Yet again this year, the Alliance Manchester Business School has partnered with QS to offer an exclusive scholarship to attendees of the QS World Grad School Tour. Covering 50% of tuition fees for a one-year master’s program at the business school, this year’s scholarship has been awarded to Greek student Kostas Katsimpardis.

Kostas first heard about the scholarship a few years ago when he attended a QS event in Athens. When the time came to choose somewhere to study a master’s degree in finance, the Alliance Manchester Business School was on his shortlist and so he decided to apply.

He said: “My initial intention was to take out a student loan and work part-time so I could afford to live and study in the UK. This scholarship, however, enables me to dedicate more time to my studies and to building strong relationships with other students, academic staff and, hopefully, future colleagues.”

Kostas’s route to studying finance has been an unconventional one, having initially studied Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering at undergraduate level in Athens. However, while at university he took several elective courses on finance and economics, which fascinated him. Now, he’s eagerly looking forward to moving to Manchester and focusing on this topic exclusively.

He said: “Because I come from a different academic background, I’m looking forward to meeting people who share the same interest and curiosity about the business world and its dynamics. From my experience, multidisciplinary and multicultural teams can achieve exceptional results when it comes to dealing with complex issues and challenges as each member can bring a different approach on the table.

“My long-term goal is a successful career in investment management, but in order to achieve this I’ll be required to work in numerous positions around the industry first. Doing well on my course and getting a job offer from an investment bank would be a great start.”

Advice for future applicants

“Receiving a scholarship demands discipline and dedication to the application process. Applicants should be willing to spend a considerable amount of time on their application, sharing their motivation and career plans for the future as well as a personal story about what they have achieved until that time in their lives. Your application should be tailor-made for the program you’re applying to, as that will significantly increase your chances of receiving a scholarship.

UK sixth-formers are being overlooked by top UK universities, in favor of high-paying overseas students, many of whom have poorer exam results.

According to an investigation by the Sunday Times, numbers of UK undergraduates have fallen at half of the Russell Group universities since 2008, while the number of non-EU students has risen. Students from outside the EU pay up to four times more in tuition than UK students, allowing universities to make more money.

Thousands of these overseas applicants allegedly secured their place at a UK university after taking a “fast-track” admissions course, which takes a quarter of the time it takes to complete A-levels. This means students are being accepted into the likes of Manchester, Durham and Exeter without having secured the high A-level grades expected of UK students.

All the Russell Group universities that were found to have cut the number of UK undergraduates (except Oxbridge and Imperial) admit overseas students from short fast-track foundation courses. These are run by private companies who promise a “100% guaranteed university place” to all students.

This fall in the number of UK students being accepted into top UK universities is surprising, given the number of UK applicants has increased by 85,000 over the same period.

Professor Alan Smithers, of Buckingham University, said: “There should as far as possible be equivalence between the requirements demanded of British and foreign students. If that is not the case, we’ve got a clear example of discrimination.”

A spokesperson for the Russell Group said it was: “absolutely committed to ensuring talented UK students could access high-quality higher education.”

How have the number of UK students changed at top UK universities?

Other universities to cut UK undergraduate numbers: Cardiff, East Anglia, Glasgow, Imperial College London, Kent, Leeds, Liverpool, Nottingham, Sheffield, Southampton, St Andrews, Surrey, Sussex

Universities which have increased the number of UK undergraduates: Bristol, Durham, Exeter

Lead image: Joshua Poh (Flickr)

By Rosemary Proctor

Many people who go into a full-time MA in a subject like English Literature or History have the idea (however vague) of a possible career in academia. And many of these people, once they’ve received their postgraduate degree, will decide that academia is not for them.

The realization that you don’t want to be an academic can be a little disorientating, especially if you began your postgraduate degree resolved to continue on to PhD and eventually become a fully-fledged member of the academy. MAs that aren’t a necessary part of training for a particular career can sometimes (wrongly) be seen by their holders as something to be ashamed of – an indication that they are afraid of (and have thus tried to put off) entering the “real world”, only to end up there several years too late and with little to show for their time in higher education.

This, of course, is not true; an MA in any subject is a mark of success, and does not signal anything negative to a potential employer. But that doesn’t mean that during the job application process you won’t be asked about your studies and why you chose not to continue them. Here’s some advice on how to answer two of the most important questions you will face. 

What have you learned from your MA?

An employer is going to want to know what you took away from your MA. Even if there is a part of you that regrets the decision to extend your studies beyond undergraduate level, achieving an MA is still a major accomplishment, and one that you shouldn’t downplay.

