I recently got accepted to Northwestern University’s McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Sciences as well as Haverford College. The financial aid for both is identical at about $60k per year. I want to pursue a career in either applied mathematics, educator of mathematics, or engineering. I was wondering which school would be ideal to start off in.
As of right now, I plan to attend grad school immediately after undergrad. I only mention this because it seems that a liberal arts degree would have less use without a graduate degree with it.
I don’t care about the environment as much as academics, so my decision will be solely based on which will better prepare me for my field.
In your case, Northwestern. I am biased but the applied math at the engineering school is highly ranked (NRC ranking) and is going to have more leading experts with better research. At the same time, because the number of majors is small, the student to faculty is probably even smaller than that in LAC. Also, you can switch to or double major in another engineering if you want to.
Haverford is real great place for future educators and professors. Future Academia galore
Northwestern is no slouch obviously. It’s elite.
Think you might have a tech advantage at NW and a cross discipline advantage at ford
A lot of rigorous/demanding math tracks at NU including MMSS, ISP, the math department’s “honors” track.
NU also offers the option of engineering (while Haverford can’t).
And actually, a quantitative liberal arts degree can set you up well for jobs without a grad degree. MMSS is a feeder to Wall Street, for instance.