<p>I was accepted at the U of C last December and recently got a likely letter from Rice. I've already visited U of Chicago, Northwestern, Wash U and Tufts and plan to visit GT, Penn, and JHU if I'm accepted and Rice. I don't know what I want to major in, but the quality of the student body and professors is an important factor for me. I'm not planning on making my decision purely on prestige/reputation, but rather that in combination with how I feel at each school based on the visits. Nonetheless, though it may be a bit early to be doing this, I would appreciate if people would rank these schools--U Chicago, WUSTL, NU, UPenn, Tufts, GT, and Rice--based on a combination of student body, prestige, and how good an education you think I would get there regardless of major, as I'm expecting to be accepted at some mixture of these schools. I hope this request isn't too vague to give a good answer, but I just don't want to reveal how I'm feeling about each of these schools because I'd like to get a relatively unbiased view and use that in tandem with my own feelings/biases. Thanks!</p>
<p>Your question is hard to answer. I assume GT is Georgetown and not Georgia Tech???
Without a tentative major (i.e. I would put Tufts a little higher if we were talking about international relations…), it’s hard to say. I am very familiar with Rice, Chicago and Penn. They are quite different. I believe Rice offers an outstanding college experience, with a lot of individual attention, a residential college system and great professors. Penn is an Ivy League school with plenty of prestige, excellent faculty and facilities. The quality of life, in my opinion, is not as good as at Rice. Chicago is a totally different atmosphere from either of those two, but with intense academics and a dedicated student body. Northwestern is an excellent school with more fun athletics than the other schools on your list. WashU is similar to Rice but with colder weather and more grad (law and med) students around. Tufts and Georgetown would probably be considered less prestigious than the others, but are excellent and if you feel either is the right fit for you, I would not hesitate based on some ranking system!</p>
<p>Thanks very much for the information. With my undecided major, all I can say is that I have applied to the college of Arts & Sciences where applicable, so the strength of pre-med and med programs at JHU and WUSTL and journalism at NU don’t much matter to me, although it is a plus for me that I’ve heard it’s easy to transfer between colleges at Tufts and WUSTL and a minus that it’s difficult at NU and Penn, though I don’t imagine I would want to go to Wharton. I did indeed mean Georgetown by GT, apologies for the ambiguity. Thanks for the advice.</p>
<p>
Yes, it is too early to be doing this. You may get rejected at some (or even most) of them, and you can’t compare financial aid offers yet. I would at least wait until visiting all of them to start ranking. </p>
<p>Do yourself a favor. Get off CC and turn your mind elsewhere until later this month! :)</p>
<p>Mom of Wild Child - I definitely wouldn’t place Georgetown below the others in terms of prestige. Maybe you live in an area where this is different, but in New England, Georgetown would probably be 2nd in the prestige area, with UPenn being 1st. It is definitely on par with UChicago and Rice on prestige and probably ahead of WUSTL and NU.</p>
<p>It’s very easy to transfer among colleges at NU. Theater major, journalism and music schools are exceptions. I don’t believe you can transfer to, say, architecture or fine arts easily at WashU. And Tufts only got schools of arts sci and engineering anyway. So as far as flexibility goes, they are about equal. The quarter system at NU offers greater flexibility for more ambitious curriculum like double or even triple major.</p>
<p>As long as you didn’t want to transfer to Wharton, then you would find pretty much everything you want in Penn’s College of Arts & Sciences.</p>
<p>It still leaves open the possibility of enrolling in classes in any of Penn’s undergraduate schools and many of their grad schools as well.</p>
<p>Anyway from my own northeastern perspective, it would be: (I assume you can figure out what I mean with vertical and horizontal positioning)</p>
<p>Penn
Chicago, JHU
Northwestern
Georgetown, WUSTL
Tufts, Rice</p>
<p>As an anecdotal note, both UChicago and JHU alumni are eligible to join the Penn Club of NYC as associate members.</p>
