<p>As the title says, I have gotten into both Northwestern and Madison, but the financial aid is not what I was expecting. My family's EFC is around 30kish with a brother in college. I plan on going pre-med (Biology major), but am thinking I might want to double major in Economics (and Biology) as a back-up or if i change my mind from Med-school. I'm just not sure if NU is worth the extra 20k/ year. Please let me know what you think.
Thanks!</p>
<p>$80K is a lot of money over 4 years.
If money is not important, NU is an easy pick over UW Madison, but if it is, that’s a different story. Only you can decide.</p>
<p>For medical school its not worth the money. Med school is expensive and your gpa is at a premium. Go to UW.</p>
<p>The only thing is, I’m not entirely sure I want to go to Med School and I know econ at NU is way better than Madison’s.</p>
<p>Wisconsin econ is actually a very strong department. If you are interested in going directly into investment banking or consulting, Northwestern might be a better call reputation-wise, but purely in terms of economics I think you’d be fine with UW.</p>
<p>And it’s better at the graduate level; it’s been from my experience of doing REUs at various top schools that there’s little correlation between prestige of the Economics department versus the quality of education you get at the undergraduate level.</p>
<p>If you’re going Economics anyway, I’d look more into the rigor of the math majors than anything else.</p>
<p>What if I decided not to go premed.? Is it stillabetter decision to save 20k a year and go to a State School instead of Northwestern? Aside from the prestige and oppurtnities NU offers, I feel like my hard-work in high school would have been worthless if I decide to go to Madison. Also, my brother who goes to Madison always has trouble getting into the right classes and I’m worried that even with about 50 AP credits, I’ll still have a hard time graduating in 4 years with a double major. On the otherhand, I have been told its really not worth spending so much extra money on Northwestern when I can go to a school that is in the same realm academically for 18k instead of something like 42k. Even a cousin of mine at NU is convincing me Madison is the better option for the price. I really have no idea what to do…</p>
<p>Go where you’ll be happier- the schools are pretty different. If you want to stay in Wisconsin, then go to Madison- obvious choice. If you may want to go anywhere else in the country, you may be better served at NU. But Wisconsin is likely the better choice if you will be happy there.</p>
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What you have or have not done in high school is past and unchangeable. Don’t worry about things you can’t change.
I’m not really sure you need a double major. I’d think that you should be able to reevaluate your interest in med school after a year or two in college and then choose to focus on biology or econ.</p>
<p>Also, you can go to medical school with an econ major provided that you take the necessary premed courses. A bio major is not essential.</p>
<p>The question is what the cost difference means to your family. Only they can answer that.</p>
<p>Ok thanks for all of your responses. Im leaning towards madison right now, but im visiting NU on monday so Ill see how it goes. Thanks!</p>
<p>I’m in the exact same situation as you! Accepted by Madison and NU and I live in Wisconsin. I intend to major in Biomedical Engineering. Such a hard choice! The only difference is my EFC for NU is around $35,000, not 42.</p>