Tufts vs Northwestern

ariesathena
Sat, 01 Apr 2006 17:37:38 +0000

As an alum who is in law school, I’ll weigh in.

Northwestern does have slightly more of a “name” among the non-academics. However, I’ve found that Tufts is more impressive than I thought in high school - many people have a lot of respect for my degree. Don’t split hairs over that.

Tufts is outstanding for IR and virtually without peer. If that is what you want, consider going to Massachusetts.

You aren’t going to go wrong. If at all possible, go to admitted students fairs at both schools, because how well you mesh with the campus will really determine how valuable an experience it is for you. You’ll get more out of college - and enjoy it more - when you click with the university.

Now, finances & law school. Financing undergrad is between you and your parents; however, please strongly consider that law school is extremely expensive. UVA, in-state, is about $40,000 this year for law. Northwestern’s law school costs about $56,000/year. Financial aid is usually very minimal. If you are considering that route, talk to your parents. Will the money saved by going to UVA and W&M be available for law school? If you apply to law school straight out of undergrad, you’ll certainly be a VA resident for admissions and tuition purposes - which means that you’ll have less expensive options at UVA, Mason, and W&M. That will be very, very hard to turn down in favour of extremely expensive schools. Do you want to spend seven years in Virginia - and then, having no ties to anywhere else in the country, probably end up living there afterwards? (Law firms are very wary of accepting people who are most likely going to go home in a few years, so you ought to have strong ties to the region to which you are applying.)

I would usually say that you should take the in-state option (esp. with UVA and W&M being such excellent schools) and save the cash for law school, but your best bet might be to spend the money on undergard and go to UVA for law school. You can find the application for in-state tuition for law school in VA on a website - take a look at it and really consider that route.

I do think it would be easier to say to a Chicago firm, coming from UVA law, that you want to return to your old stomping ground, rather than trying to convince them that you really, really love Chicago, even though you’ve been there three times and have done high school, college, and law school in Virginia.