Name Recognition

Colleges and Universities A-Z Northwestern University
1

<p>I was just recently accepted into Northwestern and have a likely letter from Cornell and I have decided to go to Northwestern over Cornell. When I tell people this they freak out and don't believe me when I tell them that Northwestern is ranked as a better school than Cornell.</p>

<p>Why doesn't Northwestern have this name recognition even though it is a really good school? </p>

<p>For alumns, students, or parents of students: has that lack of name recognition ever been detrimental?</p>

<p>I am just curious.</p>

2

<p>You are making the right decision. NU is much more of an enjoyable place to spend 4 years than bleak Ithaca, NY. Cornell has better name recognition only because it’s an ivy, but people who really matter (job recruiters and such) will know how good NU is and how Cornell isn’t really up to the level of other ivies.</p>

3

<p>I was really confident in my decision until everyone I knew started freaking out about it. Thanks for the reassurance!</p>

4

<p>nolwenn is right. Evanston is muchhhhhh better than Ithaca. I know.</p>

5

<p>LOL. I HATE how I have to explain Northwestern to people.</p>

<p>No, it is not in Seattle. Or Oregon.</p>

<p>And NO, it is not like Northeastern at ALL.</p>

6

<p>haha - my mom – MANY MANY years ago went to Northwestern because she thought it was in the Northwest (she lived in CT). Now I live in Oregon - the REAL NW. Took our family two generations to finally make it here.</p>

7

<p>For the record- the name recognition thing is only really an issue in the Northeast (and less and less). When I matriculated a lot of people from my (elite) highschool barely knew NU. Last time I was back home though I struck up a conversation with some random local area students (college students) and locals and they all knew NU. Could be sampling error but I definitely feel like NU has a higher profile.</p>

8

<p>Most people I met know it’s a great schools. Two weeks ago, I was talking to two coworkers about NCAA tournament the other day and mentioned how Northwestern never made it. They used Stanford and Duke as reference for comparison. Few days ago, I was wearing NU shirt at Starbucks and a guy sitting nearby asked me if I went there. He’s a lawyer. </p>

<p>“Everyone you talked to” probably means no more than a dozen people. It’s much better to consider stats drawn from much larger population:</p>

<ol>
<li><p>According to a recent freshmen survey, 90.7% of freshmen considered good academic reputation as a very important reason that they came to Northwestern. The average for other highly-selective peers was 87.3%. The other highly-selective peers are BC, Brown, CalTech, CMU, Duke, Emory, Rice, ND, Penn, USC, and Vanderbilt.
<a href=“http://www.adminplan.northwestern.edu/ir/sspg/cirp/TFS_2011_PDF_PROFILE.pdf[/url]”>http://www.adminplan.northwestern.edu/ir/sspg/cirp/TFS_2011_PDF_PROFILE.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
<li><p>SAT scores are close proxy of what people perceive. I just think that the more reputated the school is, the stronger the applicant pool it tends to draw and the more the best admits would matriculate. Northwestern has considerably higher stats than Cornell. That doesn’t necessarily mean Northwestern has better reputation; other factors like location may play a role. But I think it should give you the comfort that any reputational difference, if any, is negligible.</p></li>
</ol>

9

<p>Sam- us lawyer types aren’t necessarily knowledgable (though the good ones will be very prestige minded, so its hit or miss).</p>

10

<p>Student --</p>

<p>My D was admitted to both Cornell and NU last year and chose NU. In her case, both Parents, 3 Grandparents, Two Aunts, one Uncle and assorted cousins were Cornell Alums – so we still wonder what planet she grew up on!!! (grin – J/K)</p>

<p>Ok, to be serious – Both my wife and I had gone on trips with her and saw how she interacted at both colleges. She explained to us in a logical, adult fashion why she preferred Northwestern and why she felt it was a better school for her. At the end of the day, I think we both agreed that her decision made sense and that to the extent one can know these things, she probably made the best choice for her. More important, we felt that having worked extremely hard over four years, she had earned the right to make this choice. Freedom and Responsibility do go hand in hand. We couldn’t be more proud of her.</p>

<p>Now, in answer to your question – there’s this thing called the Ivy League. By many, it’s held up as the model for the Best of the Best. It has been for the past 50-100 years. Most will admit that there are a couple of schools – Stanford and MIT, which are the equivalent. But for many there is a feeling that ANY Ivy is better than any non-Ivy. </p>

<p>For some, perception is reality, and one could argue that there is an Ivy Aura. Especially in with those of us in your parents’ generation – 35 years ago, in the eastern US, NU was barely on the radar for the top-top students. Schools like Michigan were clearly thought of as safety schools (and not only for the top students). Duke was “OK” but still thought of as a cut below by many of us easterners. </p>

