<p>thank you again everyone for the continued informative posts. Now that the thread has died down a bit I’d like to respond to a few of the comments.</p>
<p>First off, I’d like to say that the aid package awarded to me by NU will closely match that of Berkeley’s tuition. The difference is noticable, but for the sake of the argument (as difficult as this is to ignore), let’s try and ignore tuition. </p>
<p>On a quick note, I believe that I would like a science track, and for that I know that nothing can really touch Berkeley’s scientific resources and education. In fact, I’ve even head that Brown’s biology department is second to none. Of course NU is no slouch in the science either. However, I would not describe myself as your typical science student: I didn’t thrive in the large lab classes in high school. Rather, I discovered my passion and love for science in a series of science based Elective classes, which had less then 15 students in them. Whether that is a product of todays high school curriculum’s and setup, I do not know. However, that leads me to believe that for me to truly excel in the science world, I need close, intimate settings, which I don’t believe can truly be handed to me until my junior and senior years at a public university like Berkeley. Few facts blew me away more then the 7:1 student to teacher ratio at NU. </p>
<p>One of the best advice that has been loveingly pounded into me by CC members is that I should “choose the school which I feel best at,” especially in a situation as this one where all the choices are so closely matched, and I truly cannot go wrong. DunninLA, in responce to your question on how NU became my dream school, I can only hope to reflect upon the impact of my recent (this past summer) visit to the campus. </p>
<p>It was a beautiful, clear, and brisk day in Chicago (rare for the school year, I know), and my mother had just driven from Ohio after seeing a few small colleges down there. After an awsome lunch (French dipped something, was amazing…note: love of school nearly directly correlates with pre-campus-tour lunch) my mom and took a brisk “el” ride to campus. I was immidiatelly blown away, as I was at Brown and Cal. However, the moment which I really fell in love with the school was meeting a friend of a freshmen who I know. He was a rising sophmore, and he was at the campus over the summer working in for a proffessor in a lab as a payed intern. The work they were doing involved inducing death in cells through a natural process which I believe is something called apoptosis. It sounded incredibely cool and interesting, and he was doing that hands on work starting his freshmen year! He then told me how his fraternity, which he loved, especially the active social life, had done really well in a campus wide flag football tournament. I immidietelly knew that was the college kid I wanted to be. In turn, this reflected upon the college which molded this kid into what he had become in one short year. He, and NU (at that time), seemed like the perfect, rounded package deal. That is the moment (along with lots of research and such), and continues to be, why NU is my dream school. I apologize for the mildly lame antedote, but I couldn’t think how to describe my feelings any other way.</p>
<p>In conclusion, I would have to say that NU gives me the “package” deal I so yearn for: top notch prestige and academics, an active social life, a new experience away from home, Big 10 sports, and one of the greatest campus/locations in the country.</p>
<p>My only final question is, am I giving up a signifigant amount of prestige, academics, or anything else (of course in comparasin to Berkely and Brown) for that matter in order to recieve this percieved “package” I believe I will get at NU? </p>
<p>I am sure many of you will say that the “package” I am after is attainable at Berkeley and Brown, I must note that the campus, new experience (i.e. outta Cali’), social life, and “bigger” sports do not fit as well into Brown and Berkeley as well as they do at NU, at least in my opinion. I would love comments on that opinion as well.</p>
<p>Thank you again for your continued comments and thoughts throughout this process. Sorry for the spelling and grammatical errors.</p>