Which ones are the best in:
Engineering
Physics
Computer science
More or less similar in quality in these fields.
According to USNews:
Engineering: Penn = Northwestern (#19)
Physics: Penn (#16) >Northwestern (#26)
CS: Penn (#19 > #34)
Also if you want an idea of how undergrad admits tend to choose between the two:
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UPenn holds the edge here, unless you want industrial engineering, where I believe NU is quite strong.
Re @Penn95 parchment data, I advise against using it - it’s been proven to be questionable in many other threads. Some of the data strongly flies in the face of institutional data, as well. (For instance, according to Parchment, UPenn takes about 28% of cross-admits against Stanford. In a report that Stanford Admissions made to their faculty, however, no non-HYMP school took more than 10% of Stanford cross-admits. Further, in past years, according to Stanford reports, UPenn took no more than 2% of Stanford cross-admits - a far cry from what Parchment reports.)
@Cue7 the difference probably stems from the fact that parchment uses all of its data across time, not just in a specific year and also because it has varying representation across the country. In any case parchment should only be used to get an estimate/idea of what the trend is amongst cross-admits, not a hard number.
With your Stanford example the fact still remains that Stanford wins the vast majority of the cross-admits, which is the reality.
@Penn95 - maybe, but then Parchment doesn’t accurately describe the dominance of certain schools. There’s a big difference between Penn taking 28% of Stanford cross-admits, and 2%. (Also, the Stanford reports presented data over time, and the consistencies there were startling, and much different from what Parchment presents.)
Similarly, with the Northwestern-Penn cross-admit data, I’m just not sure what you could draw from it, because we don’t know what the actual numbers look like. To use Stanford as the example, since we have actual institutional data, they don’t even bother listing competitors outside the top 5 any more, because the actual number of overlap is so small.
This could be the case between NU and UPenn, or it could not - we simply don’t know.
(It’s why I wish other schools readily released cross-admit data the way Stanford does, but they never do. I suspect this is because, outside of the top 5 - the data doesn’t look that great for any college. At best, in the regular decision round, a non-top 5 school has a yield rate of 45-50%, which doesn’t look great. It’s hard to rally around the fact that, say, this year, 49.8% of RD admits chose x school!!)
(An RD yield rate of 49.8% would actually be very good, btw.)
Didn’t someone posted a link showing the people who filled out the Parchment survey had average SAT well below the averages for elite schools? That is, they weren’t actual cross admits?
The overall engineering rank is useless. In departmental rankings, NU has the edge. In undergrad engineering ranking, NU is #13 and Penn is #24.
If our question is about departmental depth or match (engineering is too broad), you should delve into each department’s research and focus. If you are looking for a place where you can receive coordinated dual degrees (VIPER - from arts and sciences and engineering) or under work as a research assistant for a physics professor in CAS and receive an engineering degree, Penn might be a terrific choice.
Consider looking for schools with an engineering physics program - Cornell, Colorado School of Mines.
@capitalrate I think the difference between the two schools quality and rep in general is pretty small (as the rankings suggest). The major differences, I would think, depend on what you are thinking you might want to do on graduation.
If you are thinking of using physics/engineering/CS to get into the Wall Street/Quant world, Penn is a great choice and probably has an incremental edge on NU. If you are thinking of staying in the midwest/Chi area NU obviously has some advantages.
When my kid was researching the two schools’ engineering, they got the sense that NU is reputed to have more industrial/ME/manufacturing and design resources/tradition. Penn has been very aggressive in cog science/CS/AI research fwiw. Penn also has an interesting niche of 3D/Animation CS design (and a specific program for it.)
Both have great rep, some smart profs, some boring profs, similar student body etc. Philly vs. Evanston is also a consideration.
Probably depends on much more detail about your hopes, dreams, desires and finances.
@Cue7 Yes I agree regarding parchment. I think yield rates are some estimates though of how good schools are at keeping their admits, when one compares similar schools.
Regarding the Stanford vs Penn cross admits, i wish we had more recent dat, but yeah I agree it is most probably still in the single digits range. 28% is too much.