Far from being time wasted, your degree will have equipped you with a set of transferable skills and attitudes that aren’t necessarily fostered in undergraduate study. It will also have allowed you to develop the skills and attitudes you acquired from your first degree. You can’t achieve an MA without advanced analytical skills; nor do you get very far in postgraduate study without a self-starting attitude and the ability to organize yourself.

As part of your MA, you will have given papers or presentations – that’s public speaking experience. And if you secured funding for your postgraduate degree, that’s a stamp of approval, sending the message that it’s not just you who thinks you’ve got something special.

Why aren’t you moving on to a PhD?

The question of why you chose not to continue on to PhD is a really tricky one, not least in that it can dredge up any self-doubt you might have felt when you decided to leave academia. Even if you don’t have any feelings of insecurity about your decision, you’re still on dangerous ground. Go one way – “my work was not appreciated”, “I disliked the culture in academia” – and you risk coming across as churlish or arrogant. Go the other – “I wasn’t good enough”, “I didn’t get funding” – and you might seem defeatist and unenthused about the job you’re being interviewed for.

The best thing to do when asked why you didn’t carry on your studies is to answer not what you couldn’t do for academia, but what academia couldn’t do for you. Avoid statements that have the potential to be interpreted as disparaging of yourself or others, and focus instead on what you came to realize you wanted from your career. Don’t say: “academics are really isolated”, or “I don’t think I could handle the isolation that would come with a job in academia”. Say, “I realized I wanted a job where I would have more interaction with people”. Use your answer to communicate the skills and attributes you want to put to use in your job, selling yourself in the process.

You thought you might like to be an academic, so you took an MA. You got a taste of what a career in academia would be like, and you decided it wasn’t for you. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that. You spent a year or two trying something out, and ended up with a degree to show for it – so show it off!  

Rosemary Proctor writes for Inspiring Interns, a graduate recruitment agency which specializes in sourcing candidates for internships and giving out graduate careers advice. To browse graduate jobs London and graduate jobs Manchester, visit their website.

Seeking asylum in a foreign country is a difficult and emotionally draining process, but for women there are added complications. Women seeking asylum in the UK are often so cash-strapped that they’re forced to use tissue paper, rolled-up t shirts or cotton wool during their periods, which puts them at risk of infection and toxic shock syndrome.

Fortunately, one London-based graduate is trying to change this. Less than a year after graduating, Gabby Edlin, 30, from Manchester, set up the charity Bloody Good Period, which has so far donated hundreds of thousands of sanitary towels to 1,200 refugees living in London and Leeds, and is planning on expanding its operations throughout the UK.

Asylum seekers aren’t permitted to work or receive benefits until their asylum application is reviewed, which, according to the UK government, is usually decided within six months. Although they’re given a place to stay, asylum seekers must live off just £36.95, making donations like the ones Gabby organizes crucial.

We spoke to Gabby about her experience of setting up Bloody Good Period and to find out how others can get involved.

How did Bloody Good Period start? What was the inspiration behind it?

I did a master’s at Central Saint Martin last year in applied imagination, which is basically design for social change. A lot of it involves learning how to start a project that really changes the way we think about how certain things are done in society. I was searching for something to do that was creative, but also was good, and giving in the most sort of un-annoying way.

I was interning at an asylum seeker drop-in center, and there were no pads there even though there were things like food, toiletries, nappies and clothes, so I started questioning why there weren’t any and was told they were only there in emergency. I couldn’t help but wonder how your period starting without a tampon or sanitary towels wasn’t considered an emergency.

I started collecting pads and it grew into friends donating and people I’d never met sending pads to me asking how they could help. Now, we’re a team of four with about 20-30 volunteers and we’ve given away hundreds of thousands of pads and toiletries for asylum seekers in London and Leeds. We’re trying to grow throughout the UK so no women have to be without sanitary towels.

How did people react to your setting it up?

Everyone’s been really supportive. They weren’t really surprised that I was doing something to do with women. My dad said to me, “I’ve put £10 into your account to go and buy sanitary towels”, so that was very sweet. Everyone was really on board with it. I haven’t yet met a woman who thinks it’s a bad idea.

How do you get donations to refugees?

There are asylum seeker drop in centers that are already running throughout churches and synagogues or various community centers, and we have a person who picks up the pads from us depending on how many they need. We try to be really overly generous with the pads that are given so the centers can, in turn, be generous.

