<p>The university of chicago I don’t believe competes in any B1G sports though and in fact dropped out of the conference over 50 years ago even if they are still in the CIC they aren’t a real member</p>
<p>^^ QUOTE:</p>
<p>“The Committee on Institutional Cooperation was established by the presidents of the Big Ten members in 1958 as the conference’s academic counterpart. An invitation extended to the University of Chicago, one of the founding members of the Big Ten who withdrew from the conference in 1946, was accepted.”</p>
<p>Source: [History</a> of CIC](<a href=“http://www.cic.net/home/aboutcic/CicHistory.aspx]History”>http://www.cic.net/home/aboutcic/CicHistory.aspx)</p>
<p>I thought we are trying to determine the “academic” aspect of B1G conference!?</p>
<p>The truth of the matter is that amongst the die-hard B1G sports fans, CIC / Maroons banner still hangs on top of some authoritative football forums if not in their hearts. It is no secret to anyone that CIC is Academic B1G. :)</p>
<p><a href=“http://mbd.scout.com/mb.aspx?s=451&f=2364[/url]”>http://mbd.scout.com/mb.aspx?s=451&f=2364</a></p>
<p>It isn’t in the B1G it’s in the CIC</p>
<p>The B1G is an Athletic Conference the CIC isn’t</p>
<p>Well, you don’t have to play football or any sport for that matter to be included in the academic membership of B1G conference, which is CIC. In fact, SEC just copied us a few years back. No one will tell you that “Southeastern Conference Academic Consortium” (SECAC) is not the academic membership of SEC.</p>
<p>Averages?! Haha! I shouldn’t have posted totals because you can only choose 1 school to attend.</p>
<p>The top 2 Pac-12 schools have more NAE members than the B1G:</p>
<p>Stanford: 89
Berkeley: 73</p>
<p>Yes they are apart of the CIC not B1G just like Puerto Rico is a territory not a state</p>
<p>UCBChemEGrad, just because a school doesn’t have a lot of NAE members, that doesn’t mean it has a weak engineering program. It could have a lot of professors that are excellent but not “superstars”.</p>
<p>At any rate, respected engineering deans rate Duke to be a top 20 undergraduate program so I would take their word over yours.;)</p>
<p>B1G (CIC)</p>
<p>Chicago 4.6
Northwestern 4.6
Michigan 4.4
Wisconsin 4.2
Penn State 4.1
Illinois 4.1
Ohio State 4.1
Purdue 4.1
Minnesota 3.9
Michigan State 3.9
Iowa 4.0
Indiana 3.9
Nebraska 3.6</p>
<p>B1G Average 4.1</p>
<p>ACC</p>
<p>Duke 4.7
Notre Dame 4.7
Virginia 4.5
Wake Forest 4.3
North Carolina 4.4
Boston College 4.5
Georgia Tech 4.2
Miami 3.9
Syracuse 4.0
Maryland 4.0
Pitt 3.9
Clemson 3.9
Virginia Tech 3.9
Florida St 3.6
North Carolina State 3.7</p>
<p>ACC Average 4.1</p>
<p>[High</a> School Counselor Rankings | Rankings | Top National Universities | US News](<a href=“http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-universities/high-school-counselor]High”>http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-universities/high-school-counselor)</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Indeed, they are!! :)</p>
<p>P.S. I left ND (partial member) for ACC even though it remains independent for its football program. Also, w/o Chicago, B1G’s Average would still be 4.1 after rounding. You guys are welcome to do another average comparison based either solely on the PA or Undergrad Academic Reputation Index scores as I do not have access.</p>
<p>As a future partial athletic member of ACC, geographically speaking, ND is isolated, far away from all the ACC conference members, and since unlike B1G and SEC, there is no ACC Academic Consortium, I therefore strongly doubt that any academic impact or cooperation ND will have to ACC conference or Vice versa. Currently, there has been no academic interaction of ND in the Big East anyhow.</p>
<p>On the other hand,</p>
<p>The CIC’s collaborative efforts span the academic enterprise of its members, including (but not limited to):</p>
<pre><code>cooperative purchasing
course sharing
professional development programs
library resources
information technology
study abroad
diversity initiatives for students and faculty
faculty and staff networking
</code></pre>
<p>Recent Initiatives</p>
<p>On June 6, 2007, the CIC announced a new partnership with Google. An explicit goal of the project is that of offering a public, shared digital repository of all the open access content. The University of Michigan, which has developed its MBooks platform for its own digitized books, will serve as the central repository for the CIC project.</p>
