Got into both schools and I feel very blessed to be given these options, but trying to decide between these two schools is so daunting… Also, I’m the first in my family to ever attend college (and one in America!), so this is a huge task!
Still waiting on financial aid for both schools, but say they were about the same amount…
If you have done research about these schools or you have had to make this decision before too, what did you consider? Please give me your two cents about Northwestern and Amherst (focus more on NU if you can, as I will be posting this on the Amherst board as well) in terms of the following:
Location: Internship opportunities, Job opportunities, Weather, Campus safety, Surrounding area safety
Academics: Strongest and weakest departments, degrees of competition or collaboration, research opportunities
Faculty: Knowing that I’m comparing a LAC and a university, is it true that the professors at NU are more involved with the graduate students
Social: Degree of social pressure, fixed hierarchy/fluidity, general personality of school (summed up in one word, school spirit, duck syndrome, etc.) clubs/organizations
Best for what types of students:
Future preparation: Job placement, name recognition
Currently, I want to major in Neuroscience and then go off to dental school… but I know that many people change their minds in college, so my questions are:
Based on current interests, how are the neuroscience/cognitive programs?
If my interests do change, how easy is it to change majors/tracks? (I’ve heard things about how NU’s “pre-professional” commitment?)
I would really appreciate any additional comments!
Thank you all so much!
You’ve visited? If not, make sure you visit. The schools are pretty different in terms of ambience. Both excellent academic schools. Both would be strong pre-dental schools.
I’m going to be visiting Amherst(they’re flying me there), but not Northwestern because no tengo dinero
How would you characterize the difference of ambiance.
What do YOU want in a school? What atmosphere do you want? Based on what you asked, we would be speaking about what we would enjoy, but what would you want?
@greeninohio I still haven’t seen my FA packages yet, but I’m going to get that cleared up soon, and I wanted to ignore that aspect(though it is very important to me) and see other people’s opinions.
@CaliCash Thank you for bringing those questions back to my mind. What I like might not be someone else’s pro and vice versa, so that’s a good point. Ultimately, I’m hoping to be in a very collaborative environment, from the faculty and students. But in terms of size, I am very torn between a larger, busy university or a small, cozy LAC. :’(
TheOtterOne. Since you can’t visit Northwestern, make use of as many visual presentations of the school as you can, although those are a little deceptive in that they tend to pick the best views and they gloss over the gritty details.
I think it is good you are visiting Amherst. I think you hit the nail pretty close to on the head when you characterized the schools as large and busy and small and cozy, although in this case both characterizations are somewhat exaggerated. Evanston is a thriving, wealthy suburb of Chicago. I’d say it’s pretty safe and central Chicago is accessable if you are interested. The University borders wealthy suburbs along the lake which are pleasant to look at for sure. On the other side is downtown Evanston which is not huge but it reminds me of of a mid sized European city. There is a certain buzz there for sure. Of course it is cold and windy in the late fall through mid Spring but I guess Amherst can get pretty cold and snowy also!
One factor to consider, since finances are an issue, is how easy it is get there and back. NW is a bus / cab / Uber ride from O’Hare Airport which itself is accessable form airports from all over the country. Amherst is a little harder to get to. But if you are only traveling home at Christmas or end of the year, maybe that’s not so important to you.
To me, though, the most important thing is the extent to which NW can match the intimate learning environment of Amherst, and the extent to which that is critical to you. When you go to Amherst, in addition to getting a good feel for that college, you can ask about the differences between Amherst and NW.
Congratulations on being admitted to these great schools. I think either would be a great pick.
I think there are some older threads on this choice. I’m a Williams grad (and am very familiar with Amherst), and my younger son graduated from Northwestern. While I preferred a small liberal arts college (and am a big proponent of this form of college experience), my son’s experience at Northwestern did include many of the benefits of a small school. Arts & Sciences is in some ways like a smaller college w/in a large university. Other than the big intro classes, my son had many small classes and got to know a number of his professors, there are numerous research opportunities for undergrads, etc. I think I would pick Williams/Amherst for myself if I had to do it all over again, but I think a larger school does offer some real benefits: greater number and range of classes, internships in Chicago, wider range of extracurricular activities. Morty Schapiro, NU’s president, was previously president at Williams, and I think he has focussed on the undergraduate experience at NU during his tenure and been very successful. Bottom line: you can’t go wrong, they are both great schools. Congrats!
