Northwestern and who is now my favorite school

Ok, so today is the day I took my tour for Northwestern University, here in Evanston, Illinois. Unfortunately, we didn't exactly get the best day to go on an outdoor walking tour of Northwestern's campus. Luckily, Northwestern is a private university with only about 8,400 undergrads, is not a gigantic campus. The tour started in the Office of Undergraduate Admission, which is just a big old house. They have a large lecture room upstairs where the tour started with a Q&A. An undergrad admissions counselor and a current student that works in the admissions office came and gave a PowerPoint presentation that focused on the facts about Northwestern. They did get into the student life a little bit, but it was towards the end of the presentation. Overall, the presentation that the admissions counselor and the student (a senior, named Andrew) gave was pretty good. They had pretty good information and it made an impression on me. I did like learning that Northwestern makes up what students cannot make in financial aid. They make sure that the students who want to go here, can go here. Since the group in the Q&A session was freaking huge, about seven tour guides came and broke us up into groups. I went with a girl, a senior named Kirsten, who is a journalism major, just like I hope to soon be. My group was small, on my mom, me, another prospective student and her mother and grandmother, so we got to go inside of some buildings when it got really cold. The tour was great. We saw the rock, about every academic building on campus, the technology building, the student center, and most importantly, the journalism center. Sadly, they didn't show us the gym, library, or a dorm, but that may have been due to the winds off the lake, the fact that it was freezing cold, and that it was snowing. It was good that I go to experience that, though. It shows me what winter can be on the shore of Lake Michigan, because Northwestern is literally ON the shore. If you were inside, the lake was actually a pretty cool thing to see. I can't even imagine how nice it is during the spring and summer. The tour was actually pretty good. I had a great time and our tour guide was great. After the tour we went and ate at the Student center, which was a little expensive, but that really doesn't matter when you become a student because of the meal plan.  After eating, we went upstairs and checked out the auditorium and the third floor which is where the many, many student activities and clubs are housed. The reason that we went up to the 3rd floor is to check out where the office for the student newspaper, The Daily Northwestern, is housed. We went in and checked out the office where articles are written for the newspaper. We ended up talking to the sports editor (Katherine Driessen) and learning what life in the Medill School of Journalism was like and what writing for the paper was like. I learned (and I liked this) that as a freshman, I could end up writing beat stories for the sports section of the Daily. I couldn't believe that. I definitely thought you would at least have had to have been a sophomore to get in the paper. Later on, I had a Journalism School Q&A and tour. We had another PowerPoint presentation in the Medill School and what really impressed me about this were the internship possibilities that Northwestern has. They have internship partners all over the US (and Qatar and South Africa) with newspapers, websites, and news networks. There were so many places that they had a packet with all of them listed and it took up 3+ pages. It was impressive. I know that the possibility of real word experience definitely intrigues me when it comes to the Medill School. We then toured the TV studio the Northwestern News Network operates from. I was impressed with this also. Just like TCU's it rivaled a professional studio. We then toured the rest of the school and the other building that houses the Medill school and we went on our way.
            When it comes down to which school I like most so far, and which university I am leaning towards, I think I have a definite answer. Although Northwestern and the name and real life opportunities that come with it would be great to have on my resume in the future, I am definitely leaning towards Texas Christian University. TCU has just as good of a program as Northwestern. Their newspaper is up and coming, their news network just got a brand-new amazing studio and honestly, when I went to TCU, it felt as if they wanted me. I didn't totally get that feeling here at Northwestern. Don't get me wrong, Northwestern is great and I would be honored to be a part of the program here, but TCU just floored me when I was there. When it comes down to the campus feeling I also liked TCU's better. I just got a really good feeling at TCU and I just loved it. I also like how closed off TCU was compared to how open Northwestern is. I loved how when you got to TCU, you knew it. When we arrived at Northwestern, it was just all of the sudden. It was like "Oh, we're here." When I put the pros and cons of both schools against each other, I definitely have a winner. TCU hands down. I want to be a part of the rise of TCU's journalism program, and unless Oregon, Missouri, or Kansas can knock me off my feet more than they did, I think I'm going to be headed down to Fort Worth to become a Horned Frog.

Afterword: I am now a freshman at Arizona State University, and many of the posts that will be on here (they are out of order) will be about my college search that ended with me choosing ASU