UIUC Honors vs. Northwestern? Please Help!

Colleges and Universities A-Z Northwestern University
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<p>Okay, I posted this in the College Search board as well, but there are many other like myself, so I figured this would be a good place to post as well. :) </p>

<p>I am in a dilemna here. I really love NU, but I can't shake the fact that UIUC is throwing a lot of good things at me. Location isn't a problem- I live roughly an hour from NU and roughly 3 hours from UIUC. My rationales, thus below:</p>

<p>The problem is this. </p>

<p>I love love love NU.
I like UIUC.</p>

<p>Both have decent Asian Studies programs.
Both have an active Desi community.
Both have sororities that I can look into before joining.
Both haven nice study abroad programs.</p>

<p>Pros for NU</p>

<p>Close to the city
Great liberal arts program
LOVE the active SASA
Love the beautiful campus
Friendly student body
Small classes
Nice dorms</p>

<p>Cons for NU</p>

<p>My FA is awful, compared to what Vandy gave me. (9k in grants vs. 18k in grants, not including loans). I know that being the single child of two working parents doesn't help, our EFC was 34k. :/</p>

<p>Um...yeah. I'll get back to you when I think of other cons.</p>

<p>Pros for UIUC</p>

<p>Member of LAS James Scholar program (top 10-15% of class)
Cohn Scholar (12 students accepted from LAS, get small seminars, research opportunities
Campus Honors Program- Chancellor's Scholar (125 students chosen from the roughly 7000 undergrads, special classes, research opps, a ton of stuff)</p>

<p>Just a lot of personalized attention at what I know is a huge school. </p>

<p>Cons</p>

<p>Huge school
Big classes
TOO many people I know are going here
Not as gorgeous campus
Urbana-Champaign =/= Evanston/Chicago
FA sucks here as well, (we're trying to convince them to reevaluate me for Provost, I mean, if they gave me this much attention already...) but it is still a lot cheaper, considering.</p>

<p>I am lost. Honestly lost.</p>

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<p>Hi Rhapsody, Personally I am all about less debt when doing undergrad. The stress from debt when you graduate sucks. I know from personal experience and my debt wasn't that bad (20K for all 4 yrs). If money wasn't an issue then NU is the obvious choice, but in this case I would say UIUC. The key to going to a big campus is to make it small. What I mean by that is there are so many people you really deal with sub groups of people and I don't mean clickish in a bad way unless that is what you want. As for knowing a lot of people who are going there, I went to a local huge university too, but I rarely saw my HS friends because there were 35,000 people on my campus. You will be LUCKY to run into any of your old friends. If UIUC wasn't ranked in the top 50 in the country I would say go to NU but UIUC is still a good enough school to get you to any grad/law/whatever program as long as you do well. Good luck!</p>

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<p>I agree UIUC is the right choice. It is a great campus and you will have a wonderful experience. The weather is even (slightly) better. ;-)</p>

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<p>Thank you so much for the input! I'm hoping whatever choice I make will turn out for the best in the end. :)</p>