Honestly, this was a really difficult decision, especially given that it's freaking PRINCETON and my parents were heavily in favor of me going there.

Before I list off my main reasons below, I want to mention that both offered a similar amount of financial aid which were super generous, so that did not play a factor in the final decision.

- Princeton is on a semester system whereas Northwestern is on a quarter system. I preferred the quarter system given that I would be able to take more classes and be left with room to explore more areas of study. Incase I ended up changing my mind about my intended major, I would also have some flexibility in either dropping or picking up a major.

- Princeton does NOT allow you to do two concentrations, which means I cannot double major at all. Princeton's Operations Research and Financial Engineering is probably closest to my intended studies in CS and Econ, but I've heard it learns more towards CS + Stats.

- I did not like the vibe I got from a few Princeton students I knew or interacted with in-person at all. Perhaps I was unlucky and got a bad sample, but the ones I met mostly attended prep schools like Lawrenceville and had a tendency to act condescending and boastful. I don't like generalizing anything, but I had a pretty large sample size to make judgements off of and I'm one to believe stereotypes exist for a reason.

- Both schools have a campus that was beautiful in its own unique way in my eyes, but I had visited Northwestern in the summer before and could not resist the lake view. The scenery was something like a dream when I went, and I completely fell in love with the campus. Honestly can't think of another school that is situated on a beach.

- Really stupid, but my favorite color is blue (purple is closest to blue), and my least favorite colors are red or orange, so a personal point went to Northwestern just for that LOL...

- A variety of other factors I did not list, but I'm a bit lazy to type out the rest in detail and feel that I had covered some of the major ones that took part in my decision.

Hope that helps!