S was accepted to both UCLA and Northwestern but deferred from one year to USC under the Trojan transfer plan.
Clearly, S is hurt about the USC decision but must move on with two great options.
S is undeclared with intentions of studying a combination of business with some light engineering like Industrial and Computer Engineering with some business ( finance or marketing).
UCLA is in State at 14K tuition for us.
Northwestern after some fin aid is about 35K per year plus all the traveling costs.
Is it worth the extra money to go to Northwestern?
UCLA received 110,000 applicants so being accepted is quite a feat.
Weather is not an issue for S and he loves Chicago. Also, he loves UCLA location.
so please comment about academics and prospects after graduation, Thansk
University of Chicago grad here, so I’m biased. Northwestern represents the biggest dis-connect between admissions selectivity and educational quality I’m aware of. That is, it’s really tough to get into, but the school is intellectually lightweight and a bit of a joke. It does not provide a serious liberal arts education like that offered at UChicago, Columbia, &etc. I guess if you’re going for a VoTec type field like “Communications” and you want to live in a Frat (like nearly half of the students do) it might be OK. If you want to develop your intellect, look elsewhere.
That’s 80k over 4 years and to me, that seems too much. They are peer schools so it really just depends if smaller class size and more research opportunities is that important.
I wonder why certain UChicago grads like bashing Northwestern. It seems like the high ranking (after years of playing the ranking game in the most aggressive manner) isn’t enough to make them happy. Maybe NU grads just have more success socially and more well liked in Chicago and beyond and that creates some jealousy…
I know and like a lot of U of C grads but back in the day, the U of C let in a lot of kids with under-developed social skills, as you may have noticed.
In any case, what are goals? For prestige industries like IB and MC, NU places better than UCLA. But not everyone is aiming for those industries. Also, no engineering at NU is “light”. But if your son has strong quantitative skills, he will appreciate the challenge. For UCLA, would he live at home? The 35K for NU is total costs? If so, then the costs if he decides to live in a dorm at both would be similar, right?
Northwestern University is an outstanding school, but it is true that NU does not have a mandatory core curriculum as do Chicago & Columbia.
Northwestern’s endowment is among the top 10 in the nation (excluding system wide endowment of Texas & Texas A&M). Northwestern’s admission standards are among the highest in the nation.
At one time Northwestern University was considering taking over the University of Chicago due to Chicago’s poor financials.
In 1982, there was discussion initiated by the Ivy League asking NU to become a member along with the USMA at West Point & the US Naval Academy. (The University of Chicago was not invited.)
With respect to the decision between UCLA & Northwestern University for a seemingly undecided major, UCLA is the better choice due to the dramatically lower cost. Better to save the money for graduate school or for investing in a home or business.
I’m an NU alum (grad program) and would recommend UCLA. NU doesn’t have an undergraduate business program, so if that’s the goal, it’s not offered. Both have good engineering programs. Plus, UCLA is half the cost. Save the money and go to Kellogg for graduate school. For me, it’d be UCLA - hands down. Congrats to having two outstanding options!
@SDC9160, NU does offer the Kellogg certificates and Integrated Marketing Communications certificate as well as the Business Institutions minor. In other words, virtually everything in the undergrad B-school curriculum besides accounting, though some of those certificates have a lot of prereqs.
BTW, UCLA doesn’t have an undergraduate B-school either.
Concerning costs, I’m curious if the OP is comparing apples to apples.
COA at UCLA is about $14,000 tuition plus more than $16,000 for room & board. It is unclear whether or not OP intends to live at home and commute to UCLA. If not, then the more accurate figures are $35,000 plus travel for NU versus $30,000 for UCLA.
The above link describes how IE + Econ double major can be done without overload or additional time, because of how classes cross-count. One thing to note is that this combination also gives you all the prereqs for Kellogg Certificate (Math, Probability + Statistics, Econ, Optimization). If one has at least some AP credits that will count, the entire combination can be done in 4 years taking no more than 4 classes per quarter.
Without a business undergrad, Kellogg Certificate students have full access to Kellogg’s undergrad recruiting. So, for all practical purposes, the combination above gives you a 4 year business+ engineering double degree. In all research I did for my son, such a combination was very hard to find. I didn’t look at UCLA, so cannot comment on it.
Another point to note is that Industrial Engineering, Economics, and Business are all very highly ranked at NU (top 7 for all three).
OP is from the Bay area, so her/his son presumably does not intend to commute to UCLA.
OP, when comparing the two, if you include room and board for UCLA, are the costs for NU closer to UCLA’s? Or did you mean tuition at NU would be $35K without considering room and board (i.e. you were just comparing tuition costs for both in your post)? It makes a big difference in the cost comparison, obviously. Room and board at NU was $16,626 this year (with some variation depending on housing choices).
I’m not familiar with the IE specifics (though many of my son’s friends are in Engineering at NU and my understanding is it’s a rigorous and respected program), but I know Econ at NU is very strong, and a Kellogg certificate as described by @osuprof is an excellent opportunity.
The quarter system means that there are more classes per year (students typically take 12 per year, rather than 8 as at many universities), and therefore many students will do double majors, or a major with two minors. If your son’s interests evolve but he still is interested in multiple areas, that option could serve him well.
if money was not an option, I’d say the easy choice is Northwestern. However, as you received need-based aid, it’s hard to not consider the impact on parents’ retirement.