I found another thread like this, but from 2008. Not sure how things have changed since that time. I’ve been accepted to both Wash U in St. Louis and U Chicago. I visited Wash U three times and they have offered me a merit based full ride scholarship. With need based grants, etc., U Chicago comes out about the same, but I would have to work there for some of the money. I was convinced that Wash U was it, until my visit to U Chicago this past week. I love it there. Mom and Dad want me to go with the best money deal. I could go to either, but I was really impressed by U Chicago. The Wash U scholarship is renewable every year. We worry that as my parents income changes, each year, my need based grants could change.
Parent here. The FA people have been very reasonable with our family. Also the opportunities for summer grants is tremendous. No guarantees but that’s our experience. Good luck to you.
I just chose UChicago over Wash U. Visited both back to back and loved both schools, but it ended up coming down to the fact that UChicago has an actual linguistics department but Wash U only has a program. Good luck in your decision!
You said “I visited Wash U three times and they have offered me a merit based full ride scholarship. With need based grants, etc., U Chicago comes out about the same, but I would have to work there for some of the money.”.
Does it mean that WashU’s covers tuition, room and board? That will be somewhere between 60K and 70K per year guaranteed.
Does UChicago give you any merit-based scholarships? Such as University Scholarship, NMF, etc?
I do not know how much you have got from need-based grant. However the need-based scholarship will change if the income changes. You can use the financial aid calculator to estimate how much the need-based grant will change if the income changes over the years.
Not affiliated with either here, but as someone with a background in environmental science…
You really can’t go wrong with either, and academically they’ll be a wash, especially in geology. Wash U is stronger in organismal biology, and its plant science program is one of the best in the country. It maintains close ties with the St. Louis Zoo and especially the Missouri Botanical Garden, the first of which is right off campus and the second also pretty close, so there’s quite a bit of internship opportunity.
On the other hand, Chicago offers geography, which has many applications for environmental studies. Geography is an extremely versatile and underrated field that I wish more private colleges offered. Chicago’s offerings are limited, but at least it offers a fair amount of GIS and an intro course in biogeography.
Consider the difference in weather, academic calendar (quarter vs. semster system), campus atmosphere, etc. Also carefully consider any perks that come with the scholarship at Wash U – big scholarships often come with exceptional advising that set you apart from all the other little fish.
What kind of work at UChi do you have to do? If youre a teachers assustant, that might be a very smart career enhancing move. If yiure a barista, not so much
I taught math at Wash. U. for many years. The students are very bright, but the administration wants “retention” and “no problems”. Here is a summary of what happened when I taught differential equations at a level similar to MIT.
The chair of the math dep’t told me that he wanted me to make the class the normal “cookbook” course, telling me to teach students only the steps to work problems like those that will be on the test. He said to do this so that he wouldn’t have “problems”.
An Engineering Assoc. Dean (and Dean of Student Academic Integrity) was concerned about students doing poorly on an exam. I wrote him that almost all of the ones who had done poorly had cheated on the homework. He wrote back: don’t “discourage” them, “retention” is important.
Though the Math Chair kept refusing to show me the “complaints” he was “dealing with”, I finally managed to get a copy of them. Here is what I saw.
An Engineering student tutor “complained” that he “…cannot do…most [MIT} problems …and [he] received an A [in the standard “cookbook” version of the course]…”
An outraged father wrote the Deans that his “understanding” was that the average on a test was 47, and that I didn’t even curve! It was actually 67 – several points lower than the other three tests, and about 40% of the class made A’s, no one below a C. The Deans responded to the parent by asking for his son to report on whether I had “improved”. The student’s “report” made it clear that he did not even recognize that homework problems were on the test – some word for word!
The Chair of the Math Department told me that Math had just “wrested” a course from Engineering, and they weren’t going to let Engineering “wrest” this course from Math. Clearly, there was a competition to see who could meet the “wants” of a few students to the detriment of all students. The course was worth a lot to the winner’s budget. (A Dean had told a previous Chair that he wanted “no complaints”, even if that meant a reduction in standards. That is apparently how the winner is determined.)
I give this example because I was there, not because Wash. U. is the only school behaving this way. There are schools that are ok, though, but you have to beware of those that aren’t.
Dad here. My son just got back from visiting Reed College in Portland OR. He loved it. Unfortunately they aren’t offering comparable scholarship money. It also includes loans (secured and unsecured). Wash U and U of C do not include any loans… He hopes to change their (Reed) mind. We’ll see. He need to decide quickly. May 1st is just around the corner.
"There may be a simple reason why the university remains need-aware. It has tended to invest in resources that are tied to college rankings, a connection WashU has refuted.
In the 2013 Times article, Berg “insisted” that at WashU “rankings are never discussed in the admissions office,” according to the newspaper."
So I guess you have got around 45K financial aid (including merits) per year from Chicago.
Do not know your financial aid break downs.
If you get majority of it from need-based grants then the income bracket may be low. That means increase of income in the next four years can trigger significant need-based grants reduction. I believe Chicago offers consistent need-based grants if no significant changes of your financial situation. But it will review it every year.