<p>Just like the title says, I've narrowed my college decisions down to UW-Madison and Northwestern. I'm pretty sure (like 80%) that I want to go premed and eventually go to Med School. The other side of me (20%) wants to major in economics and possibly do some sort of i-banking. Madison will cost about 18-20k a year whereas NU is around 42k. I'm not sure which option is better. NU will leave me with debt even before grad school, but the name recognition, smaller classes, better advising, and research oppurtunities are a little better (definitely better if I decide on econ, slightly better for premed). On the other hand, Madison will be cheap, possibly easier to maintain a higher GPA ( I hear NU premed weeds a bunch of people out), and will still have decent research oppurtunities. I'm really split between these two, I may be favoring UW-Madison just slightly because of the cost issue, but am undecided as of right now. Another point i've heard is that Med Schools don't care where you go for undergrad, but I'm not entirely sure i want to do premed and also, the research oppurtunities and advising are going to be better at NU. Also note that I've visited both schools multiple times (cousin at NU and brother at UW-madison) and like both even with their differences. Let me know if you have any input.
Thanks!!!</p>
<p>UW Econ has recently hired 4 top economists including one away from NU. </p>
<p>[Recruiting</a> the Best | University of Wisconsin Foundation](<a href=“http://www.supportuw.org/stories/feature/recruiting-the-best/]Recruiting”>Recruiting the Best | University of Wisconsin Foundation)</p>
<p>Econ is one of the relatively few departments to have both a full-time in department advisor and a career services/placement office in the dept. So you might get more help than you assumed.</p>
<p>[Department</a> of Economics | University of Wisconsin - Madison](<a href=“http://www.econ.wisc.edu/undergrad/]Department”>Undergraduate Program – Department of Economics – UW–Madison)</p>
<p>It’s probably not worth the extra money to go to NU, unless if your parents are paying and they have lots of money.</p>
<p>^ Agreed. Wisconsin will easily get you where you want to go.</p>
<p>Will the cost difference need to be made up with borrowing? NU will be about $88k more over 4 years. $88,000 at 8% APR compounding monthly over 20 years payments would be $736/month.</p>
<p>Well, basically my parents would pay for 3 years, and I would pay for 1 at NU or all 4 at UW. They said they would try to pay for as much of my education as possible assuming they don’t go into significant debt themselves. I feel like NU is a great oppurtunity, but I’m just not sure its 80k extra great, or 40k personally and 40k for my parents.</p>
<p>If you want to go to med school I think its a Wash, if employment/ finance is an option than Northwestern is much much stronger.</p>