Northwestern University or Upenn (Dilemma) !!!!

[pureen]

First, I really want to appreciate Urch Forum Moderators for their perseverance and diligence in creating such a versatile forum that can help students (like Me) on the breadth of queries like GRE/TOEFL/Admissions .

After getting tremendous help from studying GRE Sub forums (including Verbal / Quant sections), I was able to provoke hidden confidence within me, in order to get best out of me. Questions posted and answered, presented a marvelous student interface, towards evaluating one's potentialities.

Cheers to Urch !!!!!! .

On 17th Dec. I received First admit from Upenn for MS Biotech. , cherished that moment a lot. Then, I attended interview session with Northwestern University Director. Today, on 10th Jan. I received admission offer from Northwestern too.

Now, I just want assistance from the forum officials and seniors, in oder to decide between Northwestern or Upenn . You can come with suggestions based on following questions:-
1) university over all standing in states or worldwide.
2) Post MS benefits (placement scenarios)
3) University life style.
4) Worth of Master's (as both are quite expensive, like 50K )

I entirely welcome any kind of inputs, that would help me to make concrete decisions.
Cheers.

[pureen]

283 views ......and not even a single reply......I know these days are aggravating with the application stuff, as most or entire student fraternity is quite busy.....However, this is my humble & earnest request to the seniors, Please reply to the query ...........

Thanks in Anticipation ..........

[bansh33]

I did my BSE and MSE from UPenn (in computer & information sci) and while I don't know too much about the biotech program, I can tell you that it's an EXCELLENT university overall, has a fantastic reputation
in the US, has a beautiful campus, great student body/university lifestyle. A lot of people dislike philly and the neighborhood, personally I think it's awesome - I really enjoyed living there and would love to move back someday. I graduated from there with my MSE and BSE in 2006, but I'm hoping to get into the PhD program and go back there in fall 2011. Good luck! Let me know if there's anything else you want to know about UPenn.

[pureen]

Thanks ....Bansh33 for your valuable inputs ........

Could you por favor, el señor throw some light on the job scenarios ..though you are of different background. However this might help me to take one step further in finally selecting Upenn for my Masters Degree .........

Again, I appreciate your concern ........

[bansh33]

Career services at UPenn is extremely helpful. They will help you with your resume/CV, suggest potential employers that fit with your academic background and interests, and help you schedule interviews. There are also many employers that come to campus and hold interviews in the career services office during particular times of the year - this is done for both summer internships as well as full time positions. This is known as OCR [on campus recruiting], and the career services office will also help you prepare for these interviews. UPenn is very much a pre-professional school, and while it is certainly quite competitive, I would say that so many employers come to UPenn's campus to recruit that there are more than enough jobs to go around - particularly for those with an engineering or business background. I expect that many of the employers that recruit students from an engineering background would be interested in you as well.

One thing you may want to consider is the dual degree with Wharton [MBA] mentioned at www.upenn.edu/biotech. UPenn is very big on interdisciplinary education and even if you haven't been admitted as a dual degree student yet, I'm sure you could apply for it after being there for a semester or a year - just make sure to keep your grades up and make a good impression on your professors. This will be important so you can ask your professors to act as references for jobs/internships as well.

Also - one more thing to keep in mind regarding the lifestyle at UPenn vs. Northwestern. I grew up in Chicago and like I said I did my BSE and MSE at UPenn and lived in Philadelphia for 2.5 years following that, so I know both Chicago and Philadelphia very well. Different people have different opinions, but personally I much prefer living in a big city to a suburb. Northwestern in Evanston, not Chicago... and while it's not that far from the city, living in Evanston will be a dramatically different experience from living in Philadelphia. Evanston is a small, university town. Philadelphia is an amazing city that develops more and more each year. Philadelphia is replete with restaurants, clubs, bars, museums, and culture; Evanston has some - but for most of that, you'll need to take an hour train ride into Chicago.

[pureen]

What a treat to get answers so fast that too so genuine..........I have no words to apprize your effort ......Thanks a ton ......

Yes...Northwestern being in suburb region, can to some extent, seems boring. However living in suburban or in metro like Upenn ....Both are attached to excitement and well compose niche ......Yeah.. metro city comes up with lot of opportunities thus helping to excel at fast pace with tons of options .
I have also applied to Penn State ( for MS Biotech)....As you might be more aware of the standing/reputation of Penn State with in states/world . Perhaps, I have not been admitted till date, just wanted to make subtle difference more clear with your inputs ... In your opinion which one is better Upenn or Penn State (Again, i know you belong to different background) ...just need a virtual picture of both ...

I apologize for proliferating the thread & using your precious time...

Thanks in Anticipation

[bansh33]

no problem, I'm happy to help.

as for the reputation of penn state vs. upenn - there's absolutely no comparison - upenn is in a totally different class than penn state. upenn is one of the few ivy league universities in the country, which are considered the most prestigious schools [along with a select few others like stanford, MIT, caltech]. i can't really tell you about how penn state compares to upenn in terms of biotech program, but as an overall university upenn is much more highly regarded. simply mentioning that you attended upenn will impress many people in the states - unfortunately that is not the case with penn state [i hope i haven't offended anyone with the above opinion as that is certainly not my intention, i'm just trying to help pureen with this decision].

[pureen]

Hey Bansh33 .......Thank You Boss.......

Yes you didnt for sure offended no one.....as the reply above is based on your point of view and interpretation ....which may vary a lot with others......