Was there a steep learning curve in the job, especially in terms of how you cope with these women’s stories of grief and loss?

It’s really difficult because you do wonder what has happened to these people. If they want to talk about it, they can, but we’re really just there so they feel welcome. By saying that we care about your vagina and we care about your cleanliness and health, it shows we care about them as people. It’s also really nice because a lot of the men we meet at the centers will get pads for their wives and girlfriends and daughters, and no one’s really embarrassed about it to be honest. Everyone’s really open and lovely, and that’s the most important thing.  

Is that surprising, given how taboo the topic is in some parts of the world?

It’s only taboo if you let people make it taboo. Originally, I was encouraged to pass out pads at the centers discretely, but I just thought “no, I’m not doing that”. There are so many girls who would be too embarrassed to ask their mums to buy them sanitary towels. Who’s going to ask a complete stranger?

Often they don’t even speak the language, so the only way to communicate is by holding up different ones and pointing. Like if someone wants one with wings, they might not know the word for wings. So they have to point to the one with wings.

So, how can people get involved?

If they go to the website, there are lots of different ways you can do it. We’re quite traditional in that we do need money and we do need donations, but there’s also real potential for creative collaborations. We love people sending in their artwork or their videos. We’ve got a spoken word poet who’s just written a piece coming up. We’re really interesting in hearing people’s point of view, different types of voices. Anyone who’s ever identified as a woman or has a vagina is welcome to get involved and tell us how they feel about it.

Where do you hope to take Bloody Good Period in the future? Is it a short-term project?

We’ll be around for as long as people need period stuff. Even though the topic is getting a lot of air time at the moment, it’s not going to be over any time soon. As long as the asylum seekers can need them, we’ll be there to provide for them.

 Sponsored by EU Business School 

Starting your first proper job hunt can feel a bit like you’re freefalling into an uncertain future. Most people start looking for work with a very vague concept of their dream job and a bunch of unanswered questions. Sure, you’ve been told you should use social media to “engage with employers”, but what does that mean? Just slide them a DM?  

Erm, no.  

Fortunately for you, there’s no need to panic. We’ve teamed up with EU Business School to provide you with a genuinely useful guide on how to get those job interviews stacking up. 

Structure your day like an office job  

If you’ve already graduated and are worried about staying sane during your job search, it might be a good idea to structure your day like a normal nine-to-five. Spruce up your desk and pop the radio on. Take an hour for lunch. Some people like to split their time evenly between preparing speculative applications, networking emails and job applications, but you’ll find a way to structure your day that works best for you.  

You might want to start a spreadsheet with a record of every job search email you’ve sent, so you feel a little bit more in control and can keep track of each applications. This way, you’ll know to send follow up emails at the right time.  

Make sure to take wellness breaks in between job hunting sessions. These could be anything, from going to the gym to watching an episode of your favorite TV show.  

Dress up your CV and LinkedIn profile  

If you’re not sure what to put on your CV because you’ve never had an actual office job before, focus on including university projects you’ve been involved in, internships, volunteering experience, as well as student jobs and hobbies (no, Netflix doesn’t count). Make sure you explain how each activity has helped you overcome challenges and mention the new skills you have picked up along the way. 

Some recruiters actually prefer to hire recent graduates because they know they’ll find someone who’s dynamic, comfortable with new technologies and has up-to-date market knowledge.  

Make use of your university’s career fairs, workshops and alumni network

Most universities organize career fairs, where students and graduates can connect with companies and discuss their CV, prospects and skills. For example, the EU Business School career fair, which takes place in Barcelona every year, is attended by recruitment experts from some of the world’s most exciting brands. They are often looking to screen potential candidates as well as offer career advice.  

If you’re lucky enough to have a large bank of successful alumni at your disposal - such as EU Business School’s network of 26,000 professionals working around the world - you should make full use of it. You could reach out to a senior professional who attended your school and is now working in a field you are interested in. Ask them whether they would be interested in meeting you for a coffee near their office - your treat -  to give you some “career advice”. Don’t assume they will give you a job and do remember to send them a thank you note after the meeting. You never know, they might put you in touch with someone who has a vacancy to fill or remember your name when an opportunity arises in the future.  

Don’t freak out if you don’t have a dream job in mind 

Some people aspire to become engineers/astrophysicists/Richard Branson (delete where appropriate) from a very early age - and there’s no diverting them from their true paths in life. But if you’ve only got a very abstract idea of your dream job, try to keep an open mind, it will come eventually.  

