TRUST HER.
Her list of reasons is strong.
The difference in her employment prospects will be zero, and the differences in the rankings at that level are negligible. Fit will matter so, so, so much more.
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Ya, ya, I know, NU is your D’s favorite, but I’ll shamelessly plug UMich. At least they have a women’s club hockey team and they compete at the D1 level. How do I know? One of my kid’s best friends played with them last season.
@sushiritto - Wow, that could move Michigan up the list. I’m not sure about the level of play though - it may be too high for her. We need to research that.
A few years ago, she gave up the many grueling hours of hockey training/ travel/ camps to pursue music more seriously. She reached a point where she had to pick between competitive hockey and music. She once competed on a top girls AAA travel team, but now just plays on her HS team. I’d say she’s an AA level player now. She couldn’t compete at the top NCAA Div 1 level - not sure about other conferences.
Many of her current teammates will be playing at NCAA D3 schools. She could maybe compete at that D3 level, but none of the schools she’s looking at have D3 hockey. Plus, I don’t know how she could balance engineering and music with competitive hockey. A local “for fun” rec/club team is better I think. We saw that MIT has a club team like that (another plus for MIT).
She was hoping to walk-on or even form a rec/club team once she starts college. She actually helped start her HS team as a freshman (she’s captain now). So she has some experience marketing for players, scheduling practices, etc.
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“The University of Michigan Women’s Ice Hockey team operates as a club sport and competes in the American Collegiate Hockey Association (ACHA) and the Central Collegiate Women’s Hockey Association (CCWHA) at the Division 1 level.”
That’s not the same as NCAA Div 1 hockey, like they play at Wisconsin, BU, BC, etc. It’s the Div1 level of club hockey. It’s still a lot of work and a lot of time. It may also be a lot of money as usually club teams have to pay a good part of their expenses themselves.
Schools that have hospitals don’t always have hospitals on the same campus or even in the same city. U of Maryland Hospital and med school are in Baltimore, about 40 minutes from the main campus in College Park. U of Colorado’s medical school is in Denver/Aurora, an hour from Boulder.
But that being said, has she considered Hopkins? Good music opportunities (also off campus) and the medical school is not that far from the undergrad campus.
@twoinanddone - Thanks for the info… They tried to obtain NCAA varsity status but Michigan said No… so thinking they have a very high level of play/travel/commitment… They are holding open tryouts this week. We will research this more though - watch clips online, etc.
@twoinanddone - We did have Johns Hopkins on the list. D visited JH and also attended a music clinic at their Peabody Music school which was excellent… JH is amazing (esp the opportunities for research) but unfortunately she didn’t feel safe in the Baltimore area around the schools.
This is the only school she took off the list because she felt unsafe around campus. And she has plenty of other urban schools on her list - in Chicago, NYC, Philly - so it’s just the vibe she got there when commuting between Hopkins main campus and Peabody campus.
Also, we researched crime stats in the area and learned that JH is one of the only big schools without a campus-wide police force. I believe a campus police force request was recently voted on in their assembly - not sure of the status on that.
Anyhow, JH/Peabody is a great school but she took it off the list due to her perceived safety concerns.
They compete against teams such as Ohio State, Minnesota, Michigan State, UMass, Rhode Island, etc., as well as some teams you’ve never heard of. I’ll clarify, it’s a club sport at UMich, as I said, but they compete against D1 level teams.
I kinda mentioned it as a lark, because it appears NU is the best choice for your D. Having said that, The CoE at UMich allows you choose from many engineering majors by sophomore year and all you need is a 2.0 GPA, I believe. Also, UMich has a SMTD (Music/Dance Theater) program, but I’m assuming it’s not on par with NU.
My personal opinion is that engineering is one of the majors where it matters the least where you go to school (at least in terms of choosing between UMich, NW, UCB, etc.). MIT and CalTech being in a different category just because that is their main concentration and what they are known for.
@Scubaski1: As the father of 2 NU Chemical Engineering Alums, a son and a daughter, I think I can contribute a little to the discussion. 
Congratulations to your D, and most importantly, regardless of her final decision, she is well-placed to wind up at a great university studying in an area she is interested in.
As freshman engineers at NU, both my kids participated in the Engineering First program. https://www.mccormick.northwestern.edu/academics/undergraduate/core-curriculum/engineering-first.html It’s an opportunity to work collaboratively with others on real-world engineering problems from the first quarter of school. My wife & I live relatively close to NU, so we were fortunate to be able to visit and tour the end-of-year project results where the students help handicapped clients through their engineering skills. We were blown away at the abilities demonstrated by the first year students.
Since you are local also, it may be of interest that both of my kids played varsity sports in HS - but switched to completely different club sports at NU. D played with her team in Ireland, & Germany and started with the Edinburgh First 15 for her study abroad. Son won Offensive Player of the Year in his club sport, and it was a Huge Parental Bonus that me and the wife could watch them play in college.
