<p>In terms of big ten schools, which one do you think is the best. I would definitly say NU, but some people on the Ranking the DI conferences thought it was the other way around. I was very suprised at this as I view NU as the clearcut academic powerhouse of the Big Ten, but do you think Michigan deserves to be in the conversation?</p>
<p>Michigan has great graduate programs and many of them are higher ranked than NU's. Even at the undergrad level, Michigan is a fine school. NU has a slighlty stronger student body and it may have less red tape and better academic/preprofessional advising that leads to higher med school placement rate (84%) and higher number of prestigious scholarships like Marshall and Fulbright per capita.</p>
<p>Michigan might have some better engineering departments than NU. But overall, I'd say NU is stronger academically.</p>
<p>I would agree that NU is stronger academically. This could be slightly biased by the fact that I go here, but, even in high school (because I had these discussions with my teachers), it was commonly held that NU is the best in the Big Ten (AND fantastic outside of the athletic conference). </p>
<p>Oh, speaking of the athletic conference, Michigan's football team is currently pretty awful; NU's has historically not been great, but the Cats are improving and are super fun to watch play. Michigan was, what, second-to-last in the Big Ten this past season?</p>
<p>The Big 10 schools are mostly very fine, but these two are unquestionably the top.
At the undergrad level, NU is considered the academic powerhouse, although it is usually (but not this year) weak in the interconference football matchups.
The engineering programs are both among the nation's best, so it's tough to say that there's a substantial difference one way or the other.
At the grad level, NU's law school is top tier, but Michigan's still edges it out.</p>
<p>Eh, I'd say UM Law and NU Law are almost exactly even.</p>
<p>As someone who graduated from NU and plans to attend Michigan for graduate studies, it all depends on social and academic fit. I enjoyed NU's smaller campus size and explored a new city (Evanston/Chicago) altogether. I made close friendships with professors. The quarter system allowed me to explore many classes and pursue a double major. Both schools are equal academically but I knew Michigan would be better for me at the graduate level (the resources for graduate students is unbelievably great here.)</p>
<p>Both schools are great, though I think Michigan is slightly better in engineering and Northwestern in LSA-type stuff. I've also visited both campuses, and I love both.</p>