Northwestern University Rankings by Salary Score™

The M.S. in Leadership for Creative Enterprises should be ashamed of the amount of the money they charge for such a subpar program. There are some incredible faculty and you get to say you went to Northwestern, otherwise you leave with essentially nothing for your portfolio, professors clearly don't communicate as some classes are extremely similar, and the tuition stays the same despite the resources and perks of the program being seemingly cut by the quarter. Many one-year Master's programs are cash grabs,... Read More but MSLCE could at least not make it so obvious. Especially because the program is for 'leadership' and classes hinge on previous professional experience, they have no business accepting so many recent undergrads who will not contribute to or benefit from the program, but are accepted because they have the funds to pay. Communication from faculty is poor and feels disorganized, making the program feel like an afterthought. Upon graduating, students who choose to do a thesis do not get to present their hard work or defend their thesis anyway, making it feel like the guise of a graduate program rather than an actual graduate program. While you can do some incredible networking and meet some great people through the program, for 1/10 of the price you could just attend industry events, seminars, and networking events for the same outcome. Faculty did not listen to the student body's complaints in real time, so hopefully public critiques will encourage them to make actionable change for future students if this program wants to survive.

I recently completed my Online Master of Science in Data Science at Northwestern University's School of Professional Studies, and I want to list out things I wish I knew before applying to this program. First, there are other Data Science Master Programs at a significantly lower price. My final price at NW was about $60,000 while other schools offer the same program for about $10,000. In my opinion, Northwestern University's Online Master of Science in Data Science program is about the same quality of other... Read More schools. For example, I did my undergraduate studies at BYU-Idaho which is a small 4 year university in Rexburg Idaho, and my online courses there felt about the same quality as Northwestern University's. However, it was at a fraction of the price. You are paying for the name at Northwestern, not the quality. Second, You have to take at least 2 courses to qualify for financial aid. I did this program full time while most others do it while working full time. So, if something comes up, and you need to drop to 1 course, you have to pay out of pocket. Just something to keep in mind. Third, there is not much professor student interaction. However, I think that is true for all online programs. Just something to keep in mind. A lot of the professors have other jobs or projects they are working on, so they don't have much time for one on one's. Fourth, there career services are only geared towards on campus students. They don't have career services geared towards online students. For example, the virtual job fair only has 1 or 2 data science opportunities, and they are for onsite positions. 90% of the students in the Online Master of Science in Data Science program already have a career, so they didn't create a career services geared towards just online students.