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All right, it's crunch time. I know there's another Duke vs. Northwestern thread out there, but I wanted to address my specific preferences and see what happens.

About me:
--Two years work experience
--Fields: Bankruptcy, Securities Regulation...let's just say corporate.
--Placement: CA > Warm locations >>>>> Everywhere else
--I really like warm weather...
--But I really like big cities.
--I feel more comfortable in diverse classes...
--But boyfriend will be living in NYC. (i.e. Northwestern will be in a different time zone)

Thoughts?

Do you really like warm weather because you have always lived in it, or do you have firsthand experience of bad winters making you miserable?

I just withstood one of the worst winters in Philly. I would need a really good reason to withstand another winter like that again. I'm just trying to figure out if Northwestern (or the city of Chicago) is worth it.

Placement: CA > Warm locations >>>>> Everywhere else
NU places better than Duke in CA.

I really like warm weather...
Duke

But I really like big cities.
NU

But boyfriend will be living in NYC. (i.e. Northwestern will be in a different time zone)
Shouldn't really be an issue, since flying from RDU or ORD to NYC won't be a huge difference.

CHICAGO IS TOO COLD FOR YOU!!!

(I'm still waiting on NU)

I'd say the 1-hr difference in timezone between NYC and Chicago shouldn't be a consideration.

thecubiclelife wrote:I just withstood one of the worst winters in Philly. I would need a really good reason to withstand another winter like that again. I'm just trying to figure out if Northwestern (or the city of Chicago) is worth it.

Okay. That's every year in Chicago. Duke in a landslide. Be sure to try and spend your 1L summer in Cali to mark your territory.

im_blue wrote:Placement: CA > Warm locations >>>>> Everywhere else
NU places better than Duke in CA.

How much better?

Holly Golightly wrote:I'd say the 1-hr difference in timezone between NYC and Chicago shouldn't be a consideration.

Having done an IL to NYC long distance relationship, I'll agree with this. The LDR is going to be hard regardless, but the time difference was the least of our concerns. Midway also flies direct to LGA for cheap on Southwest. The drive? Well, Pennsylvania is LONG. Much longer than it looks on a map.

thecubiclelife wrote:

im_blue wrote:Placement: CA > Warm locations >>>>> Everywhere else
NU places better than Duke in CA.

How much better?

Not much. If at all. And if you take the warm parts of the country as a whole, Duke clearly places better.

All right, I guess I should add in the exact scholarship amounts too, to be fair:

Duke: $16K-$16K-$16K
NU: 0-$20K-$20K

Man, NU is totally screwing me over with a)notional and b)time value of money. If Duke were in a decent city, this would be a such an easy decision.

It looks like you'll just have to decide if you prefer warm weather or a big city more. A tie-breaker could be that Duke is about $40k cheaper (due to lower COL).