<p>^ Northwestern is more of a trade school than Chicago. NU = a midwest USC. :D</p>
<p>Ray192,</p>
<p>Northwestern is no more focused on professional education than schools like Michigan, Berkeley, Penn, or Cornell. At least schools like Cornell have undergrad biz degree programs while Northwestern doesn’t. </p>
<p>UCB,
You can’t find any more trade oriented majors than business and architecture. I heard UCB has top undergrad programs in those. :D</p>
<p>UChicago does give out merit aid, but its very rare for someone to receive it. Every applicant is eligible for the aid, you are applied automatically (unless you specifically check no).</p>
<p>Personally, I like UChicago’s campus, its more central, and i like the gothic Hogwart-esque buildings. Northwestern’s campus, I’ve visited it many times, I’ve dormed there for their summer school program, and I’ve been to numerous band competitions there. There’s a lot of concrete blocked buildings and the campus seems so disconnected. After i got accepted to UCHicago, i decided not to apply to NU. </p>
<p>But, that’s just my opinion. I don’t want to offend anyone. A lot of people love NU’s campus, esp the lake. </p>
<p>You’ll definately get more traditional experiences at northwestern- big 10 football, large greek life. i get a less intellectual vibe for NU. Of course they are smart. It just that the whole intellectual discussion doesnt seem to come through. Again, I could be wrong. These were just my personal reason for not applying to NU (for undergrad anyways). </p>
<p>It depends on what you want.</p>
<p>^ Uh huh…and acting, theatre…journalism…screen writing, radio/television/film, playwriting, theatre directing, sound design, theatre design… interactive media, media + technological studies, music theatre</p>
<p>
I dunno, I think it’s granted to something like 10% of entering students, which wouldn’t exactly be very rare. I’d have to double-check the exact figure.</p>
<p>I don’t understand UCB’s last post. Was it meant to expand Sam Lee’s mention of “business and architecture”?</p>
<p>Anyway, it’s interesting to note that, although Chicago has no theater, journalism, music or film school, the alumni include quite a few famous journalists, actors, directors, etc. Which maybe bolsters the argument that a broad liberal arts education can be good preparation for just about anything. Though of course Northwestern has its own long list of successful people in similar fields.</p>
<p>I cannot think of another major US city that has 2 top liberal arts universities as closely matched as the University of Chicago and Northwestern. Unless you count MIT as a liberal arts university. For example there’s a much wider gap between Columbia and NYU, I think. Berkeley and Stanford might be the closest, but not so much at the undergraduate level, where there’s a bigger difference in selectivity.</p>
<p>As an NU alum, I enjoyed my college experience in Evanston. NU has a lot to offer for students who have a professional interest (e.g. journalism, theater, communications, engineering, education, music, etc.) and multidisciplinary interest in several causes (environment, energy, area studies, etc.). For example, I was interested in urban affairs so Chicagoland was one of the best places to study the history of American cities. The environment is definitely nice and safe because it’s located in a wealthy northern Chicago suburb on Lake Michigan (excellent view, by the way). People think of NU as a “trade school” but the largest undergraduate college is the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences. It has many freshman seminars and distribution requirements students must fulfill that makes up the liberal arts curriculum. There are many students who are engaged in local/national professional and undergraduate research opportunities (I completed a professional practicum and senior honors thesis). NU prepares students for graduate school and careers. It also keeps getting better every year!</p>
<p>UCBChemEGrad,</p>
<p>ALL theater/film majors are required to take at least EIGHTEEN courses at the college of arts and sciences. ALL journalism majors are required to take at least THIRTY-ONE courses OUTSIDE of the journalism school. NU requires them to have a broad education. Can you find me a school that requires that many liberal-art courses for its “trade” majors?</p>
<p>I’d think theater majors know something about western literature/history and Shakespeare. Good journalists should have a broad knowledge about many things in order to communicate the news effectively. Can you say the same about, say, accounting?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I didn’t say it was. I said it focused more on professional education than UC. Since UC focuses much more effort on academia than NU, it’s rather natural for UC to be more prestigious in academia.</p>
<p>Besides, having a lot of professional education in not necessarily a bad thing.</p>
<p>^^ With respect to the practice of accounting, maybe not.
With respect to the practice of living a rich, fulfilling life, probably yes.</p>
<p>Aristotle might say that the accountant does not need advanced theoretical knowledge.
