Rival Schools (in terms of Academics, NOT Sport)

College Search & Selection
1

<p>I'm not even sure if there is such thing as "Academic Rival", but I could only list 5 rivalries that people in general would mostly agree to:</p>

<p>Harvard/Princeton
MIT/Caltech
UCLA/USC
Columbia/Cornell
University of Chicago/Northwestern University</p>

2

<p>Actually, Columbia's academic rival would be Brown. The two have extremely divergent approaches; one embraces a large, set core curriculum, the other allows students to pretty much follow whatever academic path they so choose. There are frequent jabs in this regard between students and alumni of each directed toward the other. </p>

<p>Columbia could also be said to "rival" Chicago for the opposite reason; their approaches are quite similar.</p>

<p>Columbia has little to no rivalry with Cornell in any sense.</p>

3

<p>Michigan/Northwestern
BU/BC
OSU/Miami</p>

4

<p>UC Berkeley/ Stanford</p>

<p>Duke/ UNC-CH</p>

<p>College of the Canyons/ Santa Monica College</p>

5

<p>"College of the Canyons/ Santa Monica College"</p>

<p>LMAO!!!</p>

6

<p>UCLA/USC is a sport rival. I'm not sure if Chicago and Northwestern have a sports rivalry but it's mostly because they're close to each other. I don't think there's any rivalry between Harvard/Princeton and Columbia/Cornell. Most (if not all) rivalries revolves around sport, so I agree with your sentiment that there might not be such a thing as "academic rivals."</p>

7

<p>Harvard/Yale is greater than Harvard/Princeton.</p>

<p>Harvard/MIT is seen as a somewhat one-sided rivalry (not in my opinion, but by other people). As is MIT/caltech (again, not in my opinion, but by other people).</p>

8

<p>But if we were to just list college rivalries like people in here are doing...</p>

<p>Harvard/Yale
Berkeley/Stanford
UCLA/USC
Chicago/Northwestern
Duke/UNC-CH
MIT/CalTech
U Penn/Princeton
Cornell/Brown</p>

<p>These are all the ones of which I have heard.</p>

9

<p>There is no Harvard/MIT rivalry. They are close to each other and you can take classes at both schools should you want to cross-register (a painstaking process, so I hear).</p>

<p>MIT/CalTech is definitely not a one-sided rivalry. There have been many pranks pulled back and forth between the colleges. Just do a search online.</p>

10

<p>There is a Harvard/MIT rivalry. And I have heard all the prank stories already.</p>

<p>By one sided, I mean that it's thought that Harvard students don't consider it a rivalry, while MIT students do (even though IMO it is equal). Same thing with MIT/caltech.</p>

11

<p>Just to clear things up, there is no such thing as a Chicago/Northwestern rivalry. They are polar opposites when you think about it: Chicago is the anti-Northwestern and Northwestern the anti-Chicago. They generally don't even acknowledge the other's existence.</p>

12

<p>"Just to clear things up, there is no such thing as a Chicago/Northwestern rivalry. They are polar opposites when you think about it: Chicago is the anti-Northwestern and Northwestern the anti-Chicago. They generally don't even acknowledge the other's existence."</p>

<p>-Nail on the head.... But I don't know that Northwestern has any kind of academic rivalry with anyone…. Maybe Penn, Michigan or WashU, but I don’t think so.</p>

13

<p>Well from what I've heard the Stanford/Cal is pretty much one sided except for sports. Most Stanford students don't really consider it a rivalry.
There's a thread discussing it:<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=224513%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=224513&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

14

<p>Berkeley/Stanford
UCLA/USC</p>

<p>Both of these are sports rivalry.</p>

<p>I think there is an academic rivalry between Harvard, Yale, Princeton?</p>

15

<p>The biggest academic rivalry is Stanford-UCB, since both have strong PhD programs across the board.</p>

16

<p>I thought this is about undergradute?</p>

17

<p>Among LACs:
Amherst/Williams
Smith/Wellesley
Carleton/Macalaster
Kenyon/Denison
Colgate/Hamilton
Swarthmore/Haverford
Bowdoin/Bates/Colby</p>

18

<p>Harvard/Yale
Princeton/Penn</p>

19

<p>I think the Penn/Princeton rivalry is pretty one sided....</p>

20

<p>yeah there is no rivalry b/w Northwestern and Chicago...in fact, they were supposed to be combined into the ultimate university (that would probably kick Harvard's ass) but Northwestern bailed out.</p>