<p>Neither are very good at sports, I know. But I've seen a couple things bashing Northwestern on the UChicago accepted students page, and I want to know if there is an actual rivalry?</p>
<p>Both schools are phenomenal schools, so there’s probably some rivalry as to which school is better, although there is no objective way of really telling this (I do not agree with the posters who try to argue how one school is better because of increased selectivity or peer assessment). The schools have a different vibe. Northwestern is a Big Ten school, where is University of Chicago is a Division III school. Even if there is a perceived rivalry, I really don’t believe that students on either campus think too much about this rivalry.</p>
<p>UChicago students can’t get over Northwestern for some reason whereas Northwestern students don’t really care about UChicago. The socially well-adjusted kids at UChicago are mature about this but there is a vocal segment that has an axe to grind.</p>
<p>Actually Northwestern is pretty good at sports (see football, lax, others). Putting that aside, I don’t think the schools are rivals. Despite what you read in some threads here, there is a lot of mutual respect.</p>
<p>We’ve been having a blast in sports as of late</p>
<p>The actual UChicago kids I’ve met are pretty chill people. But it’s a very grad-school sort of atmosphere. Not a typical undergrad university.</p>
<p>We crack UChicago jokes around campus on occasion (and that includes the profs), but at the end of the day, it’s nothing serious. We’re the cool, free-wheeling little brother to UChicago’s ultra-serious business older brother.</p>
<p>There is a bit of Northwestern bashing on the Chicago accepted page, but it’s all in good humor. You see the same Yale bashing on the Harvard page. There are several instances of students on the accepted page posting about how they chose Northwestern over Chicago, and they received nothing but a positive chorus of “wonderful school”'s and “lucky you”'s (a few calls of “betrayer” but once again, that’s all in good humor). </p>
<p>There is certainly some rivalry, but no animosity… We’ve got better schools to compete with ;)</p>
<p>I agree that the schools are both first rate (probably the two strongest, academically, in the midwest) but that they have totally different vibes.<br>
A close friend who had gotten his MA and PhD at Chicago, and had taught there, but also knew Northwestern well, told me that I should send my daughter to NU. He thought that they were academic equals but that NU was a happier place.
My daughter went to NU and absolutely loved it. She also holds U Chicago in very high regard. Having been at some social events at Chicago, her impression from the students she met there was that they are more “intellectually aggressive” than most NU students, but she also jokes about “Nerdwestern.”
They are both so great that it’s really a question of which offers the most appealing atmosphere to a given student. The locations, campus architecture, Big 10 vs Div III - all these make for very different “feels.” Most students are naturally drawn to one over the other, but I think it would be hard to say that one is actually better than the other.</p>
<p>There certainly seems to be more NU bashing among U Chicago students on CC than vice versa, which in and of itself is consistent with what one might accept. U Chicago prides itself on being intellectual and quirky and all that jazz and self-consciously derides “mainstream” trappings, of which NU has plenty (sports, Greek life, etc.). Ah well. Unhappy hipsters indeed! NU’s brand character is amiable and earnest.</p>
<p>A lot of the Chicago kids appear to pride themselves on being pretentious and condescending.</p>
<p>I know a few well adjusted Chicago kids, but even they say a lot of kids are way to serious about everything. Then again, some would say that’s a good thing. We bash Chicago some, but it’s not like we have some hateful rivalry. There is definitely no sports rivalry, we would destroy them in every way. We went to a bowl game for football, have won Women’s Lax nationals for 8 or so years, minus one year of being runner up, and have won numerous other championships. They don’t even have football at all.</p>
<p>I’m just wondering who told you we’re bad at sports… Compared to our other Big 10 people in the “major” sports we might be lacking, but we still have great teams.</p>
<p>“Neither are very good at sports” is technically correct. But it just doesn’t sound right to characterize both in the same sentence. NU is in the Big Ten while UChicago is in Div-III. The difference is huge. It’s like comparing NFL to college football; it doesn’t matter where the NFL team is ranked within the league; even the worst NFL team would easily put over 100 points against any BCS champ…</p>
<p>By the way, NU football will be ranked in the next preseason ranking.</p>