<p>Today, the stats for admitted students at Cornell (Arts) and Northwestern (Weinberg) are probably indistinguishible. The same for Cornell (Engineering) and Northwestern (McCormick). So it is difficult to argue that either school has material quantatitive educational advantages over the other.</p>

<p>So, all we really have left is that Ivy Aura thing, if it exists. Let’s assume it does, or let’s assume that Cornell is the ‘better school’ (whatever that means). EVEN IF true (and one could certainly argue it is not), the difference between these two schools is not so large as to make this the only factor, or even the most important factor in selecting between the schools. I am 100% confident that a good fit at NU is better (both educationally and in terms of future employment possibilities) than a bad fit at Cornell (or any other Ivy for that matter).</p>

11

<p>^Awesome post.</p>

<p>It should be noted that while the two schools may seem very similar, the cultures are EXTREMELY different (having now experienced both firsthand as a student). I can imagine many people will like both, but I can imagine more who will hate one or the other. Pick the one that fits you better. Don’t worry about the name (which is basically the same anyway). After all, people may know Cornell, but this is what they’re thinking:[Cornell</a> The Office Reference - YouTube](<a href=“Cornell The Office Reference - YouTube”>Cornell The Office Reference - YouTube)</p>

12

<p>Or this, an insider (Columbia) view on Cornell:</p>

<p>[Cornell</a> University - WikiCU, the Columbia University wiki encyclopedia](<a href=“http://www.wikicu.com/Cornell_University]Cornell”>Cornell University - WikiCU, the Columbia University wiki encyclopedia)</p>

13

<p>Funny, but what a disgustingly condescending and pretentious article.</p>

14

<p>Northwestern’s name recognition is much stronger. Its social reputation is also much stronger. Right now, it is a hot school with the rapid increases in applications and a rapidly dropping acceptance rate.</p>

<p>The interesting thing about Cornell is that its Ivy reputation actually works against it; people unfortunately have a low impression of the hotel school, labor relations, agriculture, and other programs which they see as vocational training. They do not associate these programs with an “Ivy” education, which they want to heavily liberal arts-based, and thus discount Cornell as a marginal member of the Ivy League. Its half “state school” status does not help. As a result, arts & sciences students at Cornell are immediately heralded as a bit superior than others. This is very unfortunate but it is what it is. </p>

<p>Northwestern is its own niche and surpasses the reputation of some Ivies nationally. All of its programs are liberal arts-based (including journalism, education, communication, music, and engineering). In Chicago, its reputation is only surpassed by HYP. Unless you’re in the North Shore, nobody even knows what Penn, Columbia, Dartmouth, Brown, and Cornell are. Penn is mistaken for Penn State. Columbia is mistaken for Columbia College Chicago (a media/arts-focused school). UChicago is mistaken for Chicago State University or the University of Illinois-Chicago (even UIC students think they are U of C students, for example). That said, do not be blinded by reputations when making your decisions either.</p>

15

<p>^UChicago is not mistaken for those :-/</p>

<p>But true story about Columbia- my first cousin posted she had been accepted to “Columbia!” on her facebook and my immediate family were all a bit confused, since she’s err, not the brightest. We live in the Northeast but the bulk of our family is from Chicago and still lives there.</p>

<p>Took an hour or so to put 2 and 2 together.</p>

16

<p>LOL, well there’s Cornell College too. And I think someone posted that they had mistakenly applied to Northwestern thinking it was Northestern.</p>

17

<p>I feel that Northwestern is more known to the people who matter, as someone said earlier. The people who matter, in this case, are the job recruiters who know the rankings and want to get those with the best education. Now, you might not have as much name recognition as Cornell in the east coast amongst the average citizen (in the Midwest, NU and UChicago are gold standard, so people will know it; I don’t know how they view it on the West coast), but if you go for a job interview, I highly doubt they will view NU lower than Cornell.</p>

18

<p>Cornell has a distinct “wow” factor among adults that Northwestern doesn’t have but Generation X views them with about equal regard. This should tell you that by the time you’re 30-35, the people in positions of power will regard Northwestern as being equal or better than Cornell.</p>

19

<p>It depends what part of the country you live in. All of you are making the mistake that you are projecting what the scoop is in your part of the country to nationwide. The NU name is as golden as it gets in all the major cities in the midwest.</p>

20

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<p>You know, I think there is no need to bash Cornell, and bashing other schools doesn’t fit with the self-assurance and welcoming spirit and earnestness that is part of the Northwestern equity.</p>