Also worth mentioning, is that thanks to all 5’s in his AP classes, my son was able to start NU as a Freshman With Sophomore Standing - and graduate in 4 years with a Masters. They are both working in their chosen fields, and happy they went to NU.
Good luck to your D, and PM me if you have any follow up questions.
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My last piece of advice is go for NW ED, my DD friend who had these stats/EC’s
SAT 1580
4.0UW/4.5W
Was THE state champion in her sport, not just on the team
Multiple EC’s and awards.
Does it look familiar? was rejected by all but two of her choices,
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Your daughter is a perfect candidate for ED. She has done her research, and has clarity on what she needs/wants in a school.
If she LOVES Northwestern, then definitely do ED, if you can afford it, as they fill 1/2 the class by ED and may be rejected in RD. She should also apply early to state schools.
Also, college rankings in Engineering are mostly for Grad school.
People mention college ranking and for NW it’s fine. Not sure why this is such a big thing. For music with engineering look at Michigan as stated and their music program above is great
Carnigie Mellon also.
Also if her heart is set on NW then definitely ED. Why wouldn’t she?
They also want to know that she wants to really be there like Michigan. Have her reach out to her AO for her school. (hope I didn’t state this before on here…)
Keep in mind when comparing salaries, you have to take regional cost of living into account. Condos built decades ago are sold for ~$800/sq in Somerville/Cambridge vs ~$400/sq for newly contructed ones with modern amenities in downtown Chicago.
Thanks again for the informative responses.
@nugraddad - I really appreciate the feedback from a parent of NU engineering students and I may PM you with more ?’s.
NU really does sound like a perfect fit for my D. Even the Freshman co-op at the rehabilitation center is a good fit, as she volunteers as an adaptive sports guide (sets up adaptive sports equipment and guides the physically disabled in activities). The opportunity to play many different rec sports also sounds great. We didn’t see the Rec Center on the tour, but I’m sure it’s expansive. She also definitely wants to study abroad.
We had a family talk last night and we are 100% all in agreement she will apply to NU early decision. We are excited and hoping for good results. We have looked at schools all over the U.S. (with 3 college-bound kids that is a lot of college visits!) and are so happy we found a perfect fit for her in our own backyard.
I think her strategy is that she will also apply to some state schools EA (Mich, IL, Minn, Wash) and possibly MIT. If she is denied at NU (hope not), she may apply RD to Cornell, Carnegie Mellon, Penn, Princeton… Hoping she won’t need to do that.
@Scubaski1. She needs some safeties just in case. Michigan’s not a safety especially for OOS. For UIUC she needs to declare a major then a backup. Since she doesn’t know which engineering she can do undecided. Silly as it sounds it’s actually hard to get since they take few of them like 80-100 kids. Review their website about switching to a major after first year. Illinois makes things harder then like Michigan and Northwestern, which both are pretty easy to switch majors and add minors etc.
She needs a true safety. Every school you listed is either a reach or a match.
There is a ton of good information and advice on this thread. My son, who will be a freshman at NU in a few weeks, was in a very similar situation last year at this time. He was down to NU, Penn and WashU for ED, and really loved Michigan. He made a second visit to NU in early October and spent the day attending a variety of engineering classes (I think he went to three classes all in different disciplines) and briefly met with two professors. It was exactly what he needed to apply ED with total conviction (and it helped inform his essay, which I think really helped his application). He also got a much better sense for the culture and vibe of the students than he was able to discern from our previous visit. Good luck!
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@momofsenior1 and @Knowsstuff
I appreciate the concern about having safeties, but Wash, IL, and Minn are all listed as safeties for her on both Naviance and another college site she uses with her counselor.
They are flagged as green which means “safety.” She is well above both the testing and GPA stats of these schools, even the engineering programs. Not to mention she’s a full pay, advanced STEM female applicant, likely Natl. Merit Scholar and has played with the music professors at these schools, who will judge her auditions. We have the scatterplot and her counselor recommendations, so we’re comfortable these are her safeties.
We also personally know many kids from her HS/classes who attend these particular schools, so are very familiar with the type of student who gets in. Maybe a reach in one town/HS is a safety in another - IDK.
Michigan is considered a match on these systems.
We may possibly add Ohio State, also as a safety.
MIT and all the other Ivy’s we listed are reaches for her and everyone else.
NU is borderline match/reach for her but I don’t think that takes into account ED #.
She would apply to UIUC in chemical engineering (not undecided) as she has attended the UIUC Chem Eng camps/ competitions at UC and really likes the program/professors there. So if she went there, she’d have to accept she can’t change engineering majors.
@sable999 - Thanks for that perspective - that’s a really great idea to go back and observe NU classes in the Fall. I’ll suggest this to my DD. Congrats to your son!