<p>I graduated high school in the top 2% of my class and am at Dean’s list with straight As at UIUC. If I choose to transfer into Northwestern University, I know I probably can.</p>
<p>My question is - should I?
I realize that NU has a higher ranking as a university overall, but UIUC has a higher rating for psychology (according not not-entirely-reliable-sources). </p>
<p>So what’s more important here? Will I be more likely to find a job/get into grad school if I finish up my psych degree at UIUC or transfer over to NU for my last two years (which would cost me a similar amount)? Please help!</p>
<p>A degree from NU vs UIUC will probably have zero impact on grad school acceptances. Both are considered to be top tier schools for grad school prep in just about any field. The most important thing you can do for grad school prep is to find a faculty mentor in the field you plan to study and get a good recommendation letter from that person. </p>
<p>In this economy, a student with a psych degree from any school will face job placement hurdles. I can’t imagine that a psych major from NU is fairing any better than one from UIUC in this job market. The most important thing to do is get work experience now, volunteer to gain experience, get involved with campus orgs and get leadership experiences…these are the things that people are doing in order to get a job at graduation.</p>
<p>So would it be easier for me to do this at Northwestern then? It seems like class sizes would be smaller, allowing for easier connections, but there would also be fewer professors…</p>
<p>Why would you want to transfer, aside from the rankings?
Are you unhappy at UIUC?</p>
<p>I’d expect the comparative advantages of Northwestern to be most strongly expressed in the first two years (in the general education courses), when you’d be more likely to see big differences in class sizes. You’re missing those years. In your last two, you spend more time in your major. But you suggest UIUC may be stronger in that field. So again, why would you want to transfer?</p>
<p>Personally I think if you are in-state for UIUC you should stay put. UIUC has an excellent psychology department (that is my field) and you are just as likely to get a quality education there as you are at Northwestern - perhaps more, since UIUC’s psych department is better than Northwestern’s. It is not necessarily easier to get recommendations at NU; that depends a lot on your personality and the professors themselves.</p>
<p>Since you are doing so well and you don’t seem to dislike UIUC so much, you should stay and leverage your high GPA to start looking for the opportunties available there. There’s a risk that you may not adjust quickly enough to do as well at NU.</p>
<p>Unless you’re extremely unhappy at U of I, I’d stay put. It’s a solid school and you’re in good program. You’re shown success there and likely will continue with that success, which will serve you well later. Transferring could put all that in jeopardy as you may not transition as well as hoped. If you’re happy with your current situation, I don’t see why you’d want to leave. It’s not like U of I is a community college or anything.</p>
<p>If cost is not an issue, transfer to Northwestern. Its a much more prestigious university and will open many more doors for you job-wise and probably graduate school-wise as well since you have closer access to professors.</p>
<p>I have no affiliation with NU btw. I would spend as much as 100K to go there instead of Illinois in a heartbeat. Urbana-Champaign has got to be the most boring place in existence.</p>
<p>The difference in Management Consulting recruiting between Illinois and NU is night and day.</p>
<p>^Access to professors wouldn’t necessarily be closer when he/she would still be unknown to them at the beginning of his/her third year, which would already be getting kinda late, whereas at UIUC, he/she is already getting straight As and the stellar academic record should set him/her up nicely for research/access to professors, even at a huge school.</p>
<p>You have absolutely ZERO evidence to make that statement. Stop being a suck-up for “prestige” over substance and quality. You would have a point if we were comparing Southeastern Cow Paddy University in Podunk to Northwestern, but we are talking about UIUC, which is considered one of the top public flagship universities in the country.</p>