<p>“Most schools these days are pre-professional in that they’re heavily invested in making sure their students to get into top consulting firms and top employers with the realization that the academic market is flooded with PhDs who are jobless.”</p>
<p>In fact, U of Chicago is about to launch a program to specificly train undergrads on financial modeling and frequency trading. The not-so-subtle goal is to place graduates not just on Wall Street, but the trading floor of it! You can’t get a more specific trade than that. This is a pre-professional program on steroid!</p>
<p>Honestly, I feel like the differences between the two schools are overblown. I wouldn’t generalize NU or UChi and tbh there’s a lot of overlap in applicant pool, but rather would say NU tries to be multifaceted in several areas while UChi tries to focus on rigorous intellectualism. The other posters pretty much covered all the major differences, and with the preferences you provided, you could fit into either school. I would see which ones you get into. As for the the whole sports/Greek thing, again, sometimes people harp on this facet of NU to differentiate it from, you guessed it, UC, but for me the sports/Greek scene is practically nonexistent. It is there if you want to participate, but if you don’t care then it honestly does not affect your life in any way whatsoever. You will find your niche at both, so go with your gut feeling.</p>
<p>It’s my parents actually that think NU won’t be right for me - and my parents are like mountain formations, slow-moving/tough for lone warrior to get over/etc. So, if I wait until acceptances roll in to start hashing this stuff out, it’s going to be like asking pangea to split in a few months if you know what I’m saying.</p>
<p>NU is 2nd only to Harvard for NMFs , and NU has a higher mid 50 ACT spread than Chicago, so that means that the people are smarter. You seem smart.</p>
<p>Haha if you were going to choose a college based solely on what your parents think is best for you, then you wouldn’t be here showing initiative by asking CC for help. Who are your parents to say where you will feel the most comfortable? Now if they don’t want you to go to NU for some other reason (maybe they don’t like it) then I say don’t apply, after all they will be paying for your tuition. But a) what is the harm in applying, you are not obligated to matriculate and b) only you can decide where you want to spend the next 4 years of your life. I would argue you can only “start hashing this stuff out” when acceptances come around anyways because you don’t know where you will get in. Don’t pick your chicken until you know which ones have hatched, and besides, you might grow to like one more after meeting it. Which is why I always emphasize visiting.</p>
<p>roderick - “More intellectualism” + “less intellect” = almost as awful as all that Big Ten Greek Mumbo Jumbo D: </p>
<p>“Who are your parents to say where you will feel the most comfortable?”</p>
<p>They have the deep pockets. Who am /I/ to say where I feel most comfortable ;)? </p>
<p>“Which is why I always emphasize visiting.”</p>
<p>But not that deep :/</p>
<p>My PSAT performance wasn’t too great actually (I mean, by CC/Northwestern/UChicago standards). I did much better on the actual SAT. And I /know/ I’m counting my frickin’ chickens before they hatch BUT these schools are both realistic for me. <em>KNOCK ON WOOD OMG</em> but yeah. I’m not /too/ worried.</p>
<p>doh! I was going by the latest Princeton Review guidebook, 2011. Stupid guidebook! It says UC=28-32;NU=30-33.</p>
<p>So phu, just so I know - pls cite your mid 50 data . </p>
<p>So chicagobound,are you a HS sr now? that 's what I was assuming. if so, wdnt you know if your are a NMF or NMSF yet?</p>
<p>yeah - why don’t you just apply to both? also, request a alumni interview with both colleges. the interview is two way - they find out about you - I am sure you’d do fine; and also you get see a little about what the college is about - what they think is important - from the questions and the questioner.</p>
<p>since we’re all sharing here and we dont know who is who, can you share with us why your parents wd be averse to you attending NU? Even tho I expressed some distinctions that I saw in two visits, they probably share a whole bunch of stuff , most important, each are colleges, where you gotta get up , go to class, listen to profs, study, write papers, take tests, get grades, have a gpa, and then receive a diploma. Hey, that’s the same as about 3,700 other institutions of higher ed in our country.</p>
<p>also, chibound, pls note the correlated threads that CC so generously provides at the bottom of this thread.</p>
<p>Please, let us not let this thread devolve into which school is better, it really is sickening. I fail to see how Chicagobound’s/NU’s/UC’s median/average/mid-spread SAT/ACT/NMF status whatever has any relevance to the OP’s question, which is about fit. But as roderick says, there have been many, many threads about this so you can read through those before posting.</p>
<p>I was saying that if your parents are averse to your attending NU, then don’t bother applying. But only you can make the decision whether you want to attend one or another, and if your parents will respect whatever decision, then make your own decision. The only way to do this get real input from actual students, not anonymous posters on a forum, and to visit. Contact any alumni from your school at NU and UC, read up on their programs, etc. I also don’t see why you wouldn’t consider spending some money on airfare to visit a worthy investment when you are about to drop a sick amount of money for tuition/room/board at either school.</p>
<p>Both are excellent schools, both can cater to the academic and pre-professional, both have unique cultures. Don’t worry about the whole Greek/Big 10/intellectualism issues, any actual NU or UC student will tell you that there is such a broad range of personalities in either school that you will certainly find your niche. And you don’t know where you will be getting in, so I would apply to both. I cannot stress enough the importance of visiting and gut feeling, because if you are having such a hard time deciding then this is the best way to choose.</p>
<p>/end thread. OP, it seems you are a better fit for UChicago but visit both just to make sure (since you’re going to be in the area anyway). I visited both thinking I’d like UChicago better (I was admitted there too) but was wrong. For the record, I was also admitted to Yale, Brown, Emory, WashU, and Rice. Waitlisted at Harvard and rejected nowhere.</p>
<p>So, the end of this thread reminded me of those periodic discussions people get in where they’re like, “Man, I really don’t like this girl. Should I just tell her I don’t want to be friends with her anymore?” </p>
<p>“Breaking up with a friend” is invariably seen as a weird thing by some parties. </p>
<p>They’re like, “Crap, don’t TELL her you don’t like her, just gradually stop hanging out with her.” Artificially “drift apart” if you will.</p>
<p>Although I usually lean on the straight-forward-just-tell-her-like-it-is side, my gut reaction to all of the “close thread” comments was “if only they had artificially drifted…” </p>
<p>BUT I would like to say. Your newspaper is so good. Really. The UChicago one is kinda disappointing. ;). /end thread</p>