<p>trying to decide between these two schools...</p>
<p>Im OOS for UVa, but i love Va and the weather and the UVa campus. Im considering being a history or humanities major so seems like UVa is good for that. Concerns are - seems like students may be rather preppy - less diverse. I want a school with lots of diversity, not just ethnic/racial but personality and background. At the same time, I visited for one day and maybe I didnt meet the right people. im sure at a school of UVa's size, there will be plenty of people like me (whimsical, against pop culture, indie music, artsy, slightly nerdy :D) Another concern, dunno how the bio or premed prog is at UVa which is another one of my options...</p>
<p>For NU, again, I love the campus (lake is gorgeous). Love that it is close to Chicago bc i think im in love with chicago. haha. I might do bio major and premed and I heard NU is great for bio! Though I met lots of really sweet nice people, others I talked to (and ppl on the student panel) did not seem enthused about attending NU...seemed kinda boring and drab. Also heard that student body is more of the studying type/competitive - which is a downer. Another downer is it seems like art dept is small and not very popular....(correct me if I'm wrong) yeah i wanted to double major in art and something else, but that will prob not be a possibility at NU</p>
<p>Financially, itll cost about 15 thousand less for me to go to UVa per year..which i guess if quite a big diff...I'm also an East Coaster so UVa will be less traveling for me.</p>
<p>I'm also probably going to grad school, so I mean, name of my undergrad wont matter as much....not that I think names matter, but employers kinda care..</p>
<p>Two schools that are easy to fall in love with, and both great, so it’s win-win for you.
Congratulations!
The money, unfortunately, does make a meaningful difference to most people, and if you are going to grad school, it might be wise to save.
Good luck to you!</p>
<p>Yeah, I also got a super preppy vibe from UVa, so I don’t think it’s just you…</p>
<p>That said, I’m not sure NU is “less preppy.” I’ve never visited the NU campus but from what I have heard from alums/etc., NU is fairly preppy as well. A large number of their students go Greek, it is a Big 10 sports school, it is an expensive private university. Those factors combined make me think NU would not necessarily be “better” than UVa. You tend to think of more quirky students attending UChicago down the road. </p>
<p>That’s not to say you can’t find your niche at either school - can you visit UVa again? Maybe zoom in your visit on some clubs or organizations you’re interested in participating in, which may attract more diverse students? Ex. the campus radio, a social justice/civil rights organization, or something similar? Even something as simple as walking around the English building might reveal a differnt “face” of the school - the English students at UMD are decidedly more liberal/hippy/what have you than the majority of students here, which a walk around the building will show.</p>
<p>I don’t know anything about the art programs, though I imagine their relative strength in bio is not all that important/different, and I imagine NU has strong humanities classes, too.</p>
<p>15K is a big difference, so if you can make yourself comfortable at UVa that might be the way to go. That said, there is nothing like being next to Chicago…that alone probably brings more diversity to the NU experience. But I suppose you have to ask if that really brings 15K/yr more to your comfort level.</p>
<p>I’ve mentioned this on a number of these NU threads, but I will again: while there are lots of Greek kids, 60% are not, and with 8,000 kids, that’s more than you’d ever get a chance to know in 4 years. (Regina Spektor is headlining Dillo Day if that says anything about the interest in Indie music!) My sophomore son (Music major) is not Greek, is friends with kids from a number of NU’s schools, and while I like to think of him as studying and being uber-competitive, he seems to have an inordinate amount of fun. He is from the Northeast and is used to competitiveness but he doesn’t see cutthroat at NU. He is pretty mellow himself, however. Music and theater are HUGE there, and there’s an incredible amount of student-generated creativity. “Boring” is not a word I have ever heard about NU. Take a look at the calendar and see all the overlapping events. There is TOO much to do! </p>