Use Twitter, GlassDoor, Quora and LinkedIn to research employers 

If you already know what industry you’re hoping to enter, a basic search on sites like LinkedIn, Quora, GlassDoor and Twitter might help you spot companies you think are doing well, rated positively by their staff or share your values. Managers and CEOs will often publicly put in their own two cents on websites like LinkedIn or Quora about the company, industry issues and even recruitment -- and any insider knowledge about where the company is headed will give you more to talk about during your interview and mention in your cover letter.  

Don’t be afraid to follow up and learn to accept rejection letters gracefully  

Once you’ve applied for a job and logged it in your spreadsheet, move on to the next thing. It’s important to remember that recruiters receive hundreds of emails every week and are likely to miss some. This is why it’s important to follow up about a week after your initial email, attaching your CV and reminding the recruiter of your application. Don’t push too hard and remain courteous. Accept that the majority of recruiters will not get back to you, but if they do, reply to rejection letters gracefully.  

Consider going back to school

Maybe the working world isn’t quite ready for you yet. Have a long, hard think about the pros and cons of going to grad school to do a specialized master’s degree or MBA. From increasing your earning potential to improving your skillset, grad school has many advantages, but you need to make sure you are prepared for it. 

Half of UK university students suffer from mental health issues because of money worries.

The survey, conducted by Save the Student, found many young people are poorly equipped to handle their own expenses and female students in particular are likely to make themselves ill worrying about money.

87% of female students said they worry about not having enough to live on, while 63% claiming the lack of money negatively affected their diet.

Sasha, who studied at the University of Derby, said she ran short of money when Student Finance delayed her loan after losing her paperwork: “When it came I hadn't eaten in three weeks except for what I could take from the cafe I worked at with permission. I lost about three stone due to worry and lack of food. At one point I thought of going to a food bank but was too ashamed.”

Jenna, a second year student at Loughborough University, described skipping meals to avoid spending any money. She said: “When things got to my lowest and I lost all motivation to live, I began spending excessively to try and make myself feel better.

“This didn't work and I ended up having multiple suicide attempts and taking anti-depressants. When I finally started recovering I then had to work two jobs to try and make my way out of the debt I had created in that crisis period.”

Only a third of students said their university provided enough support to students struggling with money worries, while under one in four said they felt they were educated sufficiently about money before starting university.

As well as a lack of university support, the finger was pointed at the government for not providing young people with enough money to live on. 55% of those surveyed said the maintenance loan didn’t cover their living expenses. Student spending has actually increased by £31 since 2016, averaging at £821 a month, but the maintenance loan has remained at the same level. This leaves the average student short by roughly £221 every month.

Jake Butler, from Save the Student, said: “The new tuition fee increases, along with pitiful maintenance loans, are putting students under a huge amount of financial and mental stress.

“There is still a severe lack of basic financial education at school, and universities must make advice and support more accessible for students who find themselves in a difficult situation.

“The government announced this week that they’re looking to increase the number of mental health specialists in the NHS, but in the case of students they should be addressing the root cause before mental health problems can take hold.”

One in 10 female university students in Australia have been sexually assaulted in the last two years.

This staggering figure is the result of a new survey into campus sexual assault, conducted by the Australian Human Rights Commission, and will increase calls for universities in the country to do more to protect students. Only 9% of those who had been sexually assaulted had reported it to their university, with some saying their university fails to provide anonymous reporting or would force them into face-to-face “mediations” with their attackers. 96% of all students believe their university doesn’t do enough to support victims.

One survivor told the report: “Our cohort for our course is incredibly small. I felt too scared to report these incidents. I couldn’t have action taken against him because everyone would find out.”

Another said: “The university broke confidentiality by informing organizers of the camp (i.e. the rapist’s friends) what I’d done. People spread lies about me and I was ostracized from the club.”

Although the report found women were twice as likely as men to be sexually harassed, 2.9% of male students said they had been sexually assaulted in the last year. The most likely students to be assaulted were those with a disability or from an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander background.

The report calls on universities to introduce specialist support services and create a national independent review process for sexual assault at residential colleges. These institutions were found to be areas of particularly high-risk, due to them typically having a strong drinking culture, established hazing rituals and sexist attitudes towards women.

The atmosphere at one such institution was described by a student as one where “women were described as objects or trophies”. They said: “Conquests of guys getting girls from other colleges were broadcasted weekly in this gossip session the whole college had, where you would submit your experiences to an executive, and on weeknights we would gather and hear about everyone’s conquests that week.”