Another difference to consider is their academic schedule. NU is on the quarter system vs. the semester system at Amherst. The quarter system has three terms per academic year so it is fast-paced and you can take more courses. This makes it easy to double major, which many students do. My understanding is that it is very easy to take classes in other schools at NU and to change majors.
@jrpar Thank you for your input! I wanted to bring this discussion up again as schools change over time and I wanted to hear the most recent (if possible) opinions about it. That’s a really interesting fact to know about Mr. Schapiro! Did your son have a hard time finding opportunities in the large environment of NU? (Did he feel like the professors cared more about their graduate students and/or their own research than teaching undergraduates?) Is the Greek life overwhelming for students? I have heard so many good things about a small liberal arts college education, but I am from a high school with a huge student population, so I am both excited and nervous about my decision!
@CCMom2U Thank you for breaking it down for me! I have yet to sit down to think about which setup I like more for my own learning…
My son never felt that NU was “large”, and was thrilled by all it offered. It’s not a hard school to navigate - the extracurricular activities are easy to find and jump in to. His professors were very focused on undergraduate teaching, and he did get to know many of them, and took repeat classes with several. One of his favorite classes was one taught by President Schapiro with an English professor, on decision making from an economic and literary perspective. Arts & Sciences is like a relatively small college (I think there are about 1000 students in each year) within Northwestern, and once you declare a major, you are part of that community as well. There are a lot of undergraduate research opportunities, and several of his roommates took full advantage of that route. CCMom2U makes a very good point about the quarter system - it is fast paced, but it allows you to take more classes and double major - and a very high percentage of NU students do double major.
Greek life is relatively low key at NU, at least compared to other schools where Greek life dominates campus. You can join, or not. My son joined a frat with several of his friends, and enjoyed it, but (especially after freshman and sophomore years), but it wasn’t really a big part of his life at NU.
It would be great if you could talk with some current students at NU - if you call the admissions office they can probably set this up for you.
@jrpar I cannot emphasize how thankful I am for your detailed and thoughtful response. When it comes to colleges, I have now learned that there is certainly a lot to consider about!
Please post your relative FA results … I expect Amherst to be much better due to loan policies of the two schools. I am curious how much difference there is between the two (don’t post absolute numbers please )
Don’t know anybody at Amherst, but those I know currently at Northwestern are a bit disappointed in how little fun the students have.The frats are lively, but the average student is really really serious about studying & doesn’t have time for much else…its closer the U. of Chicago atmosphere than they were led to believe when they applied.
@Daddio3, our FA packages between the two were about $1,000 apart. They are almost identical when travel is factored in, as we are within driving distance of NU and also on an Amtrak line that would be less than $100 round trip. Amherst did waive the deposit, so there’s about a $600 difference in “start up” costs that would balance out once school starts.
@greeninohio, I have to say I find that astonishing from what I know. Amherst has a no-loan policy and NU has relatively high loans. When I run both NPCs with identical numbers, they are $10k apart. I guess your decision is a little harder. They are very different schools, though, so choosing should be somewhat clear – Amherst is much more theoretical on their learning where NU is more professionally-focused in most cases. NU is a train ride away from Chicago, whereas Amherst is harder to get to Boston. NU I am sure has larger class sizes in most cases, and less individual attention due to being much larger. Two great choices, though.
I believe NU has a loan “cap” of around $24,000 for undergrad. Their package for us did not include loans. We are Pell eligible, so probably considered low income by their standards. The FA package did not include loans. I was also surprised by the NU offer, as it was lower than the NPC calculator.
They have gone into Chicago bars not far fro campus a few times per quarter, and as dates of frats/sororities which bus a whole group to a big formal party or comedy club about twice per quarter. But to just go into the city to leisurely roam around its been once per quarter, which is quite disappointing to me as a parent, because one of the main reasons for picking Northwestern was to learn about Chicago and big cities in general. The good news is that downtown Evanston is very nice and provides a wide variety of restaurants and stores adjacent to the souther tip of the campus.
Apparently on the rare occasion that one student has a pause in the studies and could spend half a day exploring Chicago, his/her friends are usually busy studying.
Those are definitely good points that I wouldn’t want to miss when making my final decision!!
That’s a really interesting fact to know about Mr. Schapiro! Did your son have a hard time finding opportunities in the large environment of NU? (Did he feel like the professors cared more about their graduate students and/or their own research than teaching undergraduates?) Is the Greek life overwhelming for students? I have heard so many good things about a small liberal arts college education, but I am from a high school with a huge student population, so I am both excited and nervous about my decision!