<p>Hey,</p>
<p>I am a bit curious about this issue... I wanted to know the opinions of NU students... which colleges do you all consider to be NU's peers (academically, reputation wise etc.) Disregarding rankings and such, what are all fo your opinions? Thanks</p>
<p>I’d say our biggest rivals are the the likes of Duke and Stanford in terms of overall school and then UChicago and WashU in terms of academics.</p>
<p>yeah wash u, duke, cornell, upenn, johns hopkins, emory, vanderbilt, rice, dartmouth, brown, and u of c are all comparable academically. in terms of reputation, it’s probably on the level of cornell, brown, johns hopkins, with u of c, duke, dartmouth, and upenn having very slightly stronger reputations and the other ones having slightly weaker ones.</p>
<p>Dartmouth, WashU, Stanford, Penn, Duke, Vanderbilt, Cornell, and Emory probably have the same feel (and I mean this very generally since they’re obviously in very different locations). As far as having top programs across the board (arts and sciences, law, business, medicine, engineering), I’d say Penn, Duke, Dartmouth, WashU, UChicago and Cornell are peers. Stanford is a cut above all of these, as are Harvard, Yale, and Princeton.</p>
<p>I’d add Notre Dame, too</p>
<p>I was thinking that too but if you look at program rankings, ND is consistently absent from the top. I’m not so sure the feel of the schools are the same either…ND is much less diverse, very religious, and in the middle of nowhere. It also has a hard time reaching beyond its Catholic base.</p>
<p>I’d say NU’s peers in terms of academics and greatest similarities are Penn, Cornell, Duke JHU and Vandy (larger private schools w/ a pre-professional bent and significant grad school presence).</p>
<p>One could add schools like Dartmouth, WUSTL, ND and UChicago to the mix, but they all have significant differences.</p>
<p>Duke, UPenn, Stanford. That’s pretty much the list for big-time academic schools with a strong athletic background (Penn clearly takes its athletics the most seriously of the Ivies) and a more social tilt. It helps that they are all well-rounded schools tucked away in either suburbs (Stanford and NU), small cities (Duke), or quiet neighborhoods of large cities (Penn).</p>
<p>If you are willing to extend you can go anywhere from UChicago/Dartmouth/Hopkins/Cornell to Vandy/UNC/Tulane/UVA depending on whether you are looking purely at academics (Chicago et al) or a good school with a relatively vibrant social life and strong Greek influence (Vandy et al).</p>
<p>The cool thing about NU is that it is sufficiently diverse and successful in so many areas that we can be the “peer” of a ton of schools. I can talk Greek life and athletics with people at state schools, city life with city and near-city schools, and academics or research with any of the “top” schools.</p>
<p>“The cool thing about NU is that it is sufficiently diverse and successful in so many areas that we can be the “peer” of a ton of schools. I can talk Greek life and athletics with people at state schools, city life with city and near-city schools, and academics or research with any of the “top” schools.”</p>
<p>i totally agree…it may also explain why we’re not given as much attention as we deserve sometimes since we aren’t known specially for one particular area, rather we excel in all areas.</p>