Universities have responded to the report by promising to implement the recommended steps. They received their own copies of the survey results a week before the media, allowing them time to formulate a response. The Australian National University, for instance, posted a pre-recorded video statement to YouTube. Reactions from other universities can be found on The Guardian.

The women’s officer for the National Union of Students, Abby Stapleton, said: “Often universities choose to support the perpetrators rather than the victim, university management would rather sweep sexual assault under the carpet than take steps to prevent it. These numbers are incredibly damning and indicate the extent of the institutional failings of Australian universities.”

Sponsored by EDHEC

Considering studying finance at a top European school? You might think the UK would be the best country to study in given its rich history as a financial center, but think again. In the wake of Brexit, France, not the UK, will emerge as the new financial hub of Europe.

Home to a handful of the continent’s largest banks and a financial sector of about 180,000 workers in the capital, France is on track to snatch more than 20,000 roles from the City, according to the lobby group Europlace. If you’re thinking of pursuing a master’s degree in finance, here are some more reasons to consider French universities.

France has some of the best finance courses in the world

This year, EDHEC Business School, one of the top business schools in the world according to our sister site TopMBA.com, saw its MSc in Financial Markets ranked as the best in the world according to the Financial Times, beating Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Imperial Business School and the University of Oxford.

EDHEC’s Masters in Finance programs train students in areas like corporate finance, financial markets, risk, portfolio management strategies, and strategic financial decisions, and feature a three to six month internship enabling students to experience life at the world’s top financial companies.

You’ll be right in the middle of the European Union

According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Eurozone is on the mend, and growth predictions in France, Italy, Germany and Spain are soaring, so you’d be sorry to miss out on job opportunities on the continent. Studying finance in France means you’ll have a much better chance of securing job interviews with European banks, top consulting firms and multinationals, such as BNP Paribas, Société Générale, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Unilever and Capgemini.

The best way to evaluate a university’s careers team and reputation with recruiters is to look at its graduate employability rate. To give you a benchmark, 84% of EDHEC graduates with a master’s in financial economics (track) move on to work in Europe for major employers like Accenture, BBVA, Crédit Agricole, Crédit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, EY, and Bluecrest Capital Management.

You’ll save on the costs of basic essentials

Accommodation in London can be notoriously expensive, with the cost of renting a one bedroom apartment away from the city center estimated by Numbeo as starting at £1,179 (≈US$1,530), depending on where you live. By contrast, France is the only country in Europe to offer housing benefits, known as CAF, to international students. Find out more about housing benefits here.

Healthcare in the country is also particularly affordable, with 70% of medical expenses reimbursed by the government if you apply for a carte vitale. According to Numbeo, France’s healthcare system ranks among the top 10 in the world, considerably higher than the UK’s (17th).

Your university should be able to help you find medical insurance and student accommodation in France. If you are still debating the logistics of moving to France for university, contact the university’s International Student Office and email them any questions.

France has relatively softer visa norms than other countries

Provided you hold a recognized qualification and are able to find a job with a wage higher than 1.5x the national minimum wage, you would be eligible to stay in France after graduation on a 12-month temporary residence authorisation. Once your 12 months are up, you would need to apply for a status change, which you can read more about here.

Not sure whether EDHEC Business School’s MSc in Finance programs are right for you? Read student testimonials, module details and tuition fee information here or get in touch with EDHEC’s admissions managers.

If you’re looking for a top Illinois university, two obvious contenders spring to mind. The University of Chicago (UChicago) and Northwestern University are the two highest-ranked universities in Illinois and are both consistently ranking in the global top 50 of the QS World University Rankings®. On a national scale, both are currently in the top 15 universities in the US.

Of course, there’s more to consider when choosing a university than just how well it’s performed in this year’s world rankings. The matter of UChicago vs Northwestern won’t be settled that easily, so let’s take a closer look at how these two universities compare.

*Based on the broad subject areas in the QS World University Rankings by Subject 2017.

QS World University Rankings® 2018

UChicago is ranked 19 places above Northwestern in the latest QS World University Rankings®, ninth in the world (up one place from last year) while Northwestern is joint 28^th (down two places from last year).  Despite this fall, it’s worth pointing out both universities are among the best in the world and are ranked in the global top 300 for each indicator used to compile the rankings.

 UChicago achieves its highest ranking for its reputation among academics (13^th in the world), while Northwestern’s best ranking is for its faculty/student ratio (37^th) in which it beats UChicago, which is ranked 52^nd for this indicator.

