<p>I'm in the process of applying, and my school limits the number of applications I can send off (I know it doesn't make a lot of sense, but that's the system), and I'm down to Princeton and Northwestern for the last slot. I need some help choosing. Here's the run down:
- Right now I'm looking to study something within Engineering. I'm leaning towards computer stuff, but that might change and quite possibly will.
- I plan on going on to graduate school.
- Financial aid is nice, but negligible considering that I won't get much at either school.
- I have the numbers to be a competitive applicant at either (I'm not saying either is a sure deal, just that I have the numbers to be within the ballpark). Also, my chances of getting into either are not an important factor in the decision.
- I liked Northwestern more when I visited it over the summer (which is obviously limited at best considering no one's really there), but for primarily superficial reasons: nice lake, cool building, etc.
- Princeton has the more attractive programs, but no double majors, which is unfortunate because I might want to do that.</p>
<p>Does anyone have any suggestions?</p>
<p>*Note: this is also posted in the northwestern thread.</p>
<p>Planning on studying engineering or compsci? Pick Princeton. Princeton is strong in every field/subject so you won’t be locked into anything. I’m not BSE so I don’t have too much info but from what I’ve seen (experiences of friends and classmates) you will have easy access to world-renowned faculty as well as many research/internship opportunities. I’m not sure why you would want to double major in engineering fields as those are very intense at any school (difficult with a heavy course load) but minors (“certificates”) would allow you to major in COS and minor in something like quantitative biology or Statistics/Machine Learning.</p>
<p>Superficial: Carnegie lake’s quite nice. Apparently Princeton had no lake for its rowing team way back when so Andrew Carnegie just decided to make a huge one for us which is awesome. Plus you’re an hour away from the beach.
The campus is really beautiful; last year there were Tommy Hilfiger photoshoots taking place near Rocky/Mathey and I believe the photos were used in catalogs.
You’re also an hour away from NYC and an hour away from Philly…plus Yale/Harvard/MIT aren’t too far. That means that if you want to participate in hackathons as a COS major you won’t have to travel too far.</p>
<p>Lastly, Northwestern’s a good school. But I wanted to go to a private school (over UCs) for better research opportunities, easier interaction with faculty, and prestige. Princeton’s grad school is small so guess what that means? Faculty members work with undergrads all the time because there just aren’t that many grad students to take up space/attention/time. Northwestern has around 10k grad students and professional students and only 8k undergrads. It’s going to be focusing a lot of time, attention, and money on its grad students. Princeton is undergrad focused with 5k undergrads and only 2.5k grad students. That means more interaction with faculty and more opportunities. Finally, a Princeton degree can get your foot in the door at a lot more places than a Northwestern degree can. It’s just a more recognized brand. But that’s just an added perk to those above.</p>
<p>Hey jyan, I looked at the NU thread you made and that one guy is, to be blunt, talking out of his ass when he says NU engineering is better than Princeton’s.</p>
<p>Princeton’s faculty is better. There are around 31 Princeton faculty members (current) that have been elected to the National Academy of Engineering compared to around 18 for Northwestern. I believe this is in spite of Princeton having a smaller engineer school. Quality>quantity. I know rankings aren’t the be all end all of college decisions but Princeton has several placings in the top 10 for undergraduate engineering categories in US News and Northwestern apparently has zero.</p>
<p>Sure rankings don’t too much in regards to your academic experience at a school but they’re based on quantitative and qualitative data whereas those random Northwestern forum posters are basing their arguments on…nonexistent data.
Plus, rankings that take into account graduate education like THE don’t mean too much for undergraduate education…unless you’re talking about a place like Princeton with a small grad school and much bigger faculty-undergrad interaction.</p>