<p>Hey guys!
As you can guess im really really confused. I was admitted for engineering to Northwestern and know thats NW Engineering is awesome but Swarthmore is also really really exclusive and the student - professor interactions + exclusivity and badge value seem better at Swarthmore. As an international student from India, Im really attracted to Swarthmore cuz of how exclusive it is, (admitted only 2 from my country) but at the same time I dont want to lose out on how amazing a 'University - Undergrad Education' would be compared to a ' Small College Undergrad Education' which NW can probably boast of over Swarthmore.</p>
<p>My sister went to Yale & I absolutely loved it (was deffered SCEA and then rejected) so perhaps im looking for the closest to a Yale kind college experience.</p>
<p>Also is it true that swarthmore graduates have better job placements/post-grade placements?</p>
<p>Please let me know Swarthmore or Northwestern...which would be the best choice?</p>
<p>THey are so different that no intelligent comparison can be made. Swarthmore is one of the very best (Top 5) LACs in the US, but it is tiny. They campus is gorgeous; it looks like a country club in some respects. The academics are superb. Its students are top quality, but Swarthmore has a reputation for attracting somewhat eccentric types. (I hate generalizations, so take that with a grain of salt.) Also, Swarthmore’s engineering program, if I recall correctly, was more of general engineering science, rather than specialty-oriented.
NU’s McCormick School of Engineering is superb. I think the engineering education is probably superior to anything Swarthmore could offer (although for liberal arts, i am sure Swarthmore would be at least as good, even if the course offerings were less numerous). Evanston is great; the Lake is gorgeous (although the NU campus overall is not nearly as aesthetically pleasing as Swarthmore’s);Chicago is fabulous and exciting. But there are 8000 undergrads, so it’s roughly four times the size of Swarthmore.<br>
You are choosing between wildly different college experiences. Go with your gut and where you would be the most excited and happy to be.</p>