<p>My town's most successful "business" is education, so everyone here knows that Northwestern is a great school. I would venture to say that most would rank Northwestern above WashU and Georgetown. Of course, in some areas, people will know nothing about Northwestern. But personally, I would rank it close to Cornell. I would be thrilled if I got into Northwestern, even if all the Ivies I applied to rejected me. As I think more about it, I get kind of frustrated by the focus on Ivy League colleges because there are other schools that are Ivy-caliber (though I have to admit that I do get sucked into the emphasis on "prestige.") But whatever. College is what it is...</p>
<p>Id probably agree that Northwestern is above Georgetown and Washu too..</p>
<p>Also, the reliability of US news rankings is pretty doubtful.. for example, Duke is ranked above Stanford, MIT and Caltech... highly doubtful..</p>
<p>Also, washu at 11 above Brown, Northwestern and Cornell doesnt sound right.. You have to keep in mind that some of the criterion that factor into these rankings make absolutely no difference to the students, the faculty, or the prestige of the school overall (eg. size of endowment, alumni donation amounts, etc).</p>
<p>i have a feeling were all splitting hairs here. a little birdy tells me that a 3.7 from harvard, a 3.7 from stanford, a 3.7 from duke and a 3.7 from northwestern, will look pretty much the same.</p>
<p>hmm..i don't know about that, admitmetokollege. an ivy's an ivy. between the latter three you mentioned, that may be true, but Harvard is well...Harvard's that one school that is just...up there on everybody's list. i don't really know how to explain it, but say "Harvard" and EVERYONE seems to react the same way.</p>
<p>but as a little sidebit of info, some students at NU take organic chemistry at Harvard because it is so insanely difficult here. which is definately saying something.</p>
<p>harvard's 3.7 will not look as good as 3.7s in other places, especially like, swarthmore.</p>
<p>remember. RAMPANT grade inflation..</p>
<p>Well, a thread titled "prestige" was doomed to become a venue for Stanford vs Random Ivies arguments. Go discuss this on your own schools' forums please :).</p>
<p>Now, prestige is such an abstract term that if you are wondering whether to go to any of HYPSM or Northwestern as an undergrad, the areas in which our shcool is equally as good or better are journalism, theater, economics. Sorry to either side eager to dispute this fact, but these are on the list for sure. Some others might be, but this is beyond what I know.</p>
<p>Second, this is the undergraduate level. For any other major/area, Northwestern against any other school is EXCELLENT. Or at least chances are it is. If you are choosing between Northwestern and other Ivies, only financial aid and personal preference should matter. Really.</p>
<p>I'm in the McCormick Engineering School and I've been to presentations of Intel, Google, and Boeing. What does this have to do with Chicago or Illinois? Not much. I'm listing only these three cause I saw only them. Outside engineering, I think it's enough to mention UBS and Goldman-Sachs (sorry for spelling mistakes). All these companies recruit many NU students for internships and full-time positions when they're done with school.</p>
<p>NU has several programs you won't find elsewhere. HPME is how you graduate from NU in 3 years and are automatically admitted to NU's med school. Sweet, isn't it? MMSS stands for Math Methods in the Social Sciences and is highly competitive. Most students who do MMSS get sweet job offers. HPEM (not to be confused with HPME) allows several students each year to go on directly to Kellogg (the No.1 MBA school in the world) after earning an engineering degree in McCormick. Enough of that.</p>
<p>Why don't you ask about prestige all the HYPSM alumni who go to grad school at NU's schools of Law, Management, Medicine, or Engineering? They are surely people who wouldn't care that much about prestige when they know it's NU.</p>
<p>If what you call prestige is key, just get the US News list. It's biased, it has dumb criteria, but use it as a general guide if you have no idea of what you'll be doing in college. NU is currently 12th in the National Universities rankings; that's behind WashU, but before Brown, Cornell, all the UCs, and some more.</p>
<p>But it's better to focus on specific programs or majors. "Prestige" encompasses too many things to be of much practical value.</p>