Northwestern is a top research university in Evanston, Illinois that has become iconic for combining a collaborative learning environment with innovative hands-on research opportunities. They have a top engineering program, a top business school, a top education program (as in teaching future teachers), a top speech-language pathology program. If that sounds diverse, it is. Northwestern doesn’t pigeonhole themselves, and they excel across the board. It’s not surprising, then, that it isn’t easy to get in. There are about 8,000 undergraduate students, and the acceptance rate is under 8%.

If you are a junior interested in the classics, you are a pretty awesome student — and this certainly didn’t come out of nowhere. Building an interest in the classics while in high school typically means that you’ve been exploring ancient Greek and Latin language, philosophy, and history beyond the standard coursework available at school. Maybe you are taking an elective focused on the classics, or maybe you’ve taken online courses on your own, or perhaps you’ve been reading and studying independently. Whatever the course, you’ve had to build the path yourself, and that is exciting.

A major in psychology is popular and practical from the perspective of having a clear career trajectory. The only option isn’t to become a therapist, though. Students who major in psychology go into everything from marketing to social work, to counseling, with many going on to graduate or medical school to achieve licensing. The first step is your undergraduate degree. There are strong psychology programs at most well-respected colleges and universities, but the Ivy League, UCLA, Stanford, Vanderbilt, Duke, and Rice are particularly famous for having outstanding psychology programs.