<p>Thanks for the info about transferring at NU Sam and thanks ilovebagels for the info on Penn. This may be too presumptive after all, but I do think I will probably get into a number of these schools, so I don’t want to put my decision-making off for too long, but I’m sure the admissions committees will make some of these decisions for me, which will make it easier in the end. ;D</p>
<p>If you go to Penn, you’ll spend the rest of your life trying to convince people you didn’t go to PENN STATE. If you go to WUSTL, you’ll spend all your time explaining to people you didn’t go to University of Washington, Washington and Lee, George Washington, etc. If you go to Rice, you won’t have to worry about any confusion. Practically no one outside of Texas has ever heard of the place.</p>
<p>^Amen Nyccard. You have basically summed up my life for the past 3 months. </p>
<p>I’m biased because I am a future WashU student but I’ll give my input on the schools I have visited. </p>
<p>NU: Ok campus, but right on the lake. A pretty far El ride to downtown Chicago but there is stuff to do in Evanston. Its held in very high regard at least where I’m from (Midwest)</p>
<p>UPenn: It’s a great school and you can’t go wrong there. Great prestige, etc. It just seemed a bit impersonal to me. West Philly isn’t exactly ideal either.</p>
<p>Georgetown: A politics mecca in a GREAT location. I personally think its an underrated school because of its status as a Jesuit school. </p>
<p>JHU: Great school with a beautiful campus. Baltimore is a hidden gem and the area around JHU is a great neighborhood–despite its bad rap. JHU hauls in millions upon millions of grant money each year so they have great resources and research opportunities if thats your thing. </p>
<p>WashU: The best dorms I have ever seen. The quality of life at WashU is amazing. There are great academic opportunities here as well. It has great academic flexibility (an ArtSci person can take classes in the B-school, etc.) which is great for an undecided major. If you’re visiting, check out the new Danforth University Center, their food is to die for. They even have a sushi bar!</p>
<p>
</p>
<ol>
<li>U Chicago</li>
<li>UPenn</li>
<li>Rice</li>
<li>NU</li>
<li>JHU</li>
<li>Georgetown</li>
<li>WUSTL</li>
<li>Tufts</li>
</ol>
<p>They are all excellent schools, and ranking them without considering particular departments is a fruitless exercise. My recommendation is to visit the one’s you are admitted to—and select the school which feels right for YOU. Each of the schools has their own unique culture–not necessarily better or worse, just different from each other. You can safely disregard what others think, because you truly can’t go wrong with any place on that list, and only you will know which one feels right.</p>
<p>In terms of what you are looking for: student body and professors
UPenn, Uchicago, JHU, NU
WUSTL, Rice, GT
Tufts</p>
<p>The differences are really too small to nitpick into specific sections and each of these schools are very similar in terms of caliber of professors, etc. However, the main differences are in their specialties, their reputations/prestige, and their settings.</p>
<p>UPenn is located in Philly, which is a nice city, but UPenn is in a not so nice location, West Philly. The campus and building are beautiful and very cultured, but it is indeed dangerous in Philly, which is something to keep in mind. The students here are basically separated into two groups: the Wharton kids and the non-Wharton kids with a fair amount of elitism from the Wharton side, but its all relative and not inclusive of EVERY kid from Wharton or so.</p>
<p>UChicago is indeed in Chicago…though the campus is not exactly a quick walk to downtown (it actually takes around a good 15-20 min of public transportation…). It is located in Hyde Park…but walk a few blocks the wrong way, and you’ll be in an area where, even in broad daylight, it looks dangerous and shady. The school campus is gothic with many gargoyles and whatnot, and its students are known to be quirky and unique, for good or for bad. The school has tough academics and will make you work hard, but it has a good reputation.</p>
<p>JHU is located in Baltimore, not exactly the best city in the World. However, JHU’s location, in terms of setting, is better than that of UPenn and UChicago in that JHU is enclosed by Charles Village, Hampden, Tuscany-Canterbury, etc. which are all some of the nicest neighborhoods in Baltimore, and Charles Village has actually become much more of a college town with JHU’s expansions. That being said, students still would do best to use common sense…as wandering too far off campus could lead to shady neighborhoods as well. The student body is said to be competitive, but that is mostly old rumors. Students tend to be very interested in the sciences, like Medical, etc, but JHU also has many International Relations students, Writing Seminars students, economics, etc, who learn from some of the best professors in the country. The campus is beautiful red brick and marble georgian and not too big or too small, with the best campus security in the country. It really doesn’t feel like you’re in the city at all while on campus.</p>
