<p>superdub: some kids don’t worry about financial aid… until it’s too late. It should be your #1 concern. Run the Net Price Calculators and talk about the results with your parents. If they have hard numbers that show they can afford the schools out of pocket, you’re good to go. You don’t want to waste your one ED shot on a school your parents can’t/won’t pay for.
Both choices are good for employment purpose. You’d be lucky to get into one of these. If your stats place you above the average and near/above the top 25% you’re right to use your ED card for one of these two. But you can’t really decide based on employability since the difference really is negligible. It only matters if you’re interested in IB (Northwestern is a target, Wash U isn’t AFAIK.)</p>