<p>I know these kinds of topics are overused, but I need advice to make a difficult decision.</p>
<p>I am a high school senior living in Wisconsin. I currently have no planned major or specific interest and am potentially looking at pre-law and business possibilities. I have been accepted to both WCAS at NU and UW-Madison. Both of these schools have relatively high rankings, but my dilemma in deciding between these two arises from cost and possible fields of study.</p>
<p>At Northwestern, the overall cost would reach beyond $40,000 per year. At UW-Madison, because I am Wisconsin resident, my total annual costs would only be about $12,000 (helped by a $2,000 scholarship I may only use for Wisconsin schools). So I believe I am looking at approximately 170,000 vs. 40,000 over 4 years, respectivley. I did not apply for financial aid at NU because I do not qualify. Money is not an absolutely critical factor.</p>
<p>Because I am unsure of what I want to do, UW-Madison is appealing because of its variety of fields and majors. Its research is excellent as well. </p>
<p>On the other hand, NU seems more focused, and it has greater 4 year graduation rates.</p>
<p>I am more familiar with the UW-Madison campus, I have several very good friends going there, and it is within 1 hour of my home. NU seems more diverse and cultured, however.</p>
<p>I would greatly appreciate your opinions and advice on which you would prefer or recommend. </p>
<p>Ah, I’m in exactly the same situation as you. I’ve been accepted to both (and only) UW-Madison and Northwestern. I thought about it for a while, but since money isn’t a huge problem for me, I decided to go with Northwestern. As far as undergraduate schools go, UW is good, but not great. It’s really more renowned as a research institute. I figured I’d attend graduate school there after four years at NU.</p>
<p>(This is my more biased view, but the Undergrad school is pretty famous for two things: Sports and alcohol. Across a lot of college catalogues I’ve looked at, UW is top for beer use. All of that’s nice, but I’m not the type of person to care about sports or partying)</p>
<p>On an unrelated note, I’m in Madison (James Madison Memorial High School). You?</p>
<p>Wisconsin is a good school and NU is a great school, but once you bring the financial considerations into the equation, it’s harder to justify picking up all that debt when you can get a fine education at Wisconsin.</p>
<p>Thanks for your help! This will be a difficult decision but hopefully some campus visits will clear a few things up for me. I plan to visit UW-Madison on the 10th and Northwestern on the 13th. Hopefully I will receive word on a few of the scholarships I applied to before the May 1st deadline comes up too.</p>
<p>Eightball: I am from Janesville, Wisconsin, about 45 min. from Madison and about 2 hours from NU.</p>
<p>I had the same thought. I was hoping that between my visit to UMN last Friday and my visit to Northwestern this Friday, I would have some great vision of where I should go. Well, it hasn’t happened yet. I hope it happens this Friday.</p>
<p>Good luck to you in making your decision. I am sure that you will be happy at both places.</p>