sorry to resurrect this thread, but how woud you choose between UPenn and Northwestern?
@Maverick96 Both Penn and NU are great, top-notch schools. It it were me, (and this is just my two cents’ worth) I would probably pick Northwestern for two reasons 1) I really love Chicago (restaurants, the Lake, Wrigley Field) and I am less enamoured of Philly. NU is in Evanston, a close-in suburb but it is easy to go into the City on the El train. and 2) I know that NU has some very interesting science based programs (such as their Integrated Science Program) that you may want to check out if you can take courses in those areas. (Although, Penn is also strong in STEM). You can’t go wrong either way.
You probably already know Northwestern has one of the best chemistry department in the world, better than just about any school that has been mentioned in this thread (except perhaps CalTech). Both US News and Academic Ranking of World Universities placed in 5th globally. One prof there just won a Nobel prize.
Like Londondad, I also like Chicago/Evanston better than Philly. Chicago is bigger with larger numbers of nice neighborhoods and most of them are along the lakefront and accessible by the subway. It’s also cleaner; Philly is grittier and has a huge trash problem that really turned me off everytime I was there. You don’t need to a car to attend NU; Evanston’s downtown is just right off campus and is very walkable. Both Evanston and Chicago are served by the same subway system.
Since it’s a year abroad, I’d pick Penn because you get to be in a city and near all the major cities on the eastern seaboard. Academically I don’t think you can choose wrong as both are international elite 
@Maverick96 You have another option open to you now? Hard choice, but you can’t go wrong with either one. I love Northwestern. Chicago is a nicer city than Philly, and Northwestern is in Evanston, which is a great town on its own with very easy access to Chicago via public transportation. Plus, you are on a lake. I think the type of student is slightly different too. Penn is very preprofessional… Northwestern, not so much. Also, Penn has a lot of legacy students, so it kind of changes the vibe.
However, if it’s important to you to have easy access to Washington, D.C. and New York, then Penn definitely wins over Northwestern.
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Yeah I just found out like last week that my department recently made a link with Norhtwestern and tbh I think I’d enjoy it more than UPenn
Of all the private elites in the Midwest, Northwestern is probably the most pre-professional school of the bunch.
^ I have visited both Penn and Northwestern and a host of other 20 schools. I liked both schools, but I found an intense buzz and energy at Northwestern that I did not find at Penn and some of the other elite schools. It is hard to describe as it is different from the type of intellectual feel that you see at a place at University of Chicago. One reason perhaps is that due to the quarter system, it seems that everyone at NU is double majoring in two very different subjects and the students that I have met there (my wife is an NU alum, so I have met quite a few students from there recently) seem to love to speak about their classes and research. By comparison, when I have visited some of the top Catholic universities, those schools seems much more preprofessional to me, maybe due to their undergraduate business program? Again, this is just my two-cents’ worth based on personal observations.