non_sequitur

Hi everyone, I have been wrangling with a tough decision for quite some time now. I was accepted to NU, the U of Chi, and UW Madison. NU with financial aid and scholarships comes down to about 18k per year, while madison is about 9k (the U of C is about 26k). I was wondering if the prestige and academic reputation of a private school like NU is worth an extra 36k over the course of an undergrad degree. What are the major advantages of a smaller private school? I'm not sure what I'll be doing yet, probably a business program (I got into the business scholars program at Madison). oh, and i've visited all three schools, and the campuses weren't really a big factor any way, i liked all three. thank you

ilovecapezios

I've visited all three as well. Madison and Chicago are both great places. I loved Madison because it was Wisconsin after all, and the cheese and ice cream there is amazing. Downtown Madison is big but still has that small town feel (if that makes sense). There's squeaky cheddar cheese and chocolate cheese and all the cheese you could possibly want. If you are into cheese, that is. Chicago doesn't have great cheeses but it does have this little cafe/grocery store place called La Unica. It has the best fried plantains. So if you're into Cuban food, La Unica is heaven on earth. UChicago and Northwestern will provide you with the same education, so I guess you can pick NU over UChicago since the former will be less expensive. Both UW Madison and NU are terrific, so the question comes down to whether you like cheese better or plantains better.

mia305

Plaintains as a defining characteristic of UC?? Not many cubans in Chicago. Sure you dont mean The U (Miami that is)? Plaintains are drek anyway. Regardless, for academics UC is slightly >NU and NU is much>UW. For quality of life NU=UW>UC.

ilovecapezios

Ok to be serious now, I would pick UW-Madison. There was this interesting study done that showed that students who got into really prestigious schools but chose to go to a less prestigious one still ended up just as successful/rich as their peers who went to the prestigious schools. It's just a study, but I thought it is interesting and probably shows something. So yeah. One point for UW. Two points, if you count the cheese.

Relampago

I answered this in the Chicago thread