Northwestern over......

Colleges and Universities A-Z Northwestern University
61

<p>interpol32: oh. i apologize for the misunderstanding. with the comma it makes sense. at any rate i didn't mean to get all defensive; honestly i think duke and nu are both great schools and i was pretty torn in between the two when making my decision. ultimately i went with nu considering location primarily and my major.</p>

<p>NUGrad:
no i wasn't waitlisted. however, nu has been my first choice from the start. like i said i chose nu over duke because i wanted to take advantage of the proximity to a large city like Chicago, especially considering my major being econ and seeing as how i may want to go into ibanking.</p>

62

<p>prestige doesn't always correlate to quality of education...duke does have a somewhat higher profile nationally. I wonder if part of this is their dominant basketball team (at least why it may be more well-known than NU.)</p>

<p>Duke is better at bio and biomedical engineering and seems to attract better math people. Duke also has a better medical school. NU has a much better chemistry program, is better at journalism, and has a great business school. I think the other programs are roughly equal for both.</p>

63

<p>Not counting biomedical engineering, NU has the edge in other engineerings. </p>

<p>Duke has 2 schools in liberal arts and engineering. The programs in liberal arts are roughly the same like collegealum314 said. </p>

<p>But NU has 4 more schools: music, journalism, communication, and education/social policy and they are all considered among the best of their kind in the nation. Considering its size, NU has unusually large array of classes of variety of fields. This is one of NU's strengths.</p>

64

<p>I'd say that NU bests Duke in the performing arts.</p>

<p>Duke bests NU in math.</p>

65

<p>Speaking of performing arts, I regret I didn't have the interest to see the numerous shows while there.</p>

66

<p>econ/undergrad business is definitely better at nu with its amazing econ dept. and new undergrad business certificate from kellogg</p>

67

<p>All these comparisons are heavily leaning math/science comparisons, but Duke is known for its engineering and sciences. Anyone have stats to compare the humanities? I know NU's history program is something like top 5.</p>

68

<p>seeing that these schools are so similar academically, why is duke ranked 6 spots higher than nu? i mean rankings don't mean everything, but i'm just curious.</p>

69

<p>
[quote]
I know NU's history program is something like top 5.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>individual program rankings have very little to do with overall school prestige.</p>

<p>just think, purdue has very high rankings in some engineering fields, u of i has a pretty amazing accounting program, etc.</p>

70

<p>
[quote]
seeing that these schools are so similar academically, why is duke ranked 6 spots higher than nu?

[/quote]
</p>

<p>because it's historically higher on revealed preference lists (where cross-admitted students on average choose to go), which gives it a stronger student body, and it has a higher peer assessment score, which is a large part of total ranking (25%)</p>

<p>among other things; it's all statistics, you can look at the exact formula and see how duke and northwestern compare</p>

71

<p>"(A few years ago,) NU over:</p>

<p>-Georgetown
-Johns Hopkins
-Penn
-Columbia"</p>

<p>Wow.
That's all I have to say.
Wow.</p>

72

<p>^^ how so?</p>

73

<p>"individual program rankings have very little to do with overall school prestige"</p>

<p>no, but it helps...especially when you are comparing two private universities. </p>

<p>I think individual program rankings are particular useful to prestige when you are talking about technical areas.</p>

<p>A big part of University of Chicago's prestige and intellectual reputation comes from its stellar math and physics graduate programs.</p>

<p>NU wouldn't be more prestigious than Yale in a specific subject even if it was ranked higher, but I think in the case of two schools close in general prestige like Duke and NU that it would matter more. If I wanted to study chemistry, journalism, economics, or theater, I would go to NU. (NU has a top 10 program in chemistry.) If I wanted to study bio, biomedical engineering, or math I might be more inclined to choose Duke. Also, if I were choosing an engineering other than biomedical engineering, I would go to NU. The individual programs do have some of their own associated prestige.</p>

74

<p>Questionsyay,
I wanted to major in art history (NU=top 5) and drama (NU=top 2...) And ultimately go into film (NU=top five.)
So I chose NU.</p>

<p>"Wow?"
Would you say that I made a bad decision..?</p>

75

<p>"Would you say that I made a bad decision..?"</p>

<p>No no those are just some of THE best schools in the country. But of course, so is nu. But that's based solely(sp?) on rankings, not like you said about art history and drama and film.
Good for you =)</p>

76

<p>interpol -
[quote]
it would take a LOT for northwestern to ever beat out duke in the rankings. duke offers its student body so much more in terms of undergrad experience.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Really? I'd like to know what that is.</p>

<p>
[quote]
but duke will almost always beat out northwestern when it comes to choosing between schools (and it's not just on CC). i dont think it has all that mch to do with "fit" either. Duke is just a slight notch above nu as an institution

[/quote]
</p>

<p>First of all, I agree that the whole lax scandal and how it affects/has affected Duke's rep/admissions is totally overblown. It's a little blip that will soon recede from memory.</p>

<p>Second, since, as you have stated yourself, Duke is "just a slight notch" above NU (not as an institution) in perceived reputation - "fit" comes more into play than anything else (we're not talking NU v. Harvard here).</p>

<p>Third, 25+ years ago, NU and Duke were pretty much seen as equals - but Duke has gained a slight edge in prestige, etc. due to a no. of steps that Duke's administrators have taken.</p>

<ol>
<li> Lowered admissions standards for athletes - particularly for men's bb. More so than anything else, the success of Duke's men's bb under Coach k has driven Duke's recognition factor and rise in prestige.<br></li>
</ol>

<p>However, Duke has undertaken some short-cuts to achieve this level of success (in the mid-90s, the avg. SAT score for Duke bb players was in the mid-900s and ranked in the middle among ACC schools with regard to SAT scores for its bb players).</p>

<p>(Duke, several years ago, also "loosened" standards for its fb team in an effort to make them more competitive).</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Duke has long offered merit-based schollies.</p></li>
<li><p>Duke has aggressively gone after the children of wealthy business leaders, etc. - in an attempt to increase their endowment.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>Call it "cutting corners"/"selling one's soul to the devil" or just smart management - but these steps seem to be working</p>

<p>
[quote]
i would not consider evanston much better than the triangle area.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Uhhh - 1) Evanston doesn't have really seedy areas, unlike Durham and 2) Duke students need a car or have to take a bus to get to the triangle - unlike NU students who can just hop on the L to get to Chicago (so much for your "argument").</p>

<p>
[quote]
also, i should add, the chicago border is four miles from northwestern, you could WALK to chicago if you wanted.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>I wonder if that bar just over the Chicago border which had 15 cent pitcher nites is still open?</p>

77

<p>Questionsyay:
Thanks. :)</p>

<p>It was a difficult choice, but I'm really happy with how it all turned out.</p>

78

<p>P.S. k&s:
In the final line of post #76, are you referring to the infamous 'Deuce?'</p>

79

<p>For those who made this decision,
Why did you choose NU over Notre Dame? I know virtually nothing about NU because I had never heard of it before coming to ND, so I am curious as to your reasoning.</p>

80

<p>Because Northwestern is ranked higher than ND in just about every field (except sports ranking). Of course there are plenty of other reasons....</p>