conflicted: Northwestern over Stanford ?

Sam_Lee
Wed, 01 Apr 2009 14:45:36 +0000

Just one more thing about average GPA: it varies among majors. At NU, I bet there’s more grade inflation for all majors in the communications school than Stanford in general. I don’t know what you are interested in but this is fyi if you happen to study, say, communication science and disorder.

Palo Alto has much better weather (unless you like seasonal change or the cold).

I went to Stanford for grad school and the town was a little too sterile, too nice (very very expensive homes), too expensive (downtown biz seem to cater much more to the wealthy residents than students), and boring to me. Keep in mind I was a grad student so I didn’t look to the campus life for the social outlet. So while Evanston trumps Palo Alto, you may still be able to find plenty to do on campus as an undergrad. It’s less convenient and more costly to go to the city (SF). Evanston is just 12 miles from downtown Chicago and less from the uptown neighborhoods like Lakeview or New Chinatown. San Fran, on the other hand, is 35 miles north on Palo Alto and is accessible by CalTrains (communter train) which cost more to ride and run less frequently than the “el”.

Stanford has 2 schools, I believe, while NU has 6 schools for undergrads. So it feels like NU student body is more diverse but at the same time, maybe a bit more cliquish, depending on how you look at it and how well you can mingle with people with very different career aspiration and academic training.

If you are into seeing performing arts, it’s hard to beat the quality and quantity of performances at NU.