<p>I'm being recruiting for women's tennis at Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Northwestern (and some other places but these are what I'm considering). I want to pick a school based on the school and the experience I'll get there. I know tennis will be a big part of it for me, but pretending I'm a regular student, what are the pros and cons of NU as compared to HYP? Right now I'm leaning towards Yale, but I haven't taken my official visit to NU yet so I'd like to know if anyone has anything to say that could help me in my decision making.</p>
<p>Clearly, a big factor is that I'd get a full athletic scholarship going to NU, and I get barely anything from the Ivies.</p>
<p>I don't have a specific field of study in mind, but it will likely be in the humanities.</p>
<p>Is it really that big of a no-brainer to you? I’m actually sort of reluctant to consider NU, considering I have the opportunity to go to Harvard, Yale, or Princeton. And it’s almost a guarantee that I’ll get in. Being American born Chinese, it’s hard for me not to choose anything other than Harvard. My parents aren’t even pressuring me in any direction, and I feel that way. I guess what I need is for someone to convince me that prestige doesn’t matter.</p>
<p>Also, if you get injured or for some other reason are no longer playing tennis, you would loose your scholarship. For the Ivies, once you are in you are in.</p>
<p>@Murphy: from where? It was my understanding that you loose your scholarship if you don’t play for the season, for any reason.</p>
<p>Edit -I just checked a couple websites like Informed Athlete; scholarships are renewed annually and can be increased, decreased, or cancelled for any reason, as long a student is notified by July 1st before the school year.</p>
<p>" Being American born Chinese, it’s hard for me not to choose anything other than Harvard. My parents aren’t even pressuring me in any direction, and I feel that way. I guess what I need is for someone to convince me that prestige doesn’t matter."</p>
<p>If you were coming from China, youd have an excuse, but since you actually live in America, you should know that the differences are minute. Just because your culture overly values a handful of schools doesn’t mean that’s objectively true or meaningful.</p>
<p>It’s funny. I am good friends with a girl who got a full ride from Harvard, very little from Northwestern, and chose to come here anyway. Even though she is no longer majoring in the specific program that made Northwestern very attractive, she has no regrets in not choosing Harvard. To me, both of your situations have a number of parallels, with the exception that your full ride is on the NU side, making it even more attractive.</p>
<p>Based on your comment about being “American-born Chinese” and the resulting pressure to choose Harvard, it seems that your “pros and cons” vis-a-vis choosing a school are more focused on the relative prestige of each school. Harvard has been at the top for quite some time, but Northwestern’s not exactly a bottom-dweller either, and our stock has been steadily rising for the past several years. The small advantage in prestige Harvard offers now, let alone in 5 years when you have graduated and are applying for grad schools/jobs, is not worth the 10s, if not 100s, of thousands of dollars extra you will have to pay in tuition.</p>
<p>Bottom line: Take your visits, absorb everything, ask your questions. But when you make your decision, don’t take some imagined difference in prestige between NU and HYP into account.</p>
<p>IMO, any decision about schools of this caliber is all about personal preference, all else being equal. And in this case, all else isn’t equal. However, I can’t speak for how much of an object money is for your family. Maybe it’s nothing to them, who knows.</p>
<p>If you get admission to H/Y/P, then considering NU, for any reason other than cost, will not be a very prudent one! The prestige factor, even for those who are living in the USA, plays a very important role:)</p>
<p>My daughter, currently a senior at NU, was admitted to Yale and waitlisted at NU. Now for her, the program at NU was much better than that at Yale but even so once she was admitted to NU it was still a very difficult choice. It is not easy to turn down HYP and they (HYP) know that. We are from NY and for most people the name recognition doesn’t even come close. My husband spent hours trying to convince our daughter that Yale would open more doors, she could create as good a program, he set up meetings with current and former professors from Yale, etc. etc. etc. In the end, she went with NU and has never looked back. Money was not an issue for us.</p>
<p>I don’t know if the money aspect is enough to have you choose NU, nor do I really think it should be. It is, as someone said, much more of a feeling. Only you can decide after visiting them all and weighing all the pros and cons. Arguments can be made in all directions but in the end you need to choose and never look back. Not a bad place to be. Good luck.</p>
<p>How you feel at each school is the most important factor. The prestige of your undergraduate degree is basically just a big gold star to show off to other people- it has very little (though not no) impact on anything important. The resources are at these schools are substantially similar- what matters is picking the place you will excel and flourish.</p>
<p>To give you an idea: I’m currently a law student at an Ivy league school. Law is a field dominated by prestige in ways that make this website laughable and quaint… but that’s the prestige of the law school, and the firm. One or two firms care slightly where you went to undergrad (e.g. Cravath), but NU would be in the same band for their purposes. I turned down one of the absolute most prestigious firms for a nominally slightly less prestigious one (think turning down Yale UG for Penn or Brown UG). The important factor was where I was most comfortable- you’re in a fantastic situation. NU has a spectacular women’s tennis program, and there’s a TON to be said about campus life. There is no objectively better or worse here- make your official visit and have an open mind.</p>
