Northwestern vs. UPenn

<p>How similar are they in terms of social life, campus "vibe," academic rigor?</p>

<p>How strong are the gender studies, sociology, and anthropology departments at each? </p>

<p>More generally, how does one determine the strength of undergraduate departments besides looking at course offerings and faculty listings?</p>

<p>What other schools are comparable?</p>

<p>Right now, my list consists of the following, in random order:
Brown
Yale
Northwestern
UPenn
Harvard
Amherst
Wesleyan
Stanford</p>

<p>I'm considering adding Duke and Dartmouth, but I'm concerned about the prevalence of the frat/drinking scene at either.</p>

<p>Btw, I'm a transfer, so I will either transfer up (from a tier 2 school) or not at all.</p>

<p>Dartmouth has a huge non- frat/drinking scene so don;t worry about that...</p>

<p>If I had to choose between UPenn and Northwestern, I would choose UPenn. From what I have seen it attracts better students than Northwestern. Despite what people say about West Philly, the area right around UPenn is really cool. It has improved tremendously in recent years and is much closer to downtown Philly than Northwestern is to downtown Chicago. As far as campus vibe, Northwestern is suburban and therefore prettier and less congested. UPenn is busy, but that makes the campus vibrant. Both are great schools, but I would choose Penn because it has a wider range of academic disciplines that it excels in. Northwestern is mostly known as a humanities school, while Penn is great in lots of areas as diverse as business, history, and biomedical engineering.</p>

<p>::Northwestern is mostly known as a humanities school::</p>

<p>??? Clearly you know NOTHING about NU's engineering programs. SamLee or some other fervent NU defender can give you the numbers, but I can tell you right now that NU has a number of top-ranked Engineering programs as well as a top-ranked chemistry department. Furthermore NU's journalism school and school of education are excellent, and a number of social sciences are also ranked very highly, particularly the department of economics.</p>

<p>please back up what you say with facts, don't give people the wrong impression. if anything, NU has a pre-professional atmosphere, and is definitely NOT only strong in humanities.</p>

<p>to the OP, anthropology and sociology are very strong at Northwestern. I walk by the department of gender studies every day but unfortunately I don't know much about it :( </p>

<p>also, there really isn't a significant difference b/w the student body at nu and the one at upenn. they are both amazing schools. it is true that upenn has a much more urban feel to it, which some people look for. NU is in a suburb (but a town on its own, really) of Chicago, and it does take about 40 minutes to get to the loop (but only about 10 to get into chicago itself).</p>

<p>I don't think you have to worry about the drinking scene at Duke. Apply if you like the school!</p>

<p>i'm considering both schools now too so this kind of intrigued me. i know its SPLITTING HAIRS but on the whole academically, UPENN just beats out NU. but forget that- it really comes down to the kind of atmosphere and setting that you want. from my visits it seems that both schools have similar types of students, but as people previously stated, it comes down to urban v. suburban or even philly v. chicago. Personally i got a better feel from upenn, but thats just me. I wouldnt use the word "congested" to describe Penn- it is more active than anything else, and it is beautiful as well. Of course, NU has sprawling greens and stuff which you wouldnt find at a truly urban school. its really up to you if you can get into both</p>

<p>If you are looking at Penn and Stanford I would recommend applying to Duke - lots of frats/drinking, but thats a minority of students. You'll get the same atmosphere (and similar academics) at Penn and Stanford too.</p>

<p>Ditto for Dartmouth. The students at Penn, Stanford, Duke, and Dartmouth are all very similar. </p>

<p>In terms of NU versus Penn - I would take NU for engineering, Penn for business, and no preference for humanities.</p>

<p>UPenn and NU are very close. Both are pretty preprofessional (probably a little bit more so for UPenn because of the huge Wharton population and there are many wannabes trying to transfer into Wharton) yet have strong departments in social sciences.</p>

<p>In responding to RCMan13's comment about NU being far from Chicago downtown. That's true (13 miles) but Chicago is so much more than just downtown. The areas north of the downtown have many vibrant, nice, and safe neighborhoods and they are closer to NU. For those who don't know, Evanston shares the boarder with Chicago.</p>

<p>I think Chicago is a much better city than Philly but Philly does have the advantage of being close to NYC and DC.</p>

<p>Check out the University of Chicago and the University of Michigan.</p>

<p>i'm not going to argue for one school or the other, i like both even though i attend northwestern, but i'm going to correct some misinformation:</p>

<p>
[quote]
[upenn] is much closer to downtown Philly than Northwestern is to downtown Chicago

