I think this is a great discussion for US News obsessed parents and children about ROI, Return on Investment. The OP is not questioning the great opportunities at NU, but rather whether cost-benefit favors attending.
Much of this decision will be based on where one’s family stands on the economic ladder. For many in low income/lower middle income need groups, private colleges often are as inexpensive or more inexpensive than state u alternatives. For high income families, well, even the crazy full price of tuition today may be considered no financial challenge. The squeeze comes in for middle/higher middle income families receiving limited or no financial aid. Here, in many ways unfairly, the debt burden potentially taken on should be reason to think twice about not accepting that academic scholarship to the “lesser” school or state u.
As far as Medill or Tech are concerned, a warning to anyone, at any school, gauging an academic experience based on freshman courses. Lower level intro classes - everywhere - tend to be large and often laboriously less than stimulating. Medill is the most cutting edge journalism program in the world, bar none. But slogging through classes that teach style and accuracy (i.e. the Medill “F”) are not the same as being out in the field reporting investigatively. Is this requirement a relic of the past or one that is still relevant today? Unfortunately, that may be best answered by the still ongoing Rolling Stones-U Va debacle. Intro engineering courses are similarly less than stimulating at many schools, but Engineering First at NU is a substantial improvement on that reality, a model now being copied nationally.
Is this fair that those in the middle/higher middle find themselves squeezed ? Of course not, but welcome to today’s unfortunate reality. ROI should be part of every decision surrounding college choice.