<p>i also wouldn't classify them as sharing a location. In or around the same city maybe, but environments on and around campus are totally different, make sure to visit.</p>
<p>Chicago has far more prestige in academic circles (if you see yourself going into academia - this is the way to go).</p>
<p>From all other perspectives Northwestern is either as good or has an edge (location, sports, quality of life, safety, etc.)</p>
<p>You need a PhD to go into academia, in which case your undergraduate school is largely irrelevant. Chicago sends roughly 80% of its graduates to post-grad education and is known as the "teacher of teachers," true, but doing well at Northwestern will hardly keep one out of any top graduate program. In fact, Northwestern for undergrad and Chicago for grad may be a winning combo. :D</p>
<p>In fact, the schools once intended to combine into one super-university with NU for undergrad and Chicago for grad, but one of them backed out.</p>
<p>^^ it was NU</p>
<p>"Chicago has far more prestige in academic circles (if you see yourself going into academia - this is the way to go)."</p>
<p>this is just not true, why do people just come here and say things like this; chicago is only known for being more rigorous, not more prestigious</p>
<p>Chicago also has more prestige in the business and legal world. The schools are very different. One is a Big Ten school with DI athletics. One is a DIII school with intense academics and faculty beyond compare. </p>
<p>Chicago gets you in the same doors as does HYP. Northwestern gets you in the same doors as Michigan and UCLA.</p>
<p>Chicago's Nobel Laureate affiliations are astounding. How do they get all those people?</p>
<p>Oh and I admit I got scared away by the essay prompts. That and the fact that test scores, one of my strongest areas, aren't considered very well. I'm sure that turned off other people, too.</p>
<p>Keep in mind that Chicago's Nobel laureates sometimes have very tenuous ties to the university, like the way NC considers itself "first in flight" because the Wright brothers tested their airplane there. Cambridge has more, and Columbia and Harvard are only 2-3 short of matching Chicago.</p>
<p>Cambridge has more, and Columbia and Harvard are only 2-3 short of matching Chicago.</p>
<p>Cambridge, Harvard, and to a lesser extent, Columbia have a few centuries head start though.</p>
<p>"Chicago also has more prestige in the business and legal world. The schools are very different. One is a Big Ten school with DI athletics. One is a DIII school with intense academics and faculty beyond compare. </p>
<p>Chicago gets you in the same doors as does HYP. Northwestern gets you in the same doors as Michigan and UCLA."</p>
<p>that's the most unsubstantiated and ridiculous thing i've ever heard. Don't post nonsense on these boards, people who don't know any better might actually believe you.</p>
<p>Seriously, as a "mom", you should know better. Perhaps you should look up where Harvard law school's stduents did their undergrads and count how many went to Chicago versus how many went to HYP before you make such claim. FYI, Northwestern has higher number. Sorry, it's not as lopsided as you implied.</p>
<p>I am a mom, a lawyer and an executive who has been in the workforce many years. I have hired many people. Northwestern is an excellent school. I'm sorry you don't like what I am saying, but the simple fact is that Chicago has more prestige. Frankly, I personally don't place a lot of value on prestige, but I have a lot of other knowledge about schools. Many people don't, and just go on reputation.
Before you accuse me of posting "ridiculous" things, maybe you should compare your experiences to mine.
My law degree is from Chicago. It STILL opens doors for me just because of the "name". I think it is kind of silly, but it is a fact.<br>
Isn't Northwestern a Big Ten school? What else is it I said that is wrong.</p>
<p>When I was applying to colleges, back in the stone age, it clearly was the case that Chicago was more prestigious. By a good margin, I would say. Not for the specialty programs that it doesn't feature (eg communications, engineering), but for the liberal arts & Sciences undergrad, and its professional schools.</p>
<p>At some point though, a good while ago now, Northwestern's reputation got a material boost. Same with Duke, btw, which wasn't nearly that big a deal "back then". Wonder what caused this; anybody know?</p>
<p>I remember some years ago being quite surprised when Northwestern's graduate B-school got a top rating. Because previously it wasn't any big deal, really.</p>
<p>But evidently times have changed.</p>
<p>At this point in time it's not clear to me that Chicago retains much advantage over Northwestern, if any.</p>
<p>Seems like kids who prefer the "life of the mind" and a core curriculum, in a city,might prefer Chicago, and kids who prefer frats, sports and more pre-vocational /pre-professional offerings, in a suburban environment, might prefer Northwestern.</p>
<p>But to me, it seems like the capability gap has narrowed or been completely eradicated for some time now. And I would think prestige, as far as consideration of graduates, would track this as well.</p>
<p>But I'm no expert.</p>
<p>I believe that you're right, monydad.