<p>I seond that also as far as NU vs HYP goes, and that, to me, is not worth ~200K unless you come from the upper class. What’s the probability of your scholarship being taken away due to some season-ending injury? I have no idea but even at 50%, the difference would still be 100K (200K x 50%).</p>
<p>By the way, the w. tennis at NU is a top program in the Big Ten. You’d probably be bringing home couple Big Ten Championship trophies. I remember they were even ranked #1 for a while few years ago.</p>
<p>This very much depends on your intended major. For our D, Yale was a distant third choice school (the ONLY Ivy she would have considered as none of the others are even average in her field) and Northwestern was her clear top choice.</p>
<p>In addition to visiting with an open mind, perhaps you can apply to all of them that interest you and see where you are actually admitted.</p>
<p>Also - congratulations on your apparent excellence at tennis!</p>
<p>Thank you for everyone for your input. Yes, I am aware that NU has a very good women’s tennis team, greatly superior that of HYP. And my family is in the financial situation of having to pay about $40K per year for an Ivy school. Before we did financial pre reads, we thought it would be around $20K, which wouldn’t have been much of a problem. $40K a year though is quite a lot of money for us but not a deal-breaker. </p>
<p>I guess it’ll just come down to how much I like the schools. Right now I like Y the most; there’s nothing about it I don’t like. So I suppose it’ll be a comparison between NU and Y. If I’m equally excited about attending both, it’ll be money versus prestige. Hopefully the advantages of each school don’t inadvertently affect my judgement of them.</p>
<p>To squeeze a little more out of you guys…what I want the most is an environment that will truly care for my growth as a person. Which school is better equipped at helping me make the right decisions for me? Which has better academic advising? How are the students at both schools? Do Yalies come of as more elitist? They didn’t feel that way to me. Where do you make more connections? Sorry if these are weird questions…I suppose it’ll just come down to me in the end. But I’d like to know if anyone has opinions.</p>
<p>Amethyst, I think only you can answer the question about which environment is best for you. In large part, this will probably depend on your comfort with the team and the coaches, as you will be spending a lot of time with these people! Both schools provide fantastic undergraduate experiences. (And this is just one data point, but I have not found Yalies to be elitist).</p>
<p>Amesthyst, how many of these schools have you physically visited? If you are truly that competitive that you will be able to pick and choose amongst the top 10 schools, then the next step ought to be flying out and visiting. If money is no big deal for you (if you can dismiss a full ride as relatively insignificant) then the proportionally small investment you will make on visiting all the schools will give you extremely valuable information. I think NU offers a very generous visitor’s policy-you can visit classes and stay in dorms. I think you can arrange something similar for the Ivies. Pardon me, but asking strangers on an anonymous forum isn’t exactly going to approach the level of information that actually visiting will give you.</p>
<p>When they step onto campus, many students will know right away if the school is either not for them or for them. Of course there are grey areas, but going there would definitely help you either dismiss a school or keep it on your list. (It would also give you something concrete to write about when they ask, ‘Why x?’). My oldest S was in love with Columbia – on paper. We visited, and the moment we stepped on campus, we both knew (but didn’t say to each other yet) that this was not his school at all. The subsequent two hours only kept confirming the initial impression. He crossed it off his list. This list is PERSONAL. </p>
<p>Please try to think about what you actually need and want rather than what you think your parents or other people will think of you when you wear a sweatshirt with a logo. At this level, ALL the schools you list are superlative. All open doors and help establish connections. It depends on what YOU want. You should go and take a look at each school’s team and their coaches, spend time with them. You should stay in a dorm. You should eat lunch with students and ask them about their experiences. Upper classmen as well as Freshmen. You should walk around. YOu should sit in on classes you are interested in. Trust me, this will give you far far more information than most anything else. YOu may find you can cross several off your list just that way. And you may find yourself falling in love with a few–which will make you feel great when it comes to choosing among several schools you love (if you’re in that fortunate position).</p>
<p>Yes I have visited all of the schools I have mentioned, except for NU, which I am going to visit next week. Athletic recruits take visits paid for by the school. </p>
<p>I know that it’s a personal decision, which is why Y is a the top of my list, because I felt it was most right for me. That narrows it down to NU and Y, and I have not yet visited NU. Clearly, if I hate it, there will be no question, but if it’s alright, or even if I like it as much as Y, then I have to decide whether or not Y is worth the approx $160,000 my family would have to pay for it. Is it worth it? If I like NU equally as much as I like Y, then should there be no question about it, choose NU? </p>
<p>I know this is a question only I can answer. I’m asking for other people’s opinions, so if you don’t have them, you don’t have to answer. Thank you!</p>