Tufts vs. Northwestern pre-med?

arbiter213
Sun, 01 Apr 2012 23:03:21 +0000

Without getting into to many details, I’ll say that on the one hand, Tufts has one of the best cognitive science faculties in the world.

On the other hand, NU is awesome. While they don’t have a neuroscience major, you could easily double major (almost everyone double majors thanks to the quarter system) in neurobiology (a specialization within the biology major) and Cognitive Science (interdisciplinary studies combining psychology, neurobiology, philosophy, computer science, and linguistics).

NU also has a TON of research opportunities as it is a major international research institution. NU also has a ton of funding for undergrads to do research- I received $3000 grants for my sophomore and junior summers to perform research in Philosophy. Many labs will straight up pay you as well.

As for School spirit I can’t speak to Tufts vs. NU specifically. I do take some serious issue with class clowns derogatory description, as NU students are quite spirited and care a lot about our (admittedly historically putrid and recently slightly better than mediocre) athletics. But if you like sports, there’s no comparison between D1 and DIII.

Evanston vs. Somerville, Evanston is a bit closer to Chicago, and Chicago is a much bigger city, so Evanston is a bit more urbanized and larger than Somerville, though Somerville ends up being cuter and easier to manage. Personally I love Evanston, but from my limited experience of Somerville I’d have to say the town itself is nicer than Evanston. That said, I’d pick Chicago over Boston every day of the week. Much bigger, livelier, more to do. Boston is no slouch, mind you, and if you like it you’ll love it, but chicago is one of my favorite cities I’ve ever been to and one of the few places I’d consider living.

NU’s med school placement rates is one of the best in the nation (last I checked >80%) but I don’t know how that compares to tufts- probably quite comparably. NU’s pre-med track is known to be one of the most rigorous in the country- infamously they do not accept organic chemistry credits from any other schools (they used to accept only Harvard’s). So it will be punishingly hard, but it will prepare you extremely well, and that is reflected in NU’s high MCAT score average.

Feel free to post this on the NU board of PM me if you want more feedback- I don’t want to annoy the Tufts posters too much by blathering on.

All that said, Tufts is good too though! So either way you’re in great shape. If NU is cheaper I’d pick NU, but otherwise you’ll have a tough choice ahead!

(apologies to Tufts people for crashing your board, I was just peaking at class clown’s posts since he likes to hang out on the NU board).