I was accepted into Northeastern University RD and they gave me a very helpful scholarship of 20,000 a year. Recently, I was accepted off the wait list for Wesleyan. I visited Wesleyan twice and I absolutely LOVE the campus, the people, and the class sizes. However, I do not receive financial and and I would be about $110,000 in debt (and I plan on going to law school, too!) I was thinking of pursuing a criminal justice major at NEU, but I could definitely see myself doing something else at Wesleyan because they don’t have a criminal justice program at all. Please help me decide, I have a week to tell Wesleyan my decision!
Wesleyan is unaffordable for you.
You can approach Wesleyan with your concerns, perhaps they can match NEU’s generous FA package. You lose nothing by trying. But I agree with happy1; as is, Wesleyan is unaffordable. There just is no way to justify $100K+ debt.
If you plan to go to law school then undergraduate debt is the last thing you want. Besides, if criminal law is something you are really interested in then criminal justice would make a good major.
Stay at Northeastern. Wesleyan is not worth going into $110k debt. Also criminal justice is useless and one of the highest unemployed majors. Law schools won’t care whether you came from Wesleyan or Northeastern as long as you have a good GPA and LSAT score. Save the money for law school
I agree that Northeastern is really your only option, but please don’t waste your time majoring in criminal justice. Law schools don’t favor applicants with pseudo-law backgrounds.
I agree with the consensus that you don’t have to major in “law” as an undergraduate in order to gain admission to a law school. The next four years should be an opportunity to expand your horizons intellectually as well as improve practical skills that will come in handy as a lawyer. Common majors for future lawyers include everything from Philosophy and History to Physics and Chemistry. NEU presents a very different approach to education from Wesleyan’s, but, if you were happy with it before you heard from Wesleyan, then, by all means, choose the financial safety. I agree with @Alexandre in that it won’t hurt to ask Wesleyan to revisit their FA decision. But, if the NEU scholarship is merit-based and not need-based, it’s unlikely it will change much.
I agree that Wesleyan is unaffordable. However some posters in this thread do not know what the field of criminal justice is all about. Take a look:
I agree with @TomSrOfBoston. Criminal Justice is NOT a variation of pre-law. Criminology will be fine for law school.