<p>Absolutely! All I “know” about Cornell is that Office character Andy Bernard graduated from there… and now he is working for The World’s Worst Boss, Michael Scot at Dunder Miflin.</p>
<p>LINYMOM, maybe you should tell your experience of how Northwestern is perceived on the east coast nowadays, especially on LI, in this thread: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/868230-northwestern-georgetown.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/868230-northwestern-georgetown.html</a></p>
<p>Mike Wilbon graduated from NU. NUFF SAID!</p>
<p>aabbcc: That link doesn’t work, or else I would read it and see if I can contribute.</p>
<p>oh wow, they must’ve deleted the thread…</p>
<p>
And justifiably so. It was getting quite acidic.</p>
<p>umm…i go to northwestern and there are a TON of ppl from california</p>
<p>Northwestern is definitely a great undergraduate institution and people that say otherwise who claim they went here probably were recluses and had few friends to begin with. </p>
<p>Rankings are stupid to begin with, but you can’t argue with the academic prestige mixed with a vibrant student body. I mean it’s really splitting hairs among the best of the best.</p>
<p>People definitely know a lot about Northwestern than previously, not only because of its rise on the rankings but definitely because of sports.</p>
<p>
Exactly. There are a lot of students, myself included, who don’t want to go to a school known primarily because of its sports.</p>
<p>kameronsmith, I cannot think of any elite university, Northwestern included, that is known primarily because of its sports. Some universities’ reputations, like Duke, Michigan, Notre Dame, Stanford and UNC, have certainly been enhanced as a result of strong athletic traditions, but they are first and foremost recognized for outstanding academics.</p>
<p>The dorms have no air conditioning!!!</p>
<p>Actually, half of the dorms have air conditioning.</p>
<p>[Freshman</a> housing guide 2009 » North by Northwestern](<a href=“http://www.northbynorthwestern.com/2009/05/40697/freshman-housing-guide-2009/]Freshman”>http://www.northbynorthwestern.com/2009/05/40697/freshman-housing-guide-2009/)</p>
<p>But that seems neither here nor there. =P</p>
<p>My dorm has air conditioning…</p>
<p>I think todays’ best students are the overachievers, the kids that want to do everything. Having a reputation beyond excellence in the classroom attracts these students.</p>
<p>At Northwestern, we have top ranked programs/distinguished faculty and successful students (see those students that have been accepted for Fulbrights, Teach for America, etc.). Moreover, our campus activities/involvement only enhance the things we learn here. We also have great athletics as a D-1 program, which gives us the hype of playing big schools and winning in some areas.</p>
<p>I think for the student that wants it all, to be the academic, to be the athlete, to be the responsible citizen–Northwestern is definitely for you. I’ve paved my way here as a diverse student involved in different departments, athletics, and community activities. </p>
<p>kameron:
Obviously, no one wants to come to NU primarily for sports, unless they are an athlete, but if that’s how we can ‘spread far the fame of our fair name’, by all means, this is a way to do it! Being good at sports by no means diminishes our academic reputation, in fact, whenever we’re on ESPN, they’re always raving about Northwestern, so I’d argue that this is great publicity we’re getting anyway. Also, Northwestern is not known primarily for sports anyway, so maybe you need to do a little better research… have you looked up Lyrica? Have you noticed the ranking of our Music School? Have you read about our professors?</p>
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<p>You’d be surprised at how many people don’t realize or think that schools like UM, ND and UNC are strong academically.</p>
<p>k&s, if somebody thinks those schools are amazing, chances are they aren’t very educated. Any well educated person would know those schools are among the academic elite. </p>
<p>Alternatively, those people who only know schools for their athletic programs would generally not know universities that have low-profile athletic programs such as Chicago, WUSTL, Vanderbilt, Emory, Johns Hopkins, Rice, Caltech, Dartmouth, Brown, Columbia, Cornell and virtually every LAC.</p>
<p>^ Alex -</p>
<p>I’m talking about the general public and not the people w/ higher education and/or those who frequent site like CC.</p>
<p>To them - UM is pretty much indistinguishable from dOSU or IU, aside from maybe the FB or BB programs (and even that’s a minority since the majority of people don’t follow sports, much less collegiate sports).</p>
<p>
Hahahahahahaha! Sports are just about the only thing the hoi polloi do follow.</p>
<p>k&s, I know…and what I am saying is that the general public does not know much about universities in general. They know they Harvard, their regional schools and their local community college. The general public will not know anything about schools like Brown, Chicago, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Emory, Penn, WUSTL etc…</p>
<p>I also disagree about sports. The average American follows sports, and, in areas other than the NE, follows college sports as much as, if not more than, professional sports. But I am not interested in what the general publicthinksbecause the majority of the general public is not college educated.</p>
<p>I’d say Columbia Cornell, Dartmouth, and to a lesser extent Brown & Penn <em>are</em> known by the general public as very prestigious. I mean, just look at The Office.</p>