<p>I recently got a call that I have the opportunity to be a Chancellor Scholar at UW Madison. It covers full tuition and awards an $800 stipend for books. Would I be a fool to turn this down in favor of a 50k+ private university? I may be jumping the gun on any acceptances, but I think its a valid question. I applied to Madison because all my friends did. I honestly had no desire to attend a state university before this scholarship. Money is not really an issue for my family, but any amount I don't spend on college is mine to keep. Basically my parents said the decision is mine. If I do turn it down, I'll feel guilty. The program sounds pretty nice with all the service opportunities and private networking, but I just don't know if it beats a school like Northwestern. I always had a dream of being a Wildcat, but the money and title from Madison is beginning to look really enticing. So, what are your thoughts?</p>
<p>Good luck on your decision. I don’t have an answer for you. UW-Madison is a great school. Maybe save the money you would have spent on a private undergrad education for grad school.</p>
<p>I see that your family income is $300,000 and you are Lao, first generation college. So that must mean for a Chancellor’s Scholarship, family income is not a considered factor.</p>
<p>One of the requirements:</p>
<p>Be a member of one of the following groups:
a. African American
b. Native American
c. Hispanic/Latino
d. Southeast Asian (Cambodian, Hmong, Laotian, or Vietnamese)
e. Educationally/culturally disadvantaged</p>
<p>Depends on the major-career goals.</p>
<p>If money isn’t an issue, you should take a look at what Northwestern can offer you vs what Madison can offer you, in terms of opportunities for undergraduate students. Depending on your major/career goals, one school may be better than the other. In that case I would go with the school with the better opportunities/programs that best fits your goals</p>
<p>I guess its too late, but if I were willing to pay full boat then there are much better schools then Northwestern. I assume that you are going to graduate school, did you ask your dad who is going to pay??? I make much more then 300K and I will not pay for weddings graduate school and undergraduate. After college my kids are on their own!!!</p>
<p>Tough question. If you are able to afford it, and money isn’t an issue then I would go to northwestern. NW is more prestigious and harder to get into than UW. If it is truly your dream school then go there because you don’t want to regret not going there several years later. On the other hand a full ride is pretty good and would be hard to pass up. I can see your dilemma.</p>
<p>Unless you’re choosing to go to a school like MIT, Stanford or Yale (in other words, an incredibly short list of schools that are ultra prestigious), I think it would be a poor decision to turn down the scholarship. Going to Northwestern over UW is not going to afford you much in the way of extra prestige (if any). For that matter, UW is more prestigious in some areas than Northwestern, like science. Then again, if money doesn’t matter then the discussion seems to be pretty much moot. Just pick where you want to go the most.</p>
<p>Northwestern is definitely more prestigious than Wisc Madison. Come on, let’s be real. Madison is great, but northwestern is way up there. There are a lot of factors that go into picking out a school other than reputation, however. It would be a tough call…one 99% of college applicants would be thrilled to make.</p>
<p>Well, it might depend on where you ask.</p>
<p>[Top</a> Universities by Reputation 2012](<a href=“http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/world-university-rankings/2011-2012/reputation-rankings.html]Top”>World Reputation Rankings 2012 | Times Higher Education (THE))</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.shanghairanking.com/ARWU2011.html[/url]”>http://www.shanghairanking.com/ARWU2011.html</a></p>
<p><a href=“http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/world-university-rankings/2011-2012/top-400.html[/url]”>http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/world-university-rankings/2011-2012/top-400.html</a></p>
<p><a href=“http://storify.com/uwmadison/it-s-spring[/url]”>http://storify.com/uwmadison/it-s-spring</a></p>
<p>Well, polls are polls. My daughter was admitted to the University of Illinois with a scholarship. I couldn’t be prouder. and she is still waiting on Madison. But Northwestern…she would not have been admitted. It is highly selective. I consider U of I a world-class institution…as I do Wisc-Madison. They are equal…more or less. Many people admitted at Madison and Illinois would not be admitted at Northwestern…the flip side is not true.</p>
<p>Badger2012 used the word “prestigious,” and I take that the mean reputation. Sorry, you can show me all of the polls in the world, but in real life, a degree from Northwestern is generally more impressive to most people than a degree from Illinois or Wisconsin.</p>
<p>Where I can agree (at least for Illinois and probably for Madison as well) is specific colleges like engineering. But that aside, Northwestern is widely regarded as a top 20 school, and Ill and Wisc are regarded as top 50 schools. As much as I would like to consider U of I the 23rd most prestigious school in the world as that one link claims, that is not the case.</p>
<p>Ask 100 people to rate the more prestigious school, U of I or Duke or Northwestern, and 90 would put U of I at the bottom of that list. That one link has U of I higher rated. I know polls can differ, I don’t think there is a real true question about whether Northwestern is more prestigious than U of I or Wisc. (except for U of I or Wisc students/alumni)</p>
<p>First, they aren’t “polls”, they’re rankings. There is definitely some variability, but that’s kind of my point. Northwestern is ranked higher in USNWR, but UW is ranked higher in the ARWU and Times Higher Education. </p>
<p>The give and take is also seen in specific areas. For instance, a computer science or computer engineering degree from UW is going to be much more prestigious than one from Northwestern, while a journalism degree from Northwestern will probably look better than one from UW. </p>
<p>Yes, Northwestern is more selective than UW, but in terms of how your degree will look to potential employers or graduate schools there is, overall, not that much of a difference, and in some cases UW will look much better.</p>
<p>My Son received the Chancellor Scholarship from UW but only received a half chancellor at Minnesota and was summarily rejected by Northwestern. He has a 3.95 GPA and has passed 2 AP Exams (Stats and Calculus A/B B/C with scores of 5) and has taken approximately 20 semester hours of college credit in H.S.
UW was his first choice from the get go. But I cannot understand why NW rejected him. He did campus visits to both.</p>
<p>Totally agree with jenny1penny. Depends on school/department. Northwestern has its share of good departments (e.g., journalism) but UW has its share also. Northwestern has the private school “aura” that over the years has promoted its reputation effect. The university as a whole I think has greatly gained from the top ranking of its business school. If you dig down department by department, UW Madison competes often better than Northwestern (in many sciences, engineering, etc.) in terms of reputation of faculty, scholarly output, and overall department ranking. Northwestern just doesn’t knock out UW to justify 55K a year. If one is all into the name, go cross town to U. of Chicago or out east or to west (Berkley, Stanford). I have advised my son to take advantage of UW, save $$, and worry about the “wow” in terms of name when he goes to graduate school.</p>
<p>The NU kids used to chant–while losing–“That’s alright, that’s ok–you’re going to work for us some day”</p>
<p>Well, they had the wrong school–UW with over 5 times the Fortune 500 CEOs whose undergrad was UW vs NU.</p>
<p>[Where</a> the Fortune 500 CEOs Went to College - US News and World Report](<a href=“http://www.usnews.com/education/articles/2011/01/03/where-the-fortune-500-ceos-went-to-college]Where”>http://www.usnews.com/education/articles/2011/01/03/where-the-fortune-500-ceos-went-to-college)</p>
<p>I ended up getting into Northwestern and NYU Stern. Honestly, I think I’m leaning towards Madison. Little to no debt sounds nice. Madison may not be all that “prestigious” but there’s a lot more to a university than a ranking. A lot of really valid points in this thread. I’ll have to keep checking back.</p>