Help me NU vs. WashU

Colleges and Universities A-Z Northwestern University
1

<p>I am stuck between the two. I intend to major in engineering, most likely biomedical and need to know the pros and cons of each university based on a few factors:</p>

<p>-The quality of education (both are great, but anything that could sway me to one side)
-Research opportunities
-How attending will help me post-college (job, graduate school, etc.)
-Good social life, fun and friendly people, possibly fraternities
-Housing, which has more opportunities for a close-knit community of different people, also any musical dorms/halls would be nice</p>

<p>Northwestern pros: Football games, plus I don't really know anyone going there, so a better fresh start</p>

<p>Washu pros: Farther away from home, really liked St. Louis, giving me a lot of money (but money isn't really an issue)</p>

2

<p>Come on now they are as different as apples and oranges though academically similar. Big 10 versus D3 and Chicago versus St Louis.</p>

3

<p>Education: Northwestern would generally be considered to have better academics than WUSTL, but just by a bit. In Engineering, for graduate at least, USNWR ranks NU 20, and WUSTL 48, which some would say isn’t a big difference and doesn’t apply to undergrad. Still something to think about.</p>

<p>Research: “Research grant funding awarded to Northwestern University totals more than a half billion dollars for the second year in a row. Northwestern’s research award funding for fiscal year 2011 (FY2011) was $511.7 million; this is an 8 percent decrease from last year’s $556.4 million.” from [Research</a> Funding Tops Half Billion Dollars: Northwestern University News](<a href=“http://www.northwestern.edu/newscenter/stories/2011/10/research-funding-2011.html]Research”>Research Funding Tops Half Billion Dollars: Northwestern University News)</p>

<p>“In all, Washington University received a total of $437 million in 2010 from all federal sources.” from [Federal</a> research funding to Washington University provides economic boost to region | Newsroom | Washington University in St. Louis](<a href=“http://news.wustl.edu/news/Pages/22330.aspx]Federal”>Federal research funding to Washington University provides economic boost to region - The Source - Washington University in St. Louis)</p>

<p>So research grants are a little more at NU.</p>

<p>Post-graduation: I’d say this is pretty equal; both are academically renowned.</p>

<p>Social Life: Can’t speak for WUSTL, but from what I’ve heard about NU, pretty much everyone is friendly, kind of quirky, obviously intelligent. Frats are pretty popular, but not like southern frats. They are much less crazy from what I’ve heard.</p>

<p>Housing: Again, can’t speak for WUSTL, but there are tons of different people at NU, especially on South Campus. Theater, journalism, music, liberal arts, sciences, etc. all mingle and there are some pretty good housing options at NU.</p>

<p>I’m going 750 miles to NU from my house, so I’m not the best person to give this advice, but… You really will like being kind of close to home. If you or your parents aren’t going to continually visit each other and not let the other be independent, then being close just affords you a home cooked meal, and other amenities if you need it. If you think you, or your parents, might be too attached you can solve it. But I wouldn’t worry about how far away it is unless that’s a major factor.</p>

4

<p>I think NU is known for more academically well rounded students. NU has an array of strong disciplines - Good engineering, journalism, chemistry, communications, humanities, ect, ect… </p>

<p>Since most every discipline is pretty strong at NU, there are a lot of different academic interests there. </p>

<p>WUSTL and NU probably have similar prestige, and similar strength overal, with NU being perhaps a small notch ahead. </p>

<p>Both are great I’m not sure you can go wrong.</p>

5

<p>In general, I think they are considered peers academically. In terms of BME, I also think they are very similar. Washu has a great BME/Chem-E program because of their rigorous pre-med, and NU has always had great engineering. </p>

<p>I know that at Washu, the social life is great (my sister goes there.) The people are extremely nice and there are parties to go to if you like partying, and other things to go to if you don’t. There are always events going on, clubs to join, and places to go. I also know that there are a lot of music practice rooms that anyone can use. I can’t speak for NU, but I have heard that their social life can get a little boring—but I honestly would not know that for a fact, that is just based off of what I have read online. NU definetly has the advantage in terms of school/sports pride—DI vs. DIII sports</p>

<p>Also, Washu is well-known for their quality of food/dorms, so those are both very good.
Overall, the best thing at Washu are def the people----they are so nice/welcoming, it is not hard at all to make friends. </p>

<p>Hope that helps!</p>

6

<p>In Biomed, the schools offer similarly strong programs that will serve you well post grad. In virtually all other engineering fields, NU is significantly stronger and better reputed. </p>

<p>College life is more focused on the campus at Wash U, in part because St. Louis is no college town, and that is being kind. Kids that go there knowing this is where they want to be tend to have great social experiences. Despite what BJGE4dawin has “read online,” campus life at NU is just as vibrant, but Chicago offers a great off-campus alternative with incredible resources across the board - music, restaurants, bars, theater, museums, or just hanging out in great neighborhoods. Add to this a B1G 10 sports scene for yet more great diversions from academics. </p>

