Northwestern's prestige outside of the midwest

<p>To Sam Lee's point about the NU entertainment mafia, it is always a fun little game that for practically every major show over the last 20 years, there is an NU alum somewhere ... all the SNL folks, McLean Stevenson on MASH, Julia Louis Dreyfus on Seinfeld, David Schwimmer on Friends, Kimberly Williams on According to Jim, the guy (forget his name) on Friday Night Lights, Cindy Chupack (writer for Sex and the City) and of course The Colbert Report.</p>

<p>Don't forget Charlton Heston who just passed away, Ann-Margret, Charlotte Rae, Marg Helgenberg, Carl Reiner, Cindy Crawford, and others...</p>

<p>The young'uns won't know all of those names, NUgraduate :-).<br>
Also add Noah Wyle (from the TV show ER), who wasn't an NU student but was an NU Cherub, and Megan Mullaly (from Will & Grace).</p>

<p>Pizzagirl, Marg Helgenberger was in my graduating class - she is not old, right? Please agree : )</p>

<p>Back to the olden days, if my memory doesn't fail, wasn't Warren Beatty also an NU boy? The young'uns will have heard of him... I think.</p>

<p>Northwestern is well known and well regarded here in Virginia. Plus, it's a great school and I think the campus is very nice.</p>

<p>how wuld georgetown compare with northwestern?</p>

<p>If you look at Peer Assessment Scores (prestige within academic circles):</p>

<p>Northwestern: 4.3</p>

<p>Georgetown: 4.0 </p>

<p>hopefully that helps answer your question.</p>

<p>Id go with Northwestern in the Mid-West but Georgetown here in Virginia (question of proximity).</p>

<p>No doubt - there is an East-coast bias (which tends to under-rate schools like NU, UChicago and Rice), but I'd say that NU is generally seen on par w/ schools like Penn and Cornell (albeit, slightly lower, since it's not an "Ivy").</p>

<p>There also is a bias against publics - which is why for undergraduate, NU is generally seen as being more "prestigious" than UCLA or UCB (the same reason why people in Big Ten country say "oooh, you go to Northwestern?" much more than "oooh, you go to Michigan?".</p>