I was accepted at WUSTL and Northwestern and waitlisted at Georgetown. I read through some old threads and it seems that waitlisted folks at Georgetown who express a ton of interest and update the admissions office have a half-decent chance of getting in, but I’m not going to try to take the spot from someone else if I’m not certain that Georgetown is the place for me.
I’m intending to study political science/government. Of these three, I think Northwestern has the best academics, WUSTL has the best quality of life for students, and Georgetown has the best employment opportunities and connections. I’m having a really tough time deciding between the three. I’ve considered both Georgetown and WUSTL to be my first choices at some point in time, and I’m honestly still amazed I got into Northwestern so I’m strongly considering that as well.
If I decide that Georgetown is the place I want to be next year, I will try to get accepted from the waitlist as best I can, and if I don’t get in, I’ll be totally happy at whichever of the other two schools I end up choosing. If I decide that WUSTL or Northwestern is where I want to go, I’ll give up my spot on Georgetown’s waitlist so someone else can have it.
Any thoughts about these schools and/or advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!!
Between WUSTL and Northwestern, my vote goes to Northwestern. I don’t think the quality of student life is significantly different to sway the odds in WUSTL’s favor. Meanwhile, Northwestern excels in almost every field, and has great professor-student interactions along with research opportunities and special programs to hook you up with internships in the city or research abroad. Its students are also more diverse. WUSTL is known for having more students in the top 1% than bottom 60% of wealth. In other words, it’s full of rich kids.
Northwestern students are engaged and self motivated and hold passions across a variety of fields. STEM kids may also be musicians, etc etc. NU is not an opportunity to pass up.
But I am not sure about Georgetown as I have not researched it for myself. Do you intend to immediately get a job in government after college? Or do you intend to go to grad school? NU has great grad school placement, but maybe Georgetown does too.
Nathancard – I think badyork has it correct – make sure you visit both Wash U and Northwestern and talk to people in the Departments. Where do their graduates go? What do they do after undergraduate. Do you like the environment? Where do you think you will be happiest and most comfortable. Do you like Evanston/Chicago versus DC or St. Louis?
I can guarantee that Wash U and Georgetown students are also well rounded, engaged and self-motivated. Northwestern is a fine school – but they haven’t cornered the market on outstanding students.
If you are into rankings, College Factual (11/4/2016) cites Georgetown as the top US college for political science followed by Columbia and Washington University. Northwestern was not ranked in the top 10. US News has Wash U at 19th, Northwestern at 23rd, and Georgetown at 33rd. So you can see how useful these “rankings” are.
@Parche are you implying that northwestern students are inferior? with a 9% acceptance rate this year, they are more selective than washu and georgetown—how do they not choose “outstanding students”? and generally, isn’t northwestern a school of higher calibre than washu or georgetown?
I transferred from WashU to NU and to me, the two student bodies were very similar. I transferred primarily because I loved Chicago a lot more and NU has a better program in my field and better reputation in my home country (didn’t know I would go back at that point).
Of those three, NU has the best recruiting for top 3 management consulting firms (McKinsey, Bain & Co, and Boston Consulting). These elite firms only want the most “well-rounded, engaged, and self-motivated”. Good luck!