<p>Both are great schools. For me, NU’s advantage lies in a significantly greater diversity of opportunity.</p>

7

<p>Bala is spot on, in my opinion, as to NU’s charm in general. NU is academically elite, athletically competitive, socially vibrant, and is in the Chicago metro area. It may not be quite Ivy level academics, but what Ivy league football team was in a bowl game this year :-D</p>

8

<p>^I would say it is ivy level academics, lower ivies that is.</p>

9

<p>Specialized programs such as ISP, MMSS, etc are on par or superior to even the top Ivys.</p>

10

<p>NU academics is on par with Ivys (close peers being Cornell and Penn)</p>

11

<p>^^True, northwestern Dad. Also Medill and NU’s school of communications are as good, if not better than top ivies. </p>

<p>Overal though I would say academically Northwestern’s closest peers are Penn and Cornell. Still very impressive, nonetheless.</p>

<p>What are some of NUs weaker areas of study??</p>

12

<p>…I intend to major in engineering, most likely biomedical…</p>

<p>I have a friend in BME. She likes it a lot. Take that with a grain of salt, but at least the program must have pretty good profs. Or it’s interesting. No idea which. Might be both, god forbid.</p>

<p>-The quality of education (both are great, but anything that could sway me to one side)</p>

<p>Education at NU is excellent. Coming into my freshman spring, I have yet to have a bad professor. Excellent math faculty, for sure. It’s very fast-paced and a bit tough, but it’s nice. You don’t get bored with your courses–they move too quickly. That said, midterms start the third week of classes, and are always staggered (as far as I’ve seen) so you always have one about a week away after that :P</p>

<p>-Research opportunities</p>

<p>Not research per se, but the engineering students I know have to take a course where they design a solution to a problem for a client. Those sorts of practical opportunities might be of interest to you. There are other, similar programs, like…</p>

<p>-How attending will help me post-college (job, graduate school, etc.)</p>

<p>Co-op, where you go work a job for a year. It’s a 5-year program, but that means you get relevant job experience while a student. NU is a decent school, so it’ll probably be helpful for grad school, if that’s what you’re looking for. Internship and job placement is excellent, and there’s a lot of recruiting done on-campus.</p>

<p>-Good social life, fun and friendly people, possibly fraternities</p>

<p>I’ll be honest, parties here are pretty shmeh and the scene is pretty limited. Go to bars or other area colleges. Evanston is great for food, not so great for raging. They closed the Keg, so there’s that shot, too. Some friends of mine just go into Chicago to rage face. The people are awesome, though, and the frats are pretty low-key.</p>

<p>-Housing, which has more opportunities for a close-knit community of different people, also any musical dorms/halls would be nice.</p>

<p>The musical dorm is Jones. But you may not want to live in Jones as an engineer-It’s supposed to be very, uh, enthusiastic at all hours. Really, just throw a dartboard at the list of dorms… you’ll find your group no matter where you end up. All the freshmen want to make friends, so just jump in and it’ll be fine.</p>

13

<p>I absolutely love both schools.
My daughter had a tough time choosing which one to go for ED. After much deliberation, she went for NU, a decision she never regretted. NU was everything she could have wanted in an undergrad experience.
Wash U has a very warm, comfortable atmosphere, and has more attractive architecture to go with its general academic excellence.
I think the things that weighed in NU’s favor for her were: Chicago is definitely more interesting than St. Louis; Big Ten sports is just a different experience than Div III, and the whole “rah rah” thing can be a lot of fun; Greek Life at NU seemed more interesting to her. All that, and NU had the academic excellence to boot.
For engineering in general, I think NU is probably better. For biomedical in particular, friends of mine in the medical community tell me that Wash U is one of the best.
I regard it as a win/win choice. I really have trouble picking two U.S. universities that I like better than these two.</p>

14

<p>@Lzio622, since both schools are amazing academically, you would probably benefit from thinking about what other qualities you are looking for in a school. When my daughter visited Wash U with my husband, she loved the school but felt that St. Louis (they spent two days exploring the city) was not all that. When she went to Northwestern, she loved the atmosphere, and then when we went into Chicago, she flipped. She loved it, and that was the end of discussion for any of the other schools that she had gotten into. Of course she doesn’t have the time to go into the city every weekend, but she has gone to concerts of her favorite indie bands, has gone to dance performances, has gone dancing, etc. Also, she is very involved with the Freshman Urban Program, better known as FUP ([FUP:</a> Northwestern University Freshman Urban Program](<a href=“http://groups.northwestern.edu/fup/]FUP:”>http://groups.northwestern.edu/fup/)), and this has made her dedication to community service greater than it was before.</p>

<p>Oh, as for the Ivy thing? Since my son went to Harvard, I pop over to their CC pages every once in a while. One guy posted that he got into Harvard and a bunch of other top-notch schools…but he was flat out rejected by NU. You never know.</p>