<p>I am a senior in high school from Florida and have been contacted by swimming recruiters from several colleges but at this point I am down to picking between two schools. I am a first generation american so my parents aren't much help at this point and we do not qualify for need based aid. Northwestern University has contacted me and has offered me a spot on their division 1 team with full tuition scholarship. Stanford guarantees me admission and a spot on their division 1 team but no scholarship. I have visited both and have loved them but I am a little worried about the harsh winters in Chicago. Is the name Stanford worth loosing a free 4 year tuition to Northwestern for connections to silicon valley, a better name, and gorgeous weather?</p>
<p>Everyone is different, but I liked Northwestern much more than Stanford. It’s a very attractive campus within easy access to a wonderful city. Is Chicago cold in the winter? Yes, but if you dress properly you’ll get used to it. I find Stanford too spread out, and too much like a country club. I like my colleges to look a little more lived in. It’s fairly easy to get to San Francisco, but it takes a couple of hours on public transportation. I think you’d be crazy to turn down free tuition!</p>
<p>What is your goal per swimming? Will either school fulfill that goal?</p>
<p>What is your EFC? Stanford offers excellent need based FA. If your EFC is close to zero, Stanford’s FA will be better than the full tuition offer from the other school.</p>
<p>Dad II: My goal for swimming at this point is to stay fit and have fun competing bc I know that my education is more important at this point and my extremely competitive years will end once I enter college. My family’s EFC is very close to all of the tuition bc we do not qualify for need based aid.</p>
<p>The only thing that would make you go to Stanford for full tuition over Northwestern for free would be the weather! My kids swim and I totally understand that there is a huge difference between Stanford swimming and Northwestern. If you were offered a full ride that means you are a highly sought after recruit (especially since you were offered a spot at Stanford) and would probably get to travel and be an important part of the team. I don’t blame you one bit for making the comment about your competitive years are behind you but my guess is that the Stanford coaches would not want to hear that!<br>
Academically - I live in the midwest and I have been a business recruiter for almost 18 years and there is no difference in reputation around here - On the west coast they may say Stanford is better but the rest of the country sees them as equally great schools. I say go to Northwestern for free! Would your parents pay full fair at Stanford or would you have to take out loans?</p>
<p>Both schools may offer you additional Aid depending on your EFC, so fill out your FAFSA/CSS for both schools and see what the bottom line is befoer you accept. </p>
<p>Be aware standford is northern california, so thats not exaclty fun in the sun in winter. Yes, warmer than chicago but still jacket weather. Ideally do a campus visit to both in the winter to see what its like. </p>
<p>Either way congrats these are great schools and you must have some serious talent for them to want you.</p>
<p>Surely the pools are inside. I wouldn’t pick any school for its weather. Stanford is not in Southern California - they do get winter there. It may not snow but it rains, it gets foggy, it gets cold. Even in Southern California we’re experiencing autumn this year (we don’t always) - I suppose cold for us isn’t the same as cold for Chicago but your body learns to tolerate the temperature - my kids who grew up in California go to school in the east and have both adjusted to the weather and love it. Again - don’t pick the school for its weather there are far more interesting reasons to pick a school.</p>
<p>REf #4, in that case, go to the other school. As Mathmom said: you’d be crazy to turn down free tuition!</p>
<p>If your major is computer science or electrical engineering, then I’d go with Stanford. You will earn quite a bit in summer internships if you’re in a STEM major, and will garner a top salary when you graduate. I don’t think some loans would be too high a price to pay in exchange for access to Silicon Valley and Stanford connections, and a truly fantastic college experience. Stanford students are an extremely happy bunch. Also, here in the NE, Stanford has a much better reputation than Northwestern, and is higher ranked on every list I’ve seen.</p>
<p>The only reason I’d say no to Stanford is if you really don’t want to dedicate much time and energy to swimming. Stanford athletics are a serious business. But if you do want to be an athlete, then there is no better place than Stanford. The winters in Palo Alto (isn’t it central CA?) are rainy, but still far nicer than Chicago weather.</p>
<p>That said, Northwestern is a great school and free tuition is very nice. Just keep in mind that NCAA rules prohibit offering any scholarship promises for more than one year. That deal is only guaranteed your first year, no matter what the coaches say or intend right now. If you don’t perform well in the pool, if you get badly injured, if there’s a new recruit they need more money for, or if you decide to quit swimming all together, you will end up paying full price at Northwestern too. That would be unfortunate if you really preferred Stanford but went to Northwestern for the money.</p>
<p>PS–Just saw the posts above. The Stanford pool I know of is outdoors. When we visited the school in January, there was a swim meet being held in it.</p>
<p>TheGFG: I am thinking about majoring in Applied Math or Statistics with Pre-Law. Also NCAA changed the rules this year and now colleges offer 4 year scholarships and at Northwestern I have it in writing that it is a guaranteed free tuition for four years. Would that change with school you would chose?</p>
<p>Northwestern has great applied math and is very well known in the Business and law areas. I’d give it very serious consideration and the guaranteed four years of tuition is really great. If you would have to take any loans to go to Stanford, it would be a no brainer. I assume you’ve shared this information with Stanford as well to see if they want to match that … if you really wanted to go there. Weather wouldn’t be a reason. My D isn’t an athlete, but she decided to apply to Northwestern and not to Stanford because she just liked the culture at NU much better. Stanford was too egotistical and the campus was too spread out for her taste. NU felt a lot more comfortable and more academic feeling … although she ultimately chose Pomona over NU. I would visit both if possible, and definitely look at the departments you’re interested in.</p>
<p>Well then yes, go to Northwestern!!</p>
<p>Stanford students do not seem to us to be more egotistical than top students anywhere else. When I was at NU years ago, it was very yuppy and pre-professional. IMO, the students were much more self-absorbed with their ambition than those at my undergrad LAC. Based on my D’s overnights to HYPCS, she’d say the Stanford kids were less pretentious and much happier than students at the Ivies. </p>
<p>OP, you need to visit yourself to get a feel. No one can make this decision for you.</p>
<p>Here’s what I’d say to counter TheGFG (Northwestern undergrad and Stanford grad here)
- “top salary” = $80k, which isn’t that much in the Bay Area; with the loans to pay, you’d be living pay check to paycheck. Actually, you may have a hard time to afford if your entire cost is from loans (zero contribution from parents).
