<p>I'm wondering if there are other universities that people who like Northwestern also tend to like. Any ideas? Let me know!</p>
<p>As a student who <em>almost</em> matriculated to Northwestern, I thought that somewhat similar universities that I also liked in the same spirit as NU were WashU in STL, Cornell, Stanford, U of Michigan, and to a lesser degree, UChicago. Of course, I was an engineering applicant, so that kind of affected the other schools I looked at. I would think that WashU and Cornell would be very common answers (I didn't base this off of those silly USNWR rankings either, it's just coincidence that they all happen to be really good schools).</p>
<p>From what i've gathered from talking to people, it seems that duke and notre dame are also often compared to northwestern.</p>
<p>What is your focus---simular campus, students GPA/Stats, majors???
DD and her friends felt... for theatre: Yale, UCLA, USC, Columbia, and some included NYU Tisch, DePaul...the beauty of Northwestern was that Theatre was a BA program that required rigurous academic stats rather than an auditioned based BFA/conservatory, and would allow for a double major. I hope this helps.</p>
<p>Cornell and WUSTL probably</p>
<p>Thanks for your thoughts. Last summer we drove to Iowa and stopped to see some colleges along the way. Here is a thread on that: <a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=367061%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=367061</a>
My son liked Northwest the best. He just thought it had everything he wanted -- great urban (but not too urban) location, liked Evanston, liked the academics, liked the campus, liked the athletic possibilities, liked the fun traditions, liked the size, etc. He doesn't know his major yet -- it might be in the social studies. Of course, we were there on a beautiful blue sky/blue lake day in August. It might be a little different on a blustery winter day. Anyway, I was just wondering if there were other colleges/universities with similar attributes.</p>
<p>My daughter just started at NU, upon which she settled as her first choice after an exhausting search process which left her sick of looking at schools.
As to what else is similar, that depends on the qualities that matter most. She wanted (i) first tier academics, (ii) the sort of terrific school spirit that comes with Div I sports (and is found in the midwest more often than our native east), and (iii) being in or near a good city.
Duke is fabulous on the first two, but not the third.
Wash U has the first, has a terrific environment (even if it is much lower on the "rah rah" factor, being a Div III school) and St. Louis is okay, but not great.<br>
Cornell is pretty good on (i) and (iii), but Ithaca isn't much of a city, and she thought the place was just too big.
Tufts is terrific for (i) and (iii), but it can't match NU for school spirit.
Penn is great on all three, although NU still beats it in school spirit (from her perspective anyway).
That was pretty much her list, and she ultimately decided that NU was the best fit for her.</p>