Anonymous wrote:How is this an even comparison? Northwestern, hands down, unless you’re in-state for Penn and tuition is significantly cheaper.

Another troll posting here at DCUM.

Same school, but different locations.

Flip a coin. If unhappy with the result, then you know the answer.

Very easy to switch schools and majors at Northwestern. Is SESP (School of Education & Social Policy) at Northwestern of interest to you ?

Both are located in or adjacent to great cities, however Northwestern's suburban location is safer than Penn's location in Philly.

Same level of prestige (with respect to study in the liberal arts) unless enrolled at Wharton or unless pursuing SESP/Journalism/Theater/Radio-TV-Film/Music/Education (SESP) at NU.

Lots of small classes at Northwestern. More classes of fewer than 20 students at NU than at almost all top rated LACs.

Northwestern University is on the quarter system for academics. Students usually take 4 courses per 10 week term versus Penn's 5 courses per 15 week semester. No wasted time academically at Northwestern due to the fast moving quarter system which allows students to take & explore more courses per year than under Penn's semester system.

Penn is in the Ivy League for athletics, while Northwestern competes in the Big Ten Conference--which consists of 18 teams.

Anonymous wrote:DS’s major undecided, though it will not be business or engineering. How should we think this through? Yes, he will visit both schools.

Both excellent choices , but Penn wins. Penn has slightly higher prestige in US , and much higher in world rankings, AND consistently ranks higher in outcomes, though some of that is elevation from Engineering or Wharton (tech and finance jobs).

Anonymous wrote:Both Penn and Northwestern have a reputation as "pre-professional" schools in that a lot of students are aiming at becoming certain types of professionals or pursuing majors that they think will make them money later. Even so, Northwestern is tempered by "Midwestern nice," whereas Penn just seems to have a lot of free-floating anxiety and students there because they couldn't get into HYPSM (apart from some of the Wharton kids, for whom Penn might be a first choice but who are also often insufferable). Chicago (Evanston) is cold, but it's a far more interesting city than Philadelphia, plus Northwestern has its own beach.

You can probably see where I'm going with this.

+1 on this. At NW you would get virtually all of the benefits you might get at Penn, with the added benefit of not being surrounded by the worst of Ivy-induced insufferableness.

Anonymous wrote:How is this an even comparison? Northwestern, hands down, unless you’re in-state for Penn and tuition is significantly cheaper.

Penn is the University of Pennyslvania, a private institution in the ivy league, usually and currently ranked right behind Princeton Harvard and Yale in the ivy league, and outranks 1-2 of them in world rankings.

Not Penn State.

Anonymous wrote:How is this an even comparison? Northwestern, hands down, unless you’re in-state for Penn and tuition is significantly cheaper.

Uh, Penn is private *and* an Ivy League school. So it’s not “no comparison.” That being said, I would prefer my kid to go to NW, too - those kids just seem happy.

Anonymous wrote:How is this an even comparison? Northwestern, hands down, unless you’re in-state for Penn and tuition is significantly cheaper.

Penn is a private school, so that makes no sense.

My kid had this choice a couple of years ago and chose Penn. Either school would have been great; it was a hard decision. I think the weather may have been one of the determining factors.

Both Penn and Northwestern have a reputation as "pre-professional" schools in that a lot of students are aiming at becoming certain types of professionals or pursuing majors that they think will make them money later. Even so, Northwestern is tempered by "Midwestern nice," whereas Penn just seems to have a lot of free-floating anxiety and students there because they couldn't get into HYPSM (apart from some of the Wharton kids, for whom Penn might be a first choice but who are also often insufferable). Chicago (Evanston) is cold, but it's a far more interesting city than Philadelphia, plus Northwestern has its own beach.

You can probably see where I'm going with this.

Choose your perspective: least cost; preferred location of career; size of school; major; closeness to home; friends at school or nearby; graduate school options; research opportunities; dominant school culture.

Or choose several and prioritize/weight them.

How is this an even comparison? Northwestern, hands down, unless you’re in-state for Penn and tuition is significantly cheaper.

1) let him imagine himself on campus. What is he doing after classes, where is he going, what is he eating, etc. It’s a very different feel as far as a very urban school (and all that comes with it) vs suburban.
2) How does he feel about the weather? Chicago in the winter is a serious commitment.

I'd go with preference/feel, but I have to say that everyone I know who went to Penn says it is very preprofessional (even at commencement the President said something about how the goal of Penn is train students so they can do well financially by doing some good in the world)

I’d personally go with Northwestern, based on personal preferences around the environments campus, student body culture, and major strengths. That said, these schools are quite similar in many regards. What fields is DC interested in?

DS’s major undecided, though it will not be business or engineering. How should we think this through? Yes, he will visit both schools.