So, I was just accepted to Northwestern, and while I am excited, amazed, and surprised, I am also worried. I really do like Northwestern, but I am an extremely social person, I love going out, and there is not a competitive bone in my body. The thing I have loved about my high school, is that while we have extremely high performing students, we all support each other. I have heard mixed opinions on the collaborative nature of NU students and wanted to know if any of you could provide insight, especially because I do plan on pursuing pre-med. To put this in context, I am mostly torn between Northwestern, USC, and Emory at the moment, and I loved USC’s spirited, collaborative atmosphere.
@vegucated26 - the truth is…they are all great schools but NU is another tier. If you are okay with going to a school (USC or Emory) that is widely considered by academics and employers (and people in the know) to be a step below than Northwestern in terms of prestige, selectivity, etc., then you should go to one of those. Also, consider this - your education is what you make of it. Your peers at USC / Emory will also be quite different. Let’s put it another way - the substantial vast majority of students at USC and Emory would NOT be accepted to Northwestern. The caliber of students is just very different. Just look at their historical SAT averages. Northwestern is significantly the better school. Surprised that this is even a debate.
There’s no evidence that USC is more or less collaborative than Northwestern. However, Northwestern is a major target for the most prestigious management consulting firms and they typically want people that thrive in the team environment. MMSS and ISP students would tell you they survive the programs as a team. Also, FWIW, Kellogg is the pioneer of brining teamwork into the MBA curriculum.
That said, in terms of getting a high GPA, you probably will have a better chance of achieving it at USC/Emory. As StanfordGSB mentioned, the student body at NU is of higher caliber so it’s going to be harder to be in the top-20% for example. The three schools may loosely be defined as peers by some people but in terms of SAT/ACT, NU is much closer to HYPS.
@vegucated26
Fit is what matters most, then next comes finances. SAT scores is not indicative of intellectual talent, and is hardly indicative of employment outcomes. These two are splitting very tiny hairs here, especially considering that we are comparing undergrad and not graduate schools. I’m not sure about USC but I know Emory has great employment outcomes, as Morgan Stanley, Goldman, and Google are “top 6” employers.
The SAT score for all three schools are not far off from each other. Emory~1435, USC~1400, NU~1490. The stuents at all of these schools are smart. https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/compare-colleges
I haven’t found Northwestern to be competitive (in a bad way) in my time here. Everyone here is incredibly bright and iron sharpens iron. Being around other smart people makes me want to push myself to be better, but I’ve never encountered any sort of negative competition here. Students are always open and welcome to do study groups. It’s not uncommon to find classes where the final assignment for the class, whether it be a take home final or project, can be collaborative. Also, I’m a junior and last quarter was the first time I had ever taken a class graded on a curve.
Cannot speak as to USC, but Emory & Northwestern pre-med students are brilliant & hard working. Pre-med tends to be competitive at almost all colleges & universities.
With respect to Northwestern University, nobody got there by being unmotivated or less than Ivy League calibre intelligence.
You have three outstanding options–and no wrong choice unless there are significant cost differences as you will need funds for medical school.
I think that a lot of a “collaborative atmosphere” is dependent on what you make it. You’ll find cutthroat people at any school. You’ll find sharing and supportive people at any school. College is challenging, no way around it, especially for pre-med, but choose the right friends, the right profs, and the right schedule, and it’s fabulous. I personally found when the going gets tough that the “misery loves company” vibe is strong at NU (especially if you hang with engineers, haha) and that kept my friends and I joking and laughing even when classes were difficult. Trimesters are not for the faint of heart.
I was pre-med, and I loved being social; it’s possible. Yes, organic chemistry is going to be hard. I don’t care if you were raised mixing solvents in the womb. But because of it, you’ll rock the MCAT, and medical schools respect the NU name. Northwestern also does exceptionally well in fellowships, which top medical schools take very seriously (speaking as someone who did interviews for admissions at a top med school). It won’t be the reason you don’t get into medical school if that becomes the case.
hey just wanted to put myself out there as i’m in a similar situation! i’m between northwestern and bu for a lot of reasons but one of the reasons is competitiveness. i don’t know how i got into northwestern and i’m a little afraid i’ll be out of my league, plus my high school was also pretty feel-good and noncompetitive.
also, to the person above who said usc and emory are a “lower tier” and would accept a lot of students that northwestern wouldn’t – i got rejected from usc (it was my top) and their acceptance rate is for sure like within 5 percent of northwestern. so i personally wouldn’t agree with that. i loveddd usc though so i can see why you would be drawn to their vibe.
anyway i’m going to the wildcat day on the 9th and feeling it out. we’ll see, good luck!
@badatusernamess Same! I’m shocked that I got in (homeschooled and not terribly interesting!), and I’ll be there on the 9th! I’m between UVA, URochester, and Northwestern though. I really want to go to a collaborative school and somewhere I won’t be extremely stressed. Hoping that my visit gives me a better idea of the school!
@Slytherclaw16@badatusernamess omg I’m so glad that you guys can relate!! And yeah wall street journal just released a new ranking of top colleges with NU at 13, USC at 15 and Emory at 17, so not too much of a difference, even though rankings shouldn’t matter too much as all of the schools are amazing!!
@homerdog I ended up choosing Northwestern. I think that bc I’m not entirely certain what direction I want to go in with my career, it was right for me to choose the stronger School overall. I move in next week and I couldn’t be more excited! If you wanted more information on how I made my decision feel free to ask!
My niece just graduated from NU and she says it was very competitive. She dropped out of the Journalism program there because it was so cut-throat, so it may depend on the program you are in. She loved Weinberg and had a really good experience there! But in the end, go where you feel the most comfortable.
From my experience in Weinberg not cutthroat at all. In fact, in my main program MMSS, the way nearly all the students survive is through groupwork.
Once you get into job recruiting stuff, you’ll run into people that are over-the-top networkers and it can get annoying, but in terms of classwork that’s not the culture at all.
Go wherever you feel you can achieve the highest GPA and be prepared for the MCAT. Emory has a strong focus in the Health Sciences, so if it were my kid I would push them in this direction if they planned on Med School. If you have any other admissions, I would consider those as well. #lowcostofattendancehighGPAMCATforundergrad
