NWestern, Washu, or Cornell?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Northwestern University
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<p>I'm currently deciding between these three colleges and it is a really tough decision.</p>

<p>The problem is that they're such similar schools - great academics, mid-size, diverse, etc. and I want to pursue undergrad business which they all offer - Cornell w/ applied econ, washu w/ olin, nu w/ undergrad certificate program.</p>

<p>The thing is that I want to be near a city - a fun, resourceful, large city - Chicago beats St. Louis and Ithaca in that respect. </p>

<p>But people at Cornell feel they have a great experience without the city life- the people who surround them are outgoing, sociable, fun people, not as much at Washu or NU. I want there to be balanced ppl who study yet party hard. Whats best in my scenario?</p>

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<p>i was faced with a similar decision years back. I chose NU, despite having the choice to go to cornell and wustl (well, WUSTL wasn't nearly as good back then, but w.e.). Are your from NY? If you are and you are doing the AEM program, then perhaps you should go there and save your parents some nice chunk of cash. If your main goal is wall street/investment banking, right away, I would get rid of washington. That is my personal opinion. I did a year of consulting work for a major firm (ranked consistently in top 5 by vault). Northwestern and Cornell were both feeders. Wash U was not even on schools visited. Good luck though.</p>

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<p>Just another social difference....NU is a big 10 school. Granted, the basketball and football teams aren't national powerhouses. But we play games on national TV and are more competitive than we're given credit for (last year we went to a bowl game).
THe Women's LAX team is 2-time defending nat'l champs and Softball went to the championship this past year.</p>

<p>THere is a strong sense of school spirit and there is a lot of focus on sporting events as a means of uniting the student body.</p>

<p>Not sure if sports (and the accompanying parties before and after) are important to you, but that could be a means of gaining the social unity you crave.</p>

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<p>"But people at Cornell feel they have a great experience without the city life- the people who surround them are outgoing, sociable, fun people, not as much at Washu or NU."</p>

<p>I don't know where you are getting your info. - but NU has a pretty active social life.</p>

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<p>I thought Cornell is the one that's said to be intense, have grade deflation...and where people are anti-social.</p>

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<p>Yea I'm big on sports and that's definitely a plus at NU</p>

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<p>Northwestern all the way!!</p>

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<p>I am also curious of where you heard that Cornell quote- that's so partial. But I know that Northwestern provides a great life for students; The campus is bright and beautiful, and Chicago is a great city that provides lots of cultural and entertainment experiences that the closed society of Ithaca and St. Louis cannot provide. I definitely recommend NW.</p>

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<p>I'm so jealous of you! Northwestern and Cornell! Those are 2 of my top choices. By the way, I'm only a junior right now. I'd definitely have a hard time deciding between the two. </p>

<p>The only thing about the certificate program you mentioned is that you don't apply as a freshman, so you're not guaranteed to be a part of that program. Cornell's AEM program is awesome. They are pretty well-recruited I hear, so maybe Cornell is the better choice.</p>

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<p>i'm obviously biased but i'll try and give what my impression is:</p>

<p>cornell - party school, big greek scene, really competitive/elitist student body</p>

<p>northwestern - not a party school for the entire student body however for a select few groups it is an extremely big party school, big greek scene, noncompetitive student body</p>

<p>washu - not a very big party school. pre med.</p>

<p>i would say that washu is the odd man out here, being that it is not really renowned for having a very good social scene. The difference between northwestern and cornell is going to be the following:</p>

<p>cornell - rural all the way
northwestern - urban location but suburban campus, you'd have to visit to understand fully</p>

<p>cornell - "east coasty" people, academics will follow suit, in typical east coast fashion it will look out for its kids (in terms of touble they get in)
northwestern - more balanced student body, academics will follow suit, in typical 'everywhere but the east coast' fashion it will try to **** over its students (in terms of trouble they get in)</p>

<p>they both will have very active social lives if you become part of the right greek organizations/meet the right people who like doing that kind of thing.</p>

<p>washu will probably be harder to have a more active social life at.</p>

<p>my personal opinion is that northwestern is pretty much the ideal school in every possible way and after being here i really couldn't imagine going anywhere else. cornell seems to be a love it or hate it kind of thing, there are several transfer students from cornell in this years transfer class.</p>

<p>this i always thought was not a very big concern in choosing a school but you might also want to think about the fact that northwestern will help a lot more if you want to work in chicago/parts of cali, while cornell will help a lot more if you want to work on the east coast.</p>

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<p>since you're a student at Northwestern, how would you describe a person who is a good "fit" for the university?</p>

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<p>elsijfdl, exactly what does it mean to have a "non competitive student body?" That students help each other out vs. being cut throat? </p>

<p>Thanks.</p>

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<p>I'll actually agree with NUGrad for once on this one. Olin is not as good as AEM or NU.</p>

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<p>I'm kinda scared though that it'll be impossible to get into the undergrad certificate program at NU...</p>

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<p>well, there is no problem with majoring in economics, which is what many people that attend top schools without business programs (harvard, yale, princeton, stanford, etc.) typically major in if they intend to go into the business world after college. these people also clearly have little problem getting a great job.</p>

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<p>Hahaha yeah, only 50 people get into that certificate program... I'll probably just do economics at CAS for NU if I end up there.</p>

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<p>NU still offers large number of business-related courses to undergrads even it doesn't grant a undergrad degree in business:</p>

<p>other than those found in economics department and the Kellogg undergrad certificate program, look also the following:</p>

<p>courses in </p>

<ol>
<li><p>industrial engineering/management sciences dept (ranked #6)
<a href="http://www.iems.northwestern.edu/content/courses.asp%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.iems.northwestern.edu/content/courses.asp&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li>
<li><p>school of education and social policy (under learning and organizational change)
<a href="http://www.sesp.northwestern.edu/ugrad/conc/loc/curriculum/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.sesp.northwestern.edu/ugrad/conc/loc/curriculum/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li>
<li><p>medill school of journalism (2 courses in integrated marketing communications, advertising)</p></li>
<li><p>business institutions program <a href="http://www.wcas.northwestern.edu/bip/courses/index.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.wcas.northwestern.edu/bip/courses/index.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li>
</ol>

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<p>"elsijfdl, exactly what does it mean to have a "non competitive student body?" That students help each other out vs. being cut throat? </p>

<p>Thanks."</p>

<p>i have heard stories from cornell specifically, a student said he went to the library to look for parts in a book to help him study for a test and those specific pages had been ripped out by someone (presumably) to prevent any other students in the class from having access to them</p>

<p>but i mean, it is probably a college phenomenon so it is hard to understand, but imagine when talking about grades or classes that you always feel like people are trying to one-up you, or are secretly thinking that they now need to do better than you, even at your expense</p>

<p>at northwestern, or any college, you will always find people like that, but you will also find a lot more people (compared to cornell) who are willing to study with you/share notes/point you in the right direction.</p>

<p>or maybe it's just that i don't like to feel like people are competing with me at all times in academics, it's more just a general attitude, i'm not here to BEAT EVERYBODY ELSE and that seems to be the mentality that pervades cornell, as well as many other elite east-coast schools</p>