I will be a high school senior in the fall and am highly considering both WUSTL and NU. I would appreciate opinions on the two schools and why one has the advantage over the other. I would especially appreciate comments from current students and alumni from each university to speak about their experiences.
Specifically, I am interested in learning about the different academic programs at each school and where each school has the advantage. Furthermore, which is considered harder to get into / more prestigious/ has more difficult classes. How do the dining halls and dorms compare at the two schools? How does the student body differ at each school? How are the surrounding areas of each school/ what are the main attraction sites nearby each school? Which activities do students typically like to participate in?
Any comments on the suggested questions above/ any other comments about the two schools would be awesome. Thanks all!
Technically speaking, Northwestern is “harder” to get into since it has a 10.7% acceptance rate. Wash U has a 16.7% acceptance rate. Practically speaking, it’s probably like splitting hairs. Both will offer you high-quality educational experiences with intelligent, ambitious student bodies and lots of post-college opportunities. I’d say they have about equal levels of prestige, although Northwestern is likely to have more name recognition.
I’ve heard that the housing and the food at Wash U are both very good.
Hi, WashU class of 2021 here! I had to choose between Northwestern and WashU a couple months ago. If you’re thinking about doing pre-med, I would definitely go with WashU; their program is top notch. Personally, I’m not pre-med, but I am BME, which is a very strong program academically at WashU, as well.
One other big benefit of WashU is the academic flexibility between colleges. Many, many students double major and/or minor across colleges (i.e., engineering and design, business and chemistry, etc.). Anyone can take classes from any college; next semester, for example, I’m taking a class from the art school, one from arts and sciences, and the rest through my engineering major. Exploration is very encouraged. WashU also has the best dorms in the country and top ten food. The South40 was a huge draw for me; it’s essentially a small residential town on campus just for freshmen and sophomores.
Northwestern is better in terms of athletic life. It is D1 vs. WashU’s D3, and what’s more, it is in the B1G conference. Also, Northwestern’s music school is superb, although as a casual musician it may be harder to just play for fun.
Weather wise, St. Louis is going to have the better weather. It is quite cold in Evanston during the winter due to its position right off the lake.
I found the student body at WashU to have a more relaxed Midwestern feel to it. People are always looking out for ways to help others, and it is extremely obvious. I feel I get a lot of personal attention, from deans, professors, admissions officers, and students. Not to say that Northwestern isn’t welcoming, but I felt that the NU student body had more of an Eastern culture to it. People are definitely involved on both campuses.
I ultimately chose WashU because of the personal attention, gorgeous uniform campus, and academic prestige/flexibility, especially in engineering. It is also important to note that I got a merit scholarship from WashU, whereas NU gave me nothing. (They offered me a research scholarship, but that wouldn’t help me pay the $70k tuition bill.) You may be in a place where money doesn’t matter, but if it does, I would seriously consider financial aid in your decision. WashU offers some merit scholarships, whereas NU offers only need based aid.
“One other big benefit of WashU is the academic flexibility between colleges.”
That’s true with NU as well.
Northwestern is considered to be more “fun”. WashU has more of an Ivy league feel, and may feel slightly more “intellectual”. Northwestern has big time sports culture/greek life and as such, is more like Vandy or Stanford or Duke. Both great schools.
I will agree that WashU may have a more intellectual feel to it, but I wouldn’t necessarily say it feels like an Ivy. I specifically didn’t apply to Ivies because I didn’t want the singularly academic focus and competitiveness that is often found on those campuses. WashU students care about their studies, sure, but I find that between students, it is more collaborative than competitive. It’s not like Columbia, where one of the tour guides told me, in all seriousness, “It doesn’t matter that the dorms don’t have air conditioning because you’ll spend all of your time in the library anyway.”
I’d say quarter system often offers more flexibility. I think WashU and NU are comparable in BME but NU is ranked higher in all other engineering disciplines.
They advertise the quarter system as being a huge plus, but I honestly didn’t find it attractive. It’s not like one quarter = one semester; the amount of time you spend on each class will even out. Additionally, I have heard from current students that the quarter set up is stressful because exams come so quickly and frequently.
@JemmaSimmons: The quarter system is more stressful; you really can’t fall behind, but it does offer more flexibility because many higher level classes have prereqs and having more time slots means you can more easily juggle them as well as distribution requirements, etc.
And obviously, this would depend, but some quarter-long NU classes do cover as much material as semester-long classes elsewhere.