<p>I'm trying to decide between these 3 schools, and I have a month to decide. JHU is obviously a great school, but Ive heard so many rumors about the boring student life and cut throat atmosphere. I'm a social person, and I dont want to be miserable. I got into both the honor programs at Tulane and NEU. Does anyone have any advice? Im going in undecided but most likely going into writing with maybe some bio classes. </p>
<p>Go and visit jhu. Rumors are pretty outdated in this case</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice! Anyone else? </p>
<p>JHU has a strong reputation for writing. Definitely visit.</p>
<p>JHU hands down. The rumors are absolutely not true, i wish more people would do their research and accept the fact that at every top school there is competition <em>sigh</em></p>
<p>Thanks for the advice! and I completely agree that all top schools have competition, I guess I’m just second guessing now that its time to decide!</p>
<p>What’re the costs to you of the schools? </p>
<p>^</p>
<p>How much $$ is each school throwing at you? are all the choices affordable, and do any of the three have a major delta in price that would be unreasonable?</p>
<p>Assuming costs are equal (or comparable) then I’d pick JHU.</p>
<p>they all gave me a fair amount of aid and they would all be within the same price range</p>
<p>Just to be clear, when you say you want to go into “writing” what exactly do you mean? Creative writing, journalism, non-fiction, …?</p>
<p>Also, you say they each gave you a fair amount of aid, but is any of it loans? If so, how much from each school would be loans? Tulane must have given you between $25-30K in merit scholarship.</p>
<p>Tulane or Northeastern aren’t in the same league as Hopkins, whether it be for Writing or Biology or basically anything else.</p>
<p>Another vote for JHU.</p>
<p>on the other side… 
JHU is the amazing school but let’s consider the towns as well…New Orleans is an amazing city…and Boston has 250,000 college students attending 33 colleges (hard to believe!) so you would be part of a global village of learners…which would be kind of cool. </p>
<p>@fallenchemist Tulane gave me a merit scholarship of $25k but JHU gave me $20k so theres not a huge difference. I did get some loans but most if merit scholarships </p>
<p>@Spencerxx - Now I am just confused. Merit scholarships are not loans. They don’t have to be paid back. I think I am misreading your last sentence because it has a typo. I am thinking you meant “I did get some loans but mostly merit scholarships”. So what is critical is how much the loans were for at each school.</p>
<p>What I am trying to get at is that if you were to come out of JHU having to pay back, for example, $80,000 after four years while at Tulane you would only have to pay back $16,000 that would make a big difference in the decision. I am focusing on those two schools to keep it simple, but you can add Northeastern back in. So the details of the financial aid packages matter.</p>
<p>I want to echo @SouthernHope as well. New Orleans and Boston are two of the great college towns. Baltimore not so much. If you focus only on that aspect for just a minute, then you have two very different campuses in Tulane and NEU. Technically both are in the city limits, but Tulane is in the most upscale neighborhood in the city and has a lot of green space on campus and a huge park right across the street that might as be part of the campus. NEU is totally urban and while it does have a park across the street, it is called Fenway Park (heh heh). It just depends on what you prefer in that regard. Many famous writers have done some of their best work in New Orleans.</p>
<p>There is no question that JHU has the best academic reputation of the three schools. How much that matters to a writer I don’t know. It is up to you if you care about that, because it certainly isn’t like Tulane or NEU are unknown, second-class schools. Also, of course, you have to take into account the fact that the majority of incoming students change majors at least once. You sound like you could fall into that category.</p>
<p>So if I were you I would be focusing on $$ first. If JHU would saddle you with debt, I would take great pause If, though, you really are getting essentially identical packages from all three schools, then you just have to decide which is the best fit. Only you can know how much each of the factors of prestige, size, and location among others (sports? commitment to community service?) matter to you. We can give you facts about each school and advice on how to go about making this decision, but only you know these personal details. People just saying “JHU, JHU” based on academic prestige are doing you a disservice unless that is indeed the factor that outweighs everything else to you. For me, the only absolute is not to go into significant debt by the time you are done with undergrad. After that, it is about where you will feel you get the best balance of all life factors, academics probably being primary but not the only one. I say probably because you would get a good, even great education at all three of these schools. So the other factors do matter.</p>
<p>^it sounds like Tulane gave 25k in scholarships while JHU gave 20k in financial aid grants. Both are items that do not require repayment.</p>
<p>That could be right. If so, the Tulane money is guaranteed for 4 years, while FA grants are reviewed every year.</p>