[Stanford</a> Computer Science '10-'11 Salary Survey Results | Hacker News](<a href=“http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3141716]Stanford”>Stanford Computer Science '10-'11 Salary Survey Results | Hacker News) - you can get summer internships out of Northwestern also, albeit harder if Silion Valley is what you are after. Applied math & stats majors are well sought after these days, which pretty much negate any small difference between the two.
- I don’t know what exactly “much better reputation” means; when I went to grad school at Stanford, some of my classes would have some undergrads doing BS/MS combined degree. It’s not like I would be immediately in awe or thought they would be way above me. I treated them like my Northwestern peers and in reality, there’s almost no difference. These days, Northwestern has the same stats as Stanford.
- Stanford is higher ranked than Dartmouth on every list too. I am sure no one is saying one should pick Stanford because of it.
- Northwestern is no more preprofesional than Stanford in terms of prelaws and premeds (I actually think Stanford has more of those if I am not mistaken). NU is more pre-professional in terms of having more aspiring journalists, producers, actors, educators, and musicians. None of them give much of the “yuppy” vibe. I actually thought Stanford gives off more of that vibe with that perfectly manicured campus (yes, it’s like a country club as one poster said).
- The pools at Stanford are outdoor. If you don’t like the winter, I doubt you’d like going in and out of the pool when it’s 60s and/or rainy outside.</p>
<p>Another thought: Stanford swimming is top notch, so if you’re good enough to be a Stanford recruit, then you’re good enough to be recruited just about any place you’d want to go. There are probably quite a few other schools which would also give you a great scholarship or even full ride. Is there a reason the decision is just between these two? You get to take 5 official visits and it never hurts to have more options.</p>
<p>Don’t forget signing bonuses, stock options, and annual bonuses! Sorry, but a starting salary of $90,0000 is good anywhere.</p>
<p>"Salary offers ranged from $64,400 to $100,000. The average salary offer was $79,914. The median salary offer was $ 82,200.</p>
<p>“About 70% of students were offered stock options. About 80% of students were offered signing bonuses. And about 60% were offered relocation assistance and there were others who did not report the statistics since relocating did not apply to them. Relocation assistance ranged from $2,000 to $10,000 with an average of $3,000. Bonuses ranged from $5,000 to $25,000 with an average of $5,700. I did not calculate the range of stock options because stock options offered by companies are so different in their actual and potential values.”</p>
<p>OP:</p>
<p>While I personally would much rather live in Palo Alto over Chicago, I wouldn’t let the weather or the prettiness of the buildings in one place vs the other be a factor in the decision. It’s just 4 years (or so) that you’ll be there and you s/b able to tolerate the lousy Chicago weather for that period of time.</p>
<p>The weather at Stanford, especially in winter, will be substantially and very noticeably better than Northwestern but again, that’s not a very good reason to choose.</p>
<p>Stanford at full pay is a huge amount of money. Northwestern at no pay is…no money. You can have fun with your swimming at either location, get a good education at either location, get into good grad schools from either one, and (probably) get a good job after either one.</p>
<p>Given that you seem to like both of them then I’d let the cost be a major factor in the decision unless the cost is of no consequence to you or your parents.</p>
<p>Note - There isn’t ‘pre-law’. You can go to law school with any undergrad major.</p>
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<p>Are swimming scholarships covering FOUR years of education? Are there any guarantees?</p>
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<p>See above.</p>
<p>If you like Math/Statistics, go to Northwestern for free and do the MMSS and/or the Kellogg Certificate. You will be golden… Who does not like free gold!?</p>
<p>Again, no matter what the change in the NCAA rules, you will not get the money if you later decide not to swim. You don’t sound very committed to continuing the sport at a high level, and you will need to be very motivated to put up with the time and energy drain of Div. 1 athletics. Also, if you are planning to go to law school, you will need a high GPA. Div 1 swimming will make that a good bit tougher, but not impossible, to achieve.</p>
<p>Funny, this just popped up on my MSN homepage: a new study quantifies the economic impact of companies started by Stanford grads (think alumni network).</p>
<p>[Stanford</a> grads’ companies combined equals 10th largest economy on the planet - San Jose Mercury News](<a href=“Stanford alumni’s companies combined equal 10th largest economy on the planet – The Mercury News”>Stanford alumni’s companies combined equal 10th largest economy on the planet – The Mercury News)</p>