Northwestern...is it worth it??

[marq_bme]

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I live in Wisconsin, and from what I know/hear, UW Madison is a solid med school. I'm expecting to hear from Northwestern within a week, and if given the fortunate opportunity to choose between the 2, what would you suggest?...A few things I've heard are:

At Northwestern, your paying up to 40k a year (50k your last 2 years) to attend a "good" med school.

Your also paying a LOT of money for roughly 5 hours of lecture a day!! That is in my mind kind of ridiculous. I am open to PBL, but if it is left that wide open, why don't I buy some books and study for the boards on my own?

Looking at US news rankings(yes i know, they arent everything), Madison is 30 something and NU is 20 something. And when UW's new building is complete, they will prob jump a little. So essentially, do I go for the in-state tuition or take it up the **** to live in downtown chi for 4 years during which I will be studying like hell for the first 2 years?

Any comments would be much appreciated.

 

[NUcat]

Well, I'm not sure if you've received any financial aid information, but it's more like 45k for the year year (tuitition +room/board), then tuition is higher for years 2 and 3 like 55K (12 months instead of 9, also assuming you live off campus), and then about 20k tuitition for the last year (you're billed for a max of 12 quarters).

You probably also know about our debt cap which for last year's graduating class was 126,000. NU pays off as a grant, any loans you've taken above that.

Also, I don't know if having a new building would automatically raise a school's ranking, but NU is also constructing a new research facility which cost 200 million. So that's sort of a wash. I really don't know anything about UW so I won't try to compare them. Just wanted to point out a few financial points of interest.

Good luck deciding 🙂

 

[wexy]

are you expecting to hear about an acceptance this week? I thought after the first round in december, they wait until march for the next batch. good luck!

anxiously waiting,
- wexy

 

[marq_bme]

all i saw was that a decision has been made on my application on the status page, and when i called, they said to expect something in a week or so.....this MUST be bad news....crap.

 

[Neuronix]

If UW-Madison would be alot cheaper for you, I would go there without thinking much about it. The differences in the medical school rankings/reputations are pretty much negligable. I would only go to Northwestern in that case if you had some compelling reason to want to be in Chicago or something like that. Remember that you can always go interview at more exciting places for your residency (yeah yeah, I know, you won't have any time then...).

So don't sweat it if Northwestern doesn't give you any love.

 

[elbow323]

bump...anyone else with thoughts?

 

[marq_bme]

just got in for MSTP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


wahooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[lola]

from pre-secondary stanford reject to nw accept...
congratulations! i'm glad you've been able to get into some great schools.
personally i'd probably go for wisconsin, but you should go wherever feels good to you. just don't base it on ranking - 20 something vs. 30 something is not much difference.

 

[Adcadet]

MSTP! Congrats! I bet this makes cost a moot issuue (unless you don't have an MSTP acceptance to Wisconsin).

 

[NUcat]

Congratulations!

Were you comparing this vs. a UW md/phd?

 

[Neuronix]

Originally posted by marq_bme
just got in for MSTP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


wahooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wow I got the NU MSTP acceptance letter today too, congrats!!!!

 

[marq_bme]

cool! hey neuronix, is there a second look weekend?

 

[Neuronix]

Originally posted by marq_bme
cool! hey neuronix, is there a second look weekend?

They have to have one. I don't have the letter in hand (it's at my parents house) though, so I don't know if it says in there. Since you have the acceptance in hand, you should e-mail them and ask.

 

[crazyA]

Yeah they do, but I believe from what hey told us at the interview that it's sometime in early May.

Do they have a special one for you special MSTP'ers?

 

[GoodMonkey]

2nd look weekend is april 10-12th. 🙂

 

[marq_bme]

is that for mstp? april 10-12

 

[GoodMonkey]

what i do know: april 10-12 is when this monkey who applied and was accepted regular MD was invited for 2nd look.

what i do not know: when the mstp 2nd look is, and whether or not it is the same weekend.

sorry i am not much help.
congrats on the acceptance! 😀