MomofWildChild, perhaps your opinions about these schools formed a long way back? Perhaps before you went to law school? Perhaps when they were more accurate?</p>
<p>Mom, your experience is limited to make such a general statement like that. From what I've heard, NU does better with job placements. Both schools are great.</p>
<p>I've been in the business world for <em>cough</em> years and have worked at places like Accenture, Intel and Microsoft. It might be different in Illinios, but on the west coast I would say that Kellogg is at least as "prestigious" as Chicago's B-school, if not more so. </p>
<p>(Hey!! I just noticed that USNews has my alma mater at #38 now! That's up seven or eight spots in the last couple of years. Not bad for a school that offered its first MBA in 1982. I always knew it would be a good place to be from, eventually.) (That would be the Merage School at UC Irvine.)</p>
<p>Why don't we break this down a bit, shall we?</p>
<p>Prestige: Depends on what you're counting as "prestige." If you're talking about "being known as a good school" around the US, Northwestern probably has an advantage because of its football team. If it's seen on TV, then people are more likely to have heard of it. If you're talking about academia, then I think I can safely say (being an academic type myself) that Chicago has the better overall reputation, but not in all areas. If you're talking about business, I simply don't know.</p>
<p>Flavor: These two schools are widely thought to have very different flavors. In academe, Chicago is widely admired because it unabashedly stands for something. They know exactly what they want their undergrads to walk out with, and it includes very specific skills as well as common knowledge. In addition, the entire undergrad lifestyle is extremely well thought out and includes ritual, ceremony, a European house system, and the like. Chicago is also known as the "teacher of teachers." To them, the life of the mind is very, very important and they have a core curriculum and academic boot camp approach to education that brooks few slackers. If you don't have a strong work ethic, don't go. If you want to challenge yourself and enjoy that challenge, then go by all means.</p>
<p>Northwestern has a reputation (and faculty I've met from there are proud of this) of being more "real world" oriented than Chicago (the NW faculty tends to talk a great deal about Chicago, but I don't recall having a UC faculty member mention NW, which is interesting but I don't know what it means). I have no idea how this real world approach actually plays out in the real world, but I thought the OP would want to know about it. NW doesn't have a reputation as a party school, but its reputation is such that it is probably safe to assume more (and perhaps more intense) partying at NW than UC.</p>
<p>One interesting tidbit. I read (somewhere) that some ungodly number of UC students tend to marry each other. Who knows what that means, but it's interesting.</p>
<p>Philosophy: I have no specific knowledge about the philosophy departments at either school. I suspect both are very good. My only observation is that philosophy is perhaps the most abstract of the humanities and tends to appeal to those most interested in honing their minds with a high level of interaction with both professors and peers. My guess (and it can only be a guess) is that one will find a bit more of that at Chicago than at Northwestern. UC has a reputation for attracting abstract thinkers.</p>
<p>Good luck to the OP on the decision.</p>
<p>I've always had the impression that UChicago's grad schools were considered more impressive to go to than its undergrad; so would see why mom would be comparing the success rates of Harvard and Yale to UChicago for law school. Undergrad, I think UChicago has historically had more of a reputation than Northwestern, but that this spread has been shrinking in the last ten years. I think Duke making it to the NCAA bball finals in 1978 and then consistently being good starting in the mid '80s and Northwestern turning a corner in football and making the Rose Bowl after the 1994 season actually, respectively, catapulted the academic standings of both schools. They both started getting a lot more applicants after this, right during the rise of prominence of USNWR starting its rankings based on formulas on things like acceptance rates and yields rather than reputations and it became a self-perpetuating phenomenom to potential candidats that these schools were apperaing favorable, which, in turn, attracted more candidates and made them even appear even more favorable. Right before this time, I never heard people coming close to mentioning Northwestern in the same breath with Dartmouth or Brown the way they seem to do on this board now. </p>
<p>I think this same situation is also occuring for USC right now after its attempt for the "three-peat" and suddenly it's getting a much lower acceptance rate and higher SAT avgs than ever before and wouldn't be surprised if it is considered a top 15 national university in the next 10 years.</p>
<p>No need to be so defensive. My opinions are quite current. I am not saying any one program is better than the other in a particular area. I am not discussing law school, business school or philosophy departments. All I am saying is that the general perception, in my opinion, is that UChicago is a more prestigious school than Northwestern.</p>
<p>But that's not <em>exactly</em> what you were saying at the first place. Otherwise, I would agree with you. You were saying Chicago = Harvard/Yale and Northwestern=UCLA in terms of "getting you the same doors", suggesting a significant gap. Look at the SC judges, who went to Chicago? Nobody if I am not mistaken (1 went to Northwestern, lol!); I see bunch from HYS though. What about Harvard Law School placement; HYP send A LOT more grads (even NU sends more) to the HSL. Perhaps Chicago is more prestigious but not by much. No need to be so defensive. My opinion is quite current and backed up by real stats. All I am saying is you were exaggerating.</p>