<p>How prestigious is University of Notre Dame?</p>
<p>Very prestigious. Definitely one of the 25 most prestigious universities in the US. I think it is comparable to the likes of Emory, Georgetown, Rice, Vanderbilt and WUSTL.</p>
<p>I think it may depend on who you ask and where you ask the question. Outside of the Northeast, I would say that Notre Dame has greater prestige than all but HYPSM and would place its national prestige with the likes of Duke. </p>
<p>Some of the Wall Street/consulting crowd and avid followers of the New York Times will definitely have Notre Dame lower than all of the Ivies, but in the Midwest, the tables would turn quite dramatically, eg, in Chicago, the big four would be Northwestern, Notre Dame, U Chicago, and U of I and followed closely by U Michigan and U Wisconsin. In other parts of the country, Notre Dame more than holds its own against other non-local colleges with great name recognition and a fabulous alumni network with Domers everywhere and in large and supportive numbers.</p>
<p>I seriously doubt that U Michigan or U Wisconsin would follow U of I in prestige even in Chicago. Methinks someone has an agenda.</p>
<p>Hawkette, generally speaking, in Chicago, the big three are Chicago, Michigan and Northwestern in no particular order. Notre Dame, UIUC and Wisconsin are also very highly regarded in Chi-town, but not quite as highly.</p>
<p>Michigan more highly regarded in Chicago than its home state’s own flagship public university? Horrors!</p>
<p>Ann Arbor and Urbana Champaign are both roughly the same distance from Chicago and Michigan has a huge Illinois student contigent.</p>
<p>My cousin went to UIUC, so I’m biased. ;)</p>
<p>I’d say they have same reputation. </p>
<p>I think Michigan is more popular among Chicagoans (sports fans especially) due to Midwest Big 10 football. UIUC is not a powerhouse in this respect.</p>
<p>I won’t disagree UCBChem, Illinois has a huge alum base in Chicago. </p>
<p>But we digress. Back to the OP. Notre Dame’s reputation is very strong.</p>
<p>alex,
We’ll just disagree on the U Illinois-U Michigan prestige issue, but in response to your comment about size and numbers, U Illinois alumni dominate U Michigan alumni in Chicago. The quality may not always be as high, but the sheer numbers strongly favor U of I. It was probably that fact that led me to include U of I in my top 4 above, but I think the clear big three are Northwestern, U Chicago, and Notre Dame (and not necessarily in that order). U Illinois, U Michigan, and U Wisconsin will all have their adherents in Chicagoland as will Wash U, although its numbers are much smaller.</p>
<p>Hawkette, it is ok to disagree. We each have our own point of view on this matter.</p>
<p>but ND is still a step down from ivies in terms of prestige?</p>
<p>Which Ivy League and in what part of the country. In the Midwest, I would say that Notre Dame is more prestigious than half the Ivies. On the East Coast, it is not as prestigious.</p>
<p>In New England, Notre Dame is clearly not perceived as on the same plane as the Ivies or other very elite schools. I’d say it is viewed as somewhere between Georgetown and Boston College.</p>
<p>notre dame will carry you far</p>
<p>Almost 30 years after graduating, most people I meet here in the Northeast are still pretty impressed that I’m a ND grad. Can’t say whether they’d be more impressed if I had gone to an ivy, but there are quite a few Yale and Cornell grads in the local market.</p>
<p>will graduating from ND blow people away in prestige?</p>
<p>No. I think the only “blow-aways” are Harvard, Princeton, Yale, and MIT. Probably Stanford and CalTech on the east, but I like in PA and CalTech and Stanford aren’t “blow-aways.”</p>
<p>Very few schools will “blow people ways”. Harvard obviously does. MIT, Princeton, Stanford and Yale probably do as well. That’s about it though.</p>
<p>Berkeley chemical engineering does blow over most people I’ve met.</p>
<p>It greatly depends on your regional perceptions and your educational experiences. As a Berkeley ChemE, I would not be as impressed with meeting a MIT or Caltech ChemE as others would.</p>