He or she needs technical knowledge (which is not the main concern of the liberal arts). However, all human beings need practical wisdom to make important life choices. Should the liberal arts and sciences exclusively focus on theoretical knowledge? Or can they inform how we make choices about all sorts of issues that affect everyone including accountants? I think they can and should do so.</p>
<p>Ray192 and UBC,</p>
<p>Some people think an undergrad biz program would be a very good thing for NU; it would raise the profile of the undergrad school. When some students asked if NU could establish an undergrad biz program, the response they got from the adminstration was that they don’t believe in the value of an undergrad business major and that it doesn’t fit the model/philosophy of NU. In the end, NU came up with a 4-course certificate program that students can use to <em>supplement" their education. Those four courses are *not</em> things like intro to accounting, marketing, or management. They are master-level financial economics or managerial analytics courses-rigorous, highly quantitative, and likely somewhat theoretical. I vaguely remember one student in the program told me they dealt with the math proof (or derivation?) of the CAPM at one point. Prerequisite courses include econometrics, probability, multiple-integration & vector calculus (honors sequence preferred), and linear algebra. </p>
<p>NU’s journalism and theater are among its most recognizable programs. I see that many people on CC start to make that “trade school” connection. But what they don’t realize, as far as I know, is that NU requires a broad education out of those majors. The minimum number of liberal arts courses required would be enough to easily satisfy another full-blown major in any other schools.</p>
<p>A “trade school” could never produce 2 Rhodes, 1 Marshall, 2 Churchill, 5 Gates and the fourth highest number of Fullbright scholars in the same year. It’s not UChicago, but its focus on liberal arts (professional education) is probably stronger than (not as intense as) you might have thought.</p>
<p>Thank you for ALL the information about U of C and Northwestern!</p>
<p>I am definately going to consider Northwestern. As for U of C, I don’t think I’m going to apply there. I like everything that everyone has said so far about Northwestern, but I don’t know if I like everything that has been said about U of C (gothic architecture, not as good of a social life, etc.)</p>
<p>Thanks again!</p>
<p>The class of 2012 statistics of each school are as follows:</p>
<p>Top 10% of HS class
Northwestern: 85%
UChicago: 86%</p>
<p>Mid 50% SAT
Northwestern: 1360-1530
UChicago: 1340-1510</p>
<p>Mid 50% ACT
Northwestern: 30-33
UChicago: 28-33</p>
<p>sources:
[2008-09</a> First-time, first-year (freshman) admission, Common Data Set - Northwestern University](<a href=“http://www.ugadm.northwestern.edu/commondata/2008-09/c.htm]2008-09”>http://www.ugadm.northwestern.edu/commondata/2008-09/c.htm)
<a href=“https://collegeadmissions.uchicago.edu/admissions/classprofile.shtml[/url]”>https://collegeadmissions.uchicago.edu/admissions/classprofile.shtml</a></p>
<p>So the entering classes of each school are, for all intents and purposes here, identical (ignoring, of course, the fact that Northwestern’s statistics include education/communications/music schools with student statistics that historically lag behind CAS).</p>
<p>That being said, (among the LIBERAL ARTS programs - ie excluding Northwestern’s music/communications/journalism/engineering/education schools which Chicago does not share) campus environment at Chicago tends more towards production of PhD applicants, while Northwestern tends more towards production of professionals (namely finance/consulting/marketing entry-level positions). This is a broad-level generalization.</p>
<p>In light of this, I would agree with earlier posters that if an applicant is interested in graduate academics Chicago may IN GENERAL tend to provide more like-minded peers, while if a student is interested in a career in business and is eager to GET OUT OF ACADEMIA for at least a few years following undergrad, Northwestern IN GENERAL would tend to provide more like-minded peers.</p>
<p>By the way, in terms of which school is “harder”</p>
<p>Average Undergraduate GPA
Northwestern CAS: 3.35
UChicago: 3.3</p>
<p>sources:
[The</a> myth of the engineer, debunked - FORUM](<a href=“http://media.www.dailynorthwestern.com/media/storage/paper853/news/2005/04/28/Forum/The-Myth.Of.The.Engineer.Debunked-1918306.shtml]The”>http://media.www.dailynorthwestern.com/media/storage/paper853/news/2005/04/28/Forum/The-Myth.Of.The.Engineer.Debunked-1918306.shtml)
[Welcome</a> to the University of Chicago College Report Online](<a href=“http://magazine.uchicago.edu/9810/CollegeReport/seal.htm]Welcome”>Welcome to the University of Chicago College Report Online)</p>
<p>^ Chicago is also famous for sometimes disregarding grades/rank and especially test scores in its admissions process.</p>