<p>I know that they are very different schools, but my d was offered merit money to NorthEastern, and NEU appears to be about $ 5000 less per year to begin with. We're not eligible for need based aid now, but in 2 years d2 will be off to college, so maybe then we will be eligible.</p>
<p>well what's her major then?</p>
<p>WUSTL is significantly better.</p>
<p>^ I agree ...</p>
<p>What does she plan to study? You said NEU is 5k less to being with. How much cheaper after taking the merit-money into account? Guys, NEU is probably better than some of you may think. I got a list of Fortune 500 CEOs and where they went for undergrad and it looks like NEU actually got more of them than WashU on that list.</p>
<p>She'd be double majoring in Graphic Arts & Comp Sci (really). The difference will probably end up being $ 10,000 per year, which is less than I thought. But it is still $ 40,000 assuming 4 years of study. I was really impressed with NEU, but we haven't visited it yet. I really like the co-op program - it seems better than scrambling for internships every year, and the co-ops can be done anywhere.</p>
<p>WashU. Its a great school on a GORGEOUS campus in a NICE part of St. Louis. Its a VERY competitive school meaning kids there are really competitive and a bit frenetic at times (that was our impression on our visit). So visit and decide for yourselves. </p>
<p>Then again, some kids are just smitten with Boston.</p>
<p>WashU has no core requirement so kids get deep into their majors rather early...if that is a factor. We went to the full day dog and pony show for WashU two years ago and met and spoke with numerous faculty...and were very impressed...alas, we got the ubiquitous waitlist. </p>
<p>Dorms at WashU are VERY spacious and relatively new. The food is good.
But its academic city......work, work, work. </p>
<p>Kids do play hard on weekends I hear, however.</p>
<p>I was gonna say 40K looks manageable but what's manageble to some isn't necessarily the case for others. But to me, if money really is an issue and you feel more comfortable for picking NEU, go ahead. I think graphic design and computer are two fields that care less about prestige and more about working experience anyway. And you are not talking about NEU vs Carnegie Mellon for comp sci anyway. WashU is definitely a more prestigious school as a whole but its strength isn't in comp sci anyway.</p>
<p>Thanks for your input. She's in at CMU also but they seemed very bureacratic, and hard to work betweem two schools. She was invited to as special for liberal arts & sciences, though.</p>
<p>We're appealing with WUSTL right now - turns out they gapped her.</p>
<p>I don't get to do this often, but I will in this case. Go for WUSTL. NEU is a decent university, but it is not nearly as goos as WashU.</p>