<p>I don't want to go to USC but I'm just wondering, which is tougher to get into: USC or Nothwestern?</p>
<p>Northwestern</p>
<p>Northwestern..... </p>
<p>From what I hear, USC isnt shabby at all, alot of my friends had great experiences there</p>
<p>How much harder is it to get into Northwestern?</p>
<p>not that much....but definitely harder...</p>
<p>NU acceptance rate: 30
USC acceptance rate: 50</p>
<p>So, a 20% difference</p>
<p>.... wait Uni. of So. Cal? or Uni. of So. Carolina?</p>
<p>If Uni. of So. Cal, the acceptance rate in '06 was 25%</p>
<p>I was thinking University of Southern California the whole tie so i don't know what mj93 is talking about....</p>
<p>oh, sorry, i looked up the wrong statistic</p>
<p>edit: but NU is harder to get into, nonetheless</p>
<p>does anyone have any good tips about getting into Northwestern??</p>
<p>If you define "harder to get into" by acceptance rate, then USC is harder (25% acceptance rate vs 30% at Northwestern).</p>
<p>If you define it by student body quality and thus the selectivity, then
25/75 SAT range at USC: 1280-1460
25/75 SAT range at Northwestern: 1320-1500</p>
<p>Top 10% students at USC: 86%
Top 10% students at Northwestern: 83%</p>
<p>High School GPA greater than 3.75 at USC: 90%
High School GPA greater than 3.75 at Northwestern: not disclosed</p>
<p>USC is, statistically speaking, probably the single most improved institution among the USNWR Top 50 over the past decade. Northwestern has the stronger academic rep among academics, but USC has narrowed or eliminated any consequential measurement of student quality and difficulty of acceptance.</p>
<p>I would argue that the discrepancy in SAT ranges is a consequential measurement of student quality, Hawkette.</p>
<p>arbiter213,
I would agree that the SAT difference is consequential. I also believe that it has narrowed quite substantially over the last decade as the student profile at USC has improved. Frankly, given the historic reputations of the two schools, I would have expected greater differences in the SATs, especially when you consider the fact that USC is twice the size of Northwestern and 56% of its students hail from California. </p>
<p>I am a big fan of Northwestern and I am also increasingly coming to appreciate the growing student quality at USC. These two schools offer great packages of excellent academics with very highly qualified student bodies and great social life and great athletic life and scene. Measured on these parameters which I believe define the complete undergraduate experiences, these schools would likely each be among the Top 10 in the country.</p>
<p>I'll definitely give you that its the most improved, but they're really not at the same level as of yet. Not that this proves anything at all, but it'll illustrate what you're saying:</p>
<p>It varies.... I'm sure it would depend on the applicant and the program. I don't know that there is any one answer as to which is more 'selective'. Acceptance rates are among the LAST pieces of data people should use for judging how difficult it is to get into a school; the rates tell little, if anything about how much of a challenge it would be for an individual to enter a school. </p>
<p>Further, I think in the future people asking these questions should define what they believe 'harder to get into' means; otherwise, depending on what factors one uses, it is very easy to yield different answers.</p>
<p>Arbiter, that's really interesting. Look how far U of IL--Urbaine Champagna and Berkeley have fallen.</p>
<p>Despite its drastic improvement in the past decade, USC is not perceived as a school on par with Northwestern quite yet.</p>
<p>USC is generally associated with schools like UCLA, CMU, and NYU (I usually hear the two together; both seem to be schools that are "in" with the teens today).</p>
<p>Northwestern, on the other hand, is frequently associated with the likes of Penn, Duke, Cornell, Chicago (as its rival) and Stanford ("of the Midwest" is what I hear quite often).</p>
<p>According to USC's admission profile at <a href="http://www.usc.edu/admission/undergraduate/private/docs/admission/Freshman_Profile_2006.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://www.usc.edu/admission/undergraduate/private/docs/admission/Freshman_Profile_2006.pdf</a>, the middle-50% SAT range of enrolled students was 1270-1440. For Northwestern, it was 1320-1500. The caliber of applicants and matriculated students are a bit higher at NU.</p>
<p>
[quote]
If you define "harder to get into" by acceptance rate, then USC is harder (25% acceptance rate vs 30% at Northwestern).</p>
<p>If you define it by student body quality and thus the selectivity, then
25/75 SAT range at USC: 1280-1460
25/75 SAT range at Northwestern: 1320-1500</p>
<p>USC is, statistically speaking, probably the single most improved institution among the USNWR Top 50 over the past decade. Northwestern has the stronger academic rep among academics, but USC has narrowed or eliminated any consequential measurement of student quality and difficulty of acceptance.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>By looking at the 50% middling range of SAT scores one can say USC has narrowed or eliminated any consequential measurement of student quality with Duke, Penn, etc. as well.</p>
<p>However, acceptance rates depend on many things size of school, whether a school uses the common app, how much of a chance an applicant thinks he/she will get into a school, etc. and in particular, looking at the SAT scores within this metric isnt necessarily the best method of analyzing the strength of a student body and how difficult it is with regard to admissions.</p>
<p>For instance, Northwestern, Stanford and USC all have roughly a similar % of students who scored over 600 in verbal and math on the SATs or over 24 on the ACT.</p>
<p>Otoh, the % of students scoring over 700 in verbal and math on the SATs or over 30 on the ACT is quite different for USC, in comparison with NU and Stanford.</p>
<p>NU -<br>
SAT verbal scores over 700 53%, SAT math scores over 700 63%, ACT scores over 30 69% </p>
<p>Stanford -
SAT verbal scores over 700 59%, SAT math scores over 700 67%, ACT scores over 30 66%</p>
<p>USC -
SAT verbal scores over 700 36%, SAT math scores over 700 50%, ACT scores over 30 54% </p>
<p>As one can see, there is quite a significant difference in the %s, and based upon these %s, it is very likely that Stanford and NU reject a significantly higher % of over 700/30 scorers than does USC.</p>
<p>And btw (for what its worth), since NU started accepting the common app both schools now have an acceptance rate of around 25%.</p>