Looking at the level of research impact for each university (which is measured by citations per faculty member), UChicago is ranked within the global top 50 for its research impact, while Northwestern also achieves a top-100 score (86^th).

Finally, considering the levels of international diversity on campus, both universities receive their weakest scores here, with UChicago ranked the highest, both for its percentage of international students (in the top 150) and international faculty members (218^th).

Subject strengths

If you’re still undecided in the battle of UChicago vs Northwestern, the QS World University Rankings by Subject allow us to get an idea of the strengths of each university in 46 different subjects. Of the five broad subject areas covered in the ranking, both UChicago and Northwestern achieve their highest position for social sciences & management (UChicago is in the lead at 16^th in the world). UChicago is ranked higher than Northwestern for every broad subject area except engineering & technology, suggesting any budding engineers or computer scientists should seriously consider studying at Northwestern.

The table below shows how UChicago and Northwestern directly compare for all of the 46 subjects covered in the ranking.

Location

Another factor to consider in the UChicago vs Northwestern debate is their respective locations. Both have campuses in Chicago, the third-biggest city in the US, which was ranked 46^th in the latest QS Best Student Cities index.

If scenic, ivy-clad buildings sound like ideal surroundings when you study in the US, UChicago has you covered. Its 217-acre campus is in the city’s Hyde Park neighborhood, near to Lake Michigan, and combines traditional English gothic buildings with award-winning modern architecture. Aside from its main campus, UChicago’s Booth School of Business also runs satellite campuses in Singapore and London, as well as the Streeterville neighborhood in downtown Chicago, which is also where Northwestern’s Chicago campus is located, close to attractions such as the Museum of Contemporary Art and John Hancock Center.

Northwestern’s Evanston campus is 240 acres and is where the undergraduate schools, the Graduate School, and the Kellogg School of Management are based. The campus sits on Lake Michigan, meaning it has its own beaches. The Evanston campus university also features one of the biggest university libraries in a private university, with 4.6 million volumes. Evanston itself is located about 12 miles north of Chicago and is home to approximately 74,895 people, so it may be better suited to those who aren’t keen on big city life.

Tuition fees

Undergraduate tuition fees at UChicago and Northwestern are the same for all students (there is no separate tuition fee for out-of-state or international students).

At UChicago, undergraduate tuition fees are set at US$53,292, plus the Student Life Fee of $1,533 at the University of Chicago. The university recommends students budget a total of $75,735 per year to live on campus, a total which includes tuition, other fees, room and board, books and other personal expenses. Graduate tuition fees vary, but to give you an idea, a Master of Laws (LLM) degree costs $61,626 per year as of 2017/18, while a Masters in Computer Science costs up to $69,624 depending on how many courses you take. PhD fees also vary, with a PhD in molecular engineering costing $53,241 per year.

At Northwestern, similar fees are charged at undergraduate level: $52,239 per year, plus other fees totalling $439. Northwestern estimates that students will need a total of $72,980 for all their costs including health insurance, room and board, personal expenses and books and supplies. Again, graduate tuition fees vary, with a Master of Laws (LLM) degree costing $64,642 per year, while a Masters in Information Technology costs $49,155. A PhD at the university’s graduate school costs $52,239 per year.

Financial support

With such high tuition fees to study in the US at either university, you’ll be pleased to know that financial aid is available. UChicago pledges to meet the demonstrated need of 100% of admitted undergraduates, and the average aid applicant receives $45,500 in scholarships every year. First year international students are eligible for both need and merit-based financial aid, with a “need-sensitive” process, meaning that the university takes it into account whether an international student has requested financial aid or not.

If you think you may need financial aid at any point during your time at the university, you must apply for financial aid at the same time when you submit your application. The university’s net price calculator allows you to estimate the cost of your education and find out what financial aid you may be eligible for. First-year students are automatically considered for merit-based scholarships, which don’t consider your financial situation.

Northwestern University also offers financial aid to students on the basis of demonstrated need, and pledges to meet all applicants’ requirements. It awarded $144 million in scholarships to undergraduate students in 2016-17, with 45% of undergraduates receiving a Northwestern University Scholarship. The university’s net price calculator can be found here. A small group of first-year international students receive need-based aid every year, and again you must state it on your application form if you require aid. Need and non-need based loans are available, and US students from low-income families are also eligible to apply for federal & state grants.

You can browse a range of scholarships to study in the US here.

Which would you choose in the debate between UChicago vs Northwestern? Share your thoughts in the comments below, and get ready to study in the US with our complete guide.