<p>I'm completely conflicted over which school to attend: Northwestern or University of Chicago. Both are very prestigious schools, and about the same tuition. I'm doing chemical engineering at McCormick for Northwestern, and Chemistry at U of C. Could anyone please help me conjure up a list of pros and cons to each school? Thanks!</p>
<p>NORTHWESTERN</p>
<p>Pros:
- Evanston is a very nice suburban area (compared to U of C’s location)
- McCormick will probably afford you better connections for job opportunities than Chem at UC
- On-campus beach
- Good party/greek scene: it’s there if you want it but avoidable if you don’t (versus UC which has a pitiful party scene)
- Big 10 athletics and good school spirit
- Awesome Co-op program
- More well-rounded student body</p>
<p>Cons:
- Campus architecture is not as nice as UC (very important in my opinion :P)
- Student body not as intellectual (on the whole) than UC. My completely stereotyped view of the schools tells me that Northwestern students are in general more pre-professional than UC’s students. (this may or may not be a bad thing)
- Greek life is viewed as divisive by some students, leading to a divide between North and South Campus (north being heavily greek and south being heavily artsy)
- You would probably receive a less well-rounded education going through a set engineering program at NU versus Chemistry at UC</p>
<p>This is all I can give you for now. I never looked too deeply into UC, so I’ll let someone else provide the UC side of the argument. Personally, I would choose NU because it’s a much more well-rounded school. The social life will be better. The school spirit will be better. The job prospects will probably be better, and the surrounding area will be better. The two schools have very different atmospheres, though, so I would highly suggest visiting both before making a decision. Hope this helps and good luck with your decision.</p>
<ul>
<li>thickfreakness -</li>
</ul>
<p>In case you don’t know, chemistry and chemical engineering are very different at the undergrad level. One way to help make the choice is to differentiate the two. But even for chemistry, NU has a very strong program. Chemistry is one of the very few liberal arts areas where NU is on par, if not arguably stronger. I have heard great things about the program and the department has produced quite a few Goldwater/Cambridge Gates scholars in the past decade. NU is one of the few national centers for nanotech; the chemistry and material sciences & engineering are leading the effort. There’s also strong collaboration among chemistry, chemical engineering, and material science departments for multidisciplinary research.</p>
<p>Have you had a chance to visit both campuses? If not, I strongly recommend that you do so. Academically, you can’t go wrong with either choice, but they have rather different cultures (not as different as some on this board might suggest, but enough so to make it a relevant factor in your decision). I really think this comes down to ‘personal fit’ as much as anything.</p>
<p>thanks so much all of you! Thickfreakness, you offered some excellent input on Northwestern, I agree that the social life at NU seems much better than UC. Sam Lee, I do realize that they are very different, but I feel as if chemical engineering at NU will provide me better career opportunities. However, like Thickfreakness pointed out, UC offers an excellent education, so you’ll be knowledgable in all areas instead of just your concentrated area, which is very appealing to mme.</p>
<p>HST, visited both campuses already, but participating in the open houses in 2 weeks. I agree, now its bascially down to the “personal fit” since thats whats most significant in choosing a college.</p>
<p>Thanks for all your help, very thoughtful insight</p>
<p>xtremewishes,</p>
<p>Good luck with your decision. Do try to talk to as many current students as possible, including outside the ‘scheduled’ events. Ask students what they don’t like about their school (the answers to this question are often quite revealing, and most students will tell you honestly if you ask). If you do this, I think you will be able to get a good sense of where you will be happiest.</p>
<p>The thing is, are you able to withstand the huge core at Chicago, where you are forced to take courses that you know is your weakness. However, if your looking for a challenge and want to try new things, it will work in your favor.</p>
<p>YaleRocks, thats exactly why I am making a decision between the two schools. However, the Core at UChicago is quite appealing because I do want to be exposed to many different courses, and not just my field of study. However, I feel as if I will not be able to concentrate solely on my major because of the university’s emphasis on experiencing the whole spectrum of education, from humanities to sciences, and this will probably exponentially increases my stress because I will have to balance my time between multiple courses. So, the Core could be seen as an advantage or a burden.
Thanks for your insight, that’s a really good point and one of the main reasons why I am not certain that I am matriculating to UChicago.</p>
<p>Thanks HST! That’s my plan…to speak with current students, alums, etc. because they will offer information and opinions not included in websites, brochures, and give me a true perspective of the universities</p>
<p>This is really about where you feel comfortable. I know someone who was faced with this exact same decision. He loved U of Chicago and as soon as he stepped onto Northwestern’s campus he felt it was in his words “plastic.” His friend absolutely LOVED Northwestern. I think its more a cultural preference. It sounds like you want to go to Chicago by reading your posts. Just a hunch.</p>