<p>Sciences are fantastic, of course. Son is happy to have the chance to study both music and sciences. Double majors are quite common at NU due to the quarter system, which allows you to take more courses.</p>
<p>I’ve never been to UVa, so I can’t comment on it in comparison in terms of character. I know only one graduate of the UVa music program and he loved it. I just wanted to throw in my 2cents about NU’s preppiness/competitiveness quotient, from what I know from my son’s experience. He was a little annoyed with the focus on pledging during his freshman year but found plenty of non-Greek friends/things to do, and this year, he says his Greek friends are, simply, friends–no longer going through the obsessive pledge frenzy, I guess! They are over that, in other words.</p>
<p>Certainly $15K per year and travel expenses are nothing to sneeze at.</p>
<p>@umcp, before making any conjectures about whether NU is preppy or not, I suggest you visit first. you presume to have knowledge when you really don’t. NU isn’t preppy at all. Preppiness here is for the most part confined only to certain prep-themed events.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Bio is simply much stronger at NU (true of the sciences in general). But if your interest is pre-med and not a bio based career, both schools will service your needs similarly well.</p></li>
<li><p>Diversity - 2/3 of U Va students are from Va. The math is not tough on this one. Have to give a significant nod to Northwestern.</p></li>
<li><p>And NU is not even remotely “preppy” (misinformation dies hard on these boards). Think that moniker was applied by some visitors from that other elite school to our south (and maybe by comparison to Hyde Park we are?). Certainly not in comparison to any other T20 school.</p></li>
<li><p>Art? Don’t know the first thing about Studio Art, if that’s your interest. Art History here is a small gem, though, one of the best reputed departments in the country.</p></li>
<li><p>$15k/year is a lot of moolah.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>NU - great academics, one of the more depressing campuses in the U.S.
UVA - great academics, pretty campus designed (in part) by one of the more brilliant minds to grace this earth.<br>
The lake might seem appealing - but wait for a windy day in February. Ugh.
15k/yr is really 60k (w/o interest) after four years of college - or, in other words, a year or two of grad school.
Do they really teach things much differently in undergrad, from school to school? I highly doubt it.
Good luck!!!</p>
<p>“That said, there are a lot of people that DRESS preppy, but are not in fact. And I know preppy- I grew up ~10 minutes from Greenwich.”</p>
<p>I certainly didn’t meet everybody at UVa and I don’t think the OP did either. I don’t really know what it means to “BE” preppy. I think that’s pretty HS and in college most people are over that. But there is something to be said for NU not exactly being a bastion for hippies…I mean, neither is Harvard. It’s a different school than some other super liberal/crunchy LACs, or super intellectual (or take-themselves-too-seriously-and-try-too-hard-to-be-intellectual, depending on your preference) LACs/unis. It’s a different school than a place where no-one cares about sports or they don’t have sports at all. Etc. Just like UVa is a different school than some more laid back state schools where most/no-one even dresses up. It says something about NU that such a large percentage of its students go Greek, at least relative to schools where no-one does, and that there even is a freshman frenzy to get annoyed about. I’m not saying this is a negative thing, or that it says that NU is exclusive, snobby, blahblahblah (At MD & many other schools with Greek life, the Greek kids mix in great with everyone else and there’s no resenment…in fact, I’m glad they’re there and I’m friends with so many of them - they throw free parties with free alcohol!). But it is what it is, and it’s not Berkeley, where only 20% of students rush and there are about 20 student cooperatives LOL. However, much-smaller NU has one co-op, at least Which is cool btw :).</p>
<p>(P.S. what is this business about having a prep-themed event being the antithesis of preppy? At the very least that’s “nuetral” - prep is in the book of stock party themes just like 80s, nerd, etc. and preppy people, who might not be caught dead at a gender queer themed party, would probably not mind the preppy themed one lol).</p>
<p>(P.P.S. Yes, I’d love to be a Northwestern student already! And I’m not “preppy” in the slightest.)</p>
Which is cool btw :).</p>