<p>Is there really a rivalry between the two, or is just strictly on an academic basis?</p>
<p>UChicago is not part of the NCAA big ten so there’s no athletic rivalry.
NU is not part of the USNews top ten so there’s no academic rivalry.</p>
<p>Very different institutions.</p>
<p>I think Chicago’s closest academic rival is Columbia. Northwestern isn’t far behind though.</p>
<p>Here’s the thing about NU and Chicago - they have very little in common and have no rivalry at all, except on CC it seems. The schools are very different from each other with different philosophies, kids, etc. They aren’t even all that close to each other! I could be messing up “sides” but I think NU is just outside of the Northside of Chicago and U of Chicago is on the Southside of Chicago. (They even have two different airports to fly into.) I never understood the CC obsession with the comparison of the two schools except that they are both in Illinois.</p>
<p>There may be a bit of an rivalry in the sense that these are the only two elite schools in Chicago and employers often view the students as peers, despite the fact that NU is ranked #12 and Chicago in ranked in the top-10, as tortoise put it in a passive-aggressive way, which in itself shows you that little bit of a rivalry. It often shows up as some kind of superiority complex by a very small minority of UChicago affiliates who probably can’t stand that other people think they are peers. </p>
<p>As amtc puts in, they are very different and half the student body at NU are in the fields that UChicago doesn’t offer (engineering, education, communications, music performance, and journalism).</p>
<p>Lol. Oh, @Sam Lee, name calling? Really? How is it “passive aggressive” to say Northwestern is stronger in athletics and UChicago is stronger in academics? (And to say, as I, in fact, said, that they’re both “very different” institutions?)</p>
<p>And, for heaven’s sake, if you’re going to genuflect before the rankings, and point precisely to Northwestern’s #12 ranking, is it not rather sly of you to blur distinctions by failing to point out that UChicago is not just “ranked in the top 10” but is, in fact, tied with Columbia for #4?</p>
<p>But, whatev…</p>
<p>Lastly, I don’t know where you live, but I am unaware of an employer on either coast that regards, NU and UChicago as “peers.” Not saying one doesn’t exist. Just that I’m unaware of such an employer, an impression reinforced by the kind of recruiting that takes place in Hyde Park these days.</p>
<p>Bottom line: Both play different, and equally valid, roles in our society. Better to compare on the basis of types–Northwestern to Duke or Vanderbilt, UChicago to Columbia or Yale–than locale. Otherwise, it’s apples-to-oranges. The question is, what do you want to eat?</p>
<p>^^I didn’t think of tortoise’s post (specifically the second line) as being passive-aggressive, just silly.
I don’t really think there is a rivalry, except on CC, because the two schools are just so different. (So the third line of his post is correct.) And there’s no athletic rivalry because UofC just isn’t a school that’s all that interested in athletic competition (at least in recent history; i believe it was once part of the Big 10). (So the first line of the post is correct.) It’s a different type of school.
As for the second line of tortoise’s post, I just think that there isn’t really a rivalry because the two schools tend to attract different types of students. I only know one kid from our school district who applied to both. (As it happens, she got rejected ED from NU, and then got into UofC, which she attended.) To say that there’s no rivalry because of a minute difference in the USNWR rankings is, to my way of thinking, just dumb.</p>
<p>My husband went to grad at UChicago and I went to grad school at Northwestern and I can’t think of two more different schools, honestly, though chicago is changing to be a bit less of a bastion of intellectualism and more mainstream these days.</p>
<p>I think the kids on CC sometimes get into the NU vs. UChicago battle, but I’ve noticed it’s more of a Duke thing to run around to any top school and kind of “be better than.” Many NU grads hire UChicago grads and many UChicago grads hire NU grads. So, it’s not one of those stinging out of conference rivalries like UMich vs. ND, or anything.</p>
<p>@WCASParent yes, it was intended to be silly. and, yes, these angels-on-the-head-of-a-pin ranking rivalries are really kinda dumb</p>
<p>Tortoise, I really only see a rivalry between the 2 schools on CC, which is unfortunate. I have found that a few posters in the NU forum have been somewhat closed-minded and fail to accept that NU is not as good as certain schools or that other schools are not equal to NU. I have even opined to certain posters to choose NU over other schools in this forum, but I still get bashed. I have accepted that is the way it is on this forum. In the end, they are both fantastic schools and the only way to really decided is to visit both and decide on the feel. You will get excellent jobs and educations from both schools and I find that you really are splitting hairs with the rankings on the top schools.</p>
<p>tortoise,</p>
<p>You really overestimate how much other people care about UChicago. You shouldn’t expect me to know it’s ranked #4. We don’t remember or know and I hope that doesn’t bother you. </p>
<p>
<a href=“http://www.mckinsey.com/careers/apply/university_recruiting[/url]”>http://www.mckinsey.com/careers/apply/university_recruiting</a></p>
<p>Please note how McKinsey has planned MORE recruiting activities for undergrads on NU campus. Perhaps your impression could change a little. But you can think how UChicago is superior all you want. I hope most UChicago grads don’t have the kind of attitude you have cos it wouldn’t serve them well.</p>
<p>One thing I do remember: it’s not that long ago that uchicago was ranked outside the top-10 (before the massive marketing machine kicked in); does that mean it wasn’t a peer of anyone in the top-10 back then? Way to change the goalpost…</p>
<p>^ @Sam Lee - perfect.</p>
<p>I see the rivalry is heating up again…sigh…</p>
<p>It’s not a rivalry when it’s like 5 kids. That’s just 5 kids having an argument.</p>
<p>In terms of overal academics and prestige, Chicago is a small notch ahead of NU. It’s in the rare in between-land. That is, between HYPSM and schools like Duke, Northwestern and Dartmouth.</p>
<p>In general I really don’t think there is a rivalry between Uchicago or Northwestern. There both such incredibly strong schools that it would be just silly to look down on either of them, even comparatively. They also attract very different types of students and I don’t think there’s that many kids who apply to both NU and Chicago, honestly.</p>