that at Cambridge the whole educational process would involve much more “independent” study, as opposed to classroom study like at just about every college in the USA. It’s a huge difference, and different personalities would strongly prefer one to the other. Also be aware that at Northwestern you’d be required to take classes in a variety of fields, not just your major field.</p>
<p>Seta, i echo your views. I did undergrad and worked in UK for > 13 yrs. i prefer to send my kids to US high schools and now college.It is phenomenally practically impossible to get into undergraduate HYPSM cuz of the size and calibers of the applicants—they face worldwide competitions from teh whole world for US colleges! </p>
<p>Lemmon, ED is binding for US only,and NW in finance is comparable if not better than Cambridge. Cambridge curriculum and its courses are more “theoretical” and classes are more practical in US. Of course you can take Cambridge/LSE B.A. and then US grad school, but then U have a twistier route. Also if your ambition is in finance, then US had infinitely more opportunities.</p>
<p>RawMcatBB wrote: “…in finance, then US <em>had</em> (<em>emphasis</em> mine) infinitely more opportunities.” I realize that is a typo, but nonetheless so very true.</p>
<p>Thanks. I think your ranking really makes sense. It kinda sums all up.</p>
<p>To Schmaltz:</p>
<p>Yes the course is 3 years. I agree with you that Cam’s student has much freedom about when to do what. Also they’ve got a very long holiday compared with that in the US. Thanks for your advice.</p>
<p>To RawMcatBB:</p>
<p>Yea HYPSM is really difficult. It requires people to be so all-rounded while Cambridge on the other hand only focuses on academic excellence. This might explain why Cam is somewhat easier to get in. </p>
<p>In my opinion, the twistier route also provides me with different angles and perspectives. How many people in the US have the experience of doing undergraduate study in England, or Cambridge? Having a B.A in England and a Master degree in the US may help me 1.build up a worldwide network 2. somewhat stand out on my CV. </p>
<p>What do you think of it?</p>
<p>Thank you for your advice. I appreciate it.</p>
<p>How is London now compared with NY in terms of finance? Though I think London is also going downwards. Maybe Shanghai is going to be a better place in the future. ha. who knows?</p>
<p>Lemon, I don’t think the suckout in finance jobs has differentially affected NY or London (or HK). All the boats rise and fall about equally with rising and falling tides. One could make an reasonable argument that HK will add more finance jobs as a % of current jobs over the next 20 years… whether those are the most sought after jobs I wouldn’t know.</p>
Nonsense. The OP wants to attend graduate school in the US and work here afterwards. Cambridge definitely has more than enough of a “wow!” factor for his/her purposes.</p>
<p>Oxford and Cambridge are perfectly on par with any American top university. As purely anecdotal evidence, an Oxford student who interviewed for graduate school at Brown with me last year got <em>considerably</em> more buzz than students from Yale, Penn, Harvard, UCLA, and Duke. Even among those in academia, Cambridge and Oxford have an odd sort of allure.</p>
<p>
Translation: We Northwestern posters want you to come to our school. ;)</p>
<p>i was telling the OP to find out if there’ll be any issue/restriction to find work in the UK. the OP would have a hard time to land the US positions from UK so it’s important that the UK positions are available. these days, a student from even a third-tier school with relevant internship experience can easily be looked more favorably than one from top-teir school with no experience upon graduation</p>