<p>Northwestern, has a beautiful campus in and of itself right along the beautiful lake. Students are 30 minutes from downtown Chicago with a nice little place in Evanston which has some nice restaurants, bars, shopping, etc. Students here tend to be more professionally oriented than their UChicago peers, and the environment is more competitive and hard working than what most have come to believe. Sports and greek life is big here.</p>
<p>WUSTL is located in a suburban-ish part of St. Louis, so it’s definitely not too bad in terms of safety, though, again, common sense is needed. The campus is very pretty and students have a great variety of life there. However, St. Louis is not exactly a large city and access to the closest big city, Chicago, is limited and long-distance. The students here are also often science oriented, though WUSTL has students of many types and majors. Prestige-wise, it is much more well known in the midwest than anywhere else, which is not necessarily true of JHU, Uchicago, NU, UPenn, or GTown.</p>
<p>Rice: the campus is beautiful and very inviting and large, especially for being located in a large city like Houston. The weather is often muggy and hot. STudents, however, are overall known to be more cooperative thanks in large part to the residential college system. Professors are good too, but Rice tends to be more science oriented.</p>
<p>Georgetown: Great School in a great part of DC. STudents have a reputation for being somewhat elitist/snobby, though I guess this cannot just be a blanket statement. The professors are often politicans/heads of state, which is pretty cool. The campus is nice, small and compact, within a generally safe area of DC, though crime is not unheard of.</p>
<p>Tufts: Nice school, but definitely the third and/or fourth wheel in the immediate Boston area. Located BY but not IN Boston. It is actually in the small town of Medford, MA. The campus is hilly with a mixture of gothic buildings and more modern adaptations. The students here are said to be laid-back, but they are all very intellectual as well. Great for international relations, dentistry, etc.</p>
<p>hope that helps!</p>
<p>That is immensely helpful, Hope2getrice. Thank you very much. These forums are a great resource.</p>
<p>Before I get away from these forums and try to put my mind off college, does anyone else have anything to say about these schools?</p>
<p>
From someone also in the North East, I can tell you that that is not true. Georgetown may be a very popular destination for students, but in terms of prestige and the quality of students who matriculate there it, is below that of WUSTL and NU and most of the others mentioned. In the NE, more people probably know Georgetown than Wash U, but those informed “high achieving” individuals who know Wash U, consider it superior. </p>
<p>All of these schools are great, but from my experience this is rankings based on prestige/quality of students. I think it has to be done in tiers, since many are close</p>
<ol>
<li>Penn</li>
</ol>
<p>2/3/4/5 Chicago, Wash U, Hopkins, Northwestern</p>
<p>6/7 Rice, Georgetown</p>
<ol>
<li>Tufts</li>
</ol>
<p>They all have different attracts and personalities, which obviously need to be taken into consideration. Wash U, Penn, Georgetown and Tufts have a particularly good reputation for being social, fun and having a good quality of life (maybe Rice as well, I am less sure of that)</p>
<p>^^ I would switch Rice with Northwestern, or at least put it up on your second line. I might move Chicago up with Penn.</p>
<p>All great schools–every one of them. You can go with your gut when you visit and feel happy about it.</p>
<p>Chicago students are very different from Penn students (at least in the stereotype-fueled world of CC forums!) ;)</p>
<p>Despite admitting only students with “demonstrated interest” and manipulating enrollment via early decision and the waitlist, WUSTL can only generate a yield of approximately 30%. How is it possible that some people here regard it as highly as schools like U Chicago or Johns Hopkins? Until WUSTL decides to make its admissions data fully transparent, why should any student or educator take it seriously?</p>