<p>[Committee</a> on Institutional Cooperation (CIC)](<a href=“http://www.cic.net/Home.aspx]Committee”>http://www.cic.net/Home.aspx)</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Not a good analogy imho, since currently, Puerto Rican do not have voting rights in the Presidential Election; whereas B1G governance (conference expansion for instance) is determined by Big Ten Council of Presidents which includes Chicago. In fact, Chicago nearly merge itself with Northwestern in the 30s with Hyde Park Campus proposed for their Graduate Division and Evanston Campus for all Undergraduates as I recall.</p>
<p>The University of Chicago Proposal</p>
<p>Source: <a href=“http://www.northwestern.edu/about/historic-moments/academics/the-universities-of-chicago.html[/url]”>http://www.northwestern.edu/about/historic-moments/academics/the-universities-of-chicago.html</a></p>
<p>^^^ </p>
<p>To be more exact, the averages are:</p>
<p>4.115 - B1G</p>
<p>4.146 - ACC</p>
<p>Marginally better for the ACC…</p>
<p>^^ A bit of Nitpicking there, but I will give you that… :p</p>
<p>Without the newly minted Neb in the fold, B1G average would be 4.158 to be exact. Oh well…</p>
<p>UChicago is a member of the UAA, not the B1G. No biggie, just facts.</p>
<p>ACC and B1G are both good academic conferences, just very different types of schools. Again, the B1G are big state schools in middle America while the ACC are largely smaller private academic schools along the east coast, with a few state schools sprinkled in.</p>
<p>Very different types of schools. Using the US News rankings, yes, the ACC is better than the B1G academically, but the marginal difference, as pointed out in this thread, is not that large.</p>
<p>
Duke (Private)
Notre Dame (Private)
Virginia (Public)
Wake Forest (Private)
North Carolina (Public)
Boston College (Private)
Georgia Tech (Public)
Miami (Private)
Syracuse (Private)
Maryland (Public)
Pitt (Public)
Clemson (Public)
Virginia Tech (Public)
Florida St (Public)
North Carolina State (Public)</p>
<p>By my count the ACC 60% Public (9/15). It IS true the B1G is generally in middle america.</p>
<p>^Not a surprise since ACC lacks character. I probably would got that mixed up too. ;)</p>
<p>^^I agree that the BIG fans shouldn’t insert UChicago when it comes to ACC vs BIG as athletic conferences. It’s all just for bragging rights and honestly, at the end of the day, there’s no substance.</p>
<p>That said, there’s academic collaboration among the BIG members through CIC, as Sparkeye7 pointed out. There’s no such set up for ACC. Students and faculty can get something other than just football and sports out of the BIG.</p>
<p>I don’t know what sort of arrangement does Chicago have with UAA in terms of academic enhancement besides playing together since its members are all over the map, with conference HQ located in New York. On the other hand, the fact that Chicago chooses to retain its membership for half a century with CIC (with its HQ located on the campus of UIUC in Illinois) speak volumes imho. Also, last I checked, most B1G members are designated as Public Ivies and/or AAU members.</p>
<p>*I am in a hurry to go out now! Sorry for using wikipedia as sources!! >.<"</p>
<p>Public Ivy</p>
<p><a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Ivy[/url]”>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Ivy</a></p>
<p>AAU</p>
<p><a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Association_of_American_Universities[/url]”>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Association_of_American_Universities</a></p>
<p>Hope you all enjoy the weekend!! 
</p>
<p>P.S. Can’t wait until the kick-off against Cal tomorrow!! lol</p>
<p>Darn, Notre Dame has to go and join the ACC and completely ruin this Big 10 (with count’em, 12 schools) chest thumping exercise.</p>
<p>Yeah, tOSsUp playing a non-MAC/C-USA cream puff is a rarity. Playing them outside of Columbus is like Haley’s Comet…The dear Catholic sisters will still be waiting at the Pearly Gates for E.G.G., though.</p>
<p>Again the CIC =/= B1G ATHLETIC conference</p>
<p>^Okay, CIC =/= BIG. But CIC = BIG + UChicago. The BIG enjoy academic collaboration among the members through CIC.</p>
<p>Now that we all agree</p>