Northwestern vs Vanderbilt

I was accepted to both schools for transfer, and having a hard time making a decision. I am interested in business and hope to get a job on wall street after school. I havent visited either school, but need to make a decision this week as deposits are due. Any pros/cons, etc. would be appreciated.

Since nobody is responding, I’ll state some obvious differences.

Can you handle cold weather? Most of the academic year at NU is quite cold. Gets cold in Nashville too, but not for as long. If you are fond of country music, Nashville will be endlessly fascinating ( you don’t HAVE to like country music to like Nashville, however).

Vandy has big medical center in middle of campus…handy if u want to get any sort of experience in the medical field; irritating if ambulance sirens bug you.

The quarter system at NU is a plus for a lot of students. A typical load is 4 courses per quarter, though with AP credits & other considerations, some quarters you can take just 3. But still, with the # of courses students take, double majoring is easy & common.

NU students don’t dash into Chicago as much as you would think, but downtown Evanston is very nice.

Both schools are wonderful–seriously, the weather and length of terms are probably the differences that will impact you the most.

You can’t major in business as an undergrad so if you want a wall street job, you may want to major in economics, math, computer science (with a quantitative focus), in which case I’d lean to Northwestern.

bump

Northwestern is an awesome school and Evanston is a great community. It is indeed cold in the winter but the rest of the year is awesome on the lake front. The quarter system allows you to take more courses over the course of the year. I don’t think you can go wrong though with either school.

theloniusmonk, it is true that you cannot major in Business at Northwestern, but Kellogg (arguably the best business school in the country), offers undergraduate students a one year certificate in Financial Economics. Both are amazing universities, but I give the slight edge to NU when it comes to Wall Street placement.

Hands down Northwestern!! I visited both and Northwestern and their business alumni are incredible and those alumni are investing back into the school in many ways. That is an important sign, you don’t see that at Vanderbilt at least not to the same level.

Both are great schools. Congrats on having such amazing choices!

Kellogg -arguably the best business school.

My kids prefer Vandy to NW, but they love Nashville over Chicago (both love music), prefer the warmer climate, and neither are business-major types at all. I can easily see someone preferring Chicago to Nashville, not minding the colder climate, and preferring the offerings at NW in business and journalism (outside of these two, I would argue the two schools are a complete wash, though the business school adds a strong whiff of pre-professionalism to campus).

@fazeattach: Based on the scant info. shared in your posts in this thread, Northwestern is the better choice for one targeting Wall Street.

Congratulations, you will find success wherever you go! Ending up on Wall Street is possible at both schools, but Northwestern has better job placement statistics.

Vandy is only semi target for IB, but D has friend who is already interning at the banks as sophomore. So as with everything else, it is what you do with your opportunities. My understanding with U Chicago (D was EA admitted there), it is very competitive to be going to IB from there. You need to have high GPA, essay and interview to get into a selective club first. Not sure about the process or steps in Northwestern.

D has been very happy at Vandy. She also enjoys the indie music scene and has checked out many concerts there.