[/quote]
</p>

<p>upenn is closer to DOWNTOWN philly than northwestern is to downtown chicago, however many parts of chicago (that you would probably be more likely to visit) including wrigleyville and lincoln park are much closer to northwestern than downtown is.</p>

<p>
[quote]
Both are great schools, but I would choose Penn because it has a wider range of academic disciplines that it excels in. Northwestern is mostly known as a humanities school, while Penn is great in lots of areas as diverse as business, history, and biomedical engineering.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>if anything, it's the exact opposite. northwestern is known for its breadth of programs, it has top programs in engineering, education (top 5), theatre (top 5), music (top 3), journalism (#1), AND the humanities</p>

<p>"but on the whole academically, UPENN just beats out NU."</p>

<p>-What do you mean "on the whole" what does Penn do that is so much better than Northwestern? </p>

<p>-If the op wants to study Anthro, the universities of Pennsylvania and Chicago are the way to go. I'd pick Northwestern for Soc, and say either Penn or Northwestern would be ok for gender studies. </p>

<p>Also, I'd take Northwestern's area in Evanston over Penn's area in Philly any day- that part of West Philly is pretty boring/unpleasant if you ask me. While Penn may be closer to downtown Philly than Northwestern is to downtown Chicago- Philly is NO Chicago; Chicago is a world-class city- Philadelphia? Not so much....</p>

<p>What school do you currently attend?</p>

<p>kk, don't bash philly :D aren't you from there?</p>

<p>i personally like northwestern campus better than upenn.
upenn's buildings although beautifull are not very organized.
it's not exactly a green, parklike campus
neighborhood around it is scary and housing isn't guarunteed
for all four years.
and there's a hospital right next door.
academically both are great although idk too much about sociology/anthropology</p>

<p>I think the two schools are very similar, both in prestige and in their focus on professional and pre-professional education.
Thus I don't get why you are selecting them on your proposed majors of gender studies, anthropology, etc. These are just not the strengths of these universities.
I would suggest that you expand your list.</p>

<p>i dont think you can go wrong w/ either one. just visit and get a feel for yourself.</p>

<p>Academically and reputationally, Northwestern and Penn are virtually identical. They have similar peer assessment score, similar strengths, similar endowments, similar social scenes etc... I prefer Chicago to Philadelphia myself, and I also prefer Big 10 sports and spirit to Ivy League sports and spirit. The only thing I don't like about Northwestern is the quarter system, but that's a personal preference. If one doesn't mind the Quarter system, the only universities that can claim an slight edge over Northwestern (or Penn for that matter) are the "Big 5".</p>

<p>"kk, don't bash philly aren't you from there?"</p>

<p>-Born and raised... I'm even a Penn legacy, but look where I ended up :rolleyes:</p>

<p>depends what you are lookign for (no frat scene at amherst), and in terems of education, i think amherst has more to offer thna northwestern</p>

<p>Amherst offers a very different atmosphere and academic experience, but one thing it cannot offer is "more" than Northwestern or Penn. Amherst has a very limited faculty and resources. It can only offer a handful of courses in any one subject each semester, as opposed to dozens at a university like Northwestern and Penn. Just look at the numbers at Amherst.</p>

<p>Anthropology Professors: 4
Sociology Professors: 5
Total number of Anthropology classes offered: Fewer than 20
Total number of Sociology classes offered: Fewer than 20</p>

<p><a href="http://www.amherst.edu/%7Eanthsoc/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.amherst.edu/~anthsoc/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Now look at Northwestern:</p>

<p>Anthropology Professors: 20+
Sociology Professors: 30+
Total number of Anthropology classes offered: More than 50
Total number of Sociology classes offered: More than 45</p>

<p><a href="http://www.anthropology.northwestern.edu/faculty/index.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.anthropology.northwestern.edu/faculty/index.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p><a href="http://www.anthropology.northwestern.edu/undergraduate/courses.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.anthropology.northwestern.edu/undergraduate/courses.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p><a href="http://www.sociology.northwestern.edu/faculty/index.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.sociology.northwestern.edu/faculty/index.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p><a href="http://www.sociology.northwestern.edu/undergraduate/courses.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.sociology.northwestern.edu/undergraduate/courses.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>At Amherst, Anthropology and Sociology are small enough to fall under one department. At Northwestern, each of those departments is large enough to warrant separating the two. Furthermore, at Northwestern, undergrads have access to many graduate level classes. </p>

<p>Amherst is an incredible college to be sure, and in its own way, it may be better than Northwestern or Penn...however, one thing it doesn't do is "offer more" than them.</p>