<p>Three other private midwestern research universities could be considered Northwestern’s “peers”: the University of Chicago, WUSTL, and Notre Dame. However, like Northwestern, these are also very selective.</p>
<p>If you want similar characteristics (especially with respect to academic quality), consider an honors college at another Big Ten university (Michigan, Wisconsin, UI, Minnesota, Ohio State, etc.) Overall admit rates at these public schools would be over 30% (~40% at Michigan for example). I don’t know if their honors college and OOS admit rates would still be higher than 30%, but I’d be surprised if most of them were as low as Northwestern’s ~20%. </p>
<p>Many good LACs (in the US News top 25-50 or so) have admit rates over 30%. These schools are much smaller than NU and lack NU’s preprofessional programs (in journalism, engineering, etc). Still, for small class sizes and other aspects of academic quality, they might be worth considering.</p>
<p>JamieBrown/onecircuit/JohnAdams/etc is a Princeton chem-e person who is puffed up over Princeton and doesn’t have enough experience with Northwestern to be a fair judge of schools that are like it. So his bolded list is really a very poor list. He bolded many fine schools, but they don’t “resemble” Northwestern in any way, shape or form. Pepperdine? Ha, not in the least. GWU? Entirely too pre-professional / urban to be similar to Northwestern. Carleton, Oberlin and Bates are great LAC’s - but they don’t resemble a research university. </p>
<p>FWIW, my son who is a freshman at NU: His other favorite schools were (in no particular order, just as they occur to me) Tufts, Georgetown, Brandeis, Macalester, Kenyon. Tufts and Gtown would resemble NU the most; the other 3, less so, but with equally earnest student bodies. I think when you talk about “being like” NU, you need to articulate what is the component of “like” you care most about – physical campus setting, look and feel? Breadth of offerings? (which will exclude most LAC’s) “Feel” of the student body? Campus lifestyle (sports, Greek life, etc.)?</p>
<p>You know, UCBChemEGrad, the original poster had a legitimate question and it’s not nice of either you or JamieBrown to goof off. If you can’t help him or her with useful information, what’s the point of being a jerk?</p>
<p>Who says I’m not supplying useful information? Criteria was similar to Northwestern and higher acceptance rate. All the schools I mentioned are the Wildcats and perennial conference doormats…a la NU.</p>
<p>Whatever. Is it a chem-e thing between you and JamieBrown that you have to hop on a question about school that you know nothing about to provide snarky answers to a student with legitimate questions? Stay classy and all.</p>
<p>tk, this year, Michigan’s admit rate should drop to ~30%, probably slightly lower for OOS students. It will still not be as selective as NU though. Either way, Michigan and NU do have a lot in common. Cornell, Duke, Stanford and Vanderbilt also come to mind.</p>
<p>Look, UCB, posting University of Arizona, Kansas State and University of Kentucky as schools that are “like” Northwestern was obnoxious. And it was deliberately meant to be obnoxious. You know it and I know it. I don’t care if you like Northwestern or hate it, but there was no purpose other than being not-nice to a high school student asking a legitimate question. Note how Alexandre was able to take a high road and post useful information to the student.</p>
<p>^ Oh please. The only reason you had problems with mine and JamieBrown’s posts are that we mentioned colleges that you scoff at. I think it’s likely the OP knows Cornell, Duke, Stanford and Vandy…but none of those are above 30% acceptance rates. So, Alex wasn’t being helpful and the only reason he likely responded is to “correct” tk’s info on Michigan.</p>
<p>The original poster is a “filmophile”. No better place than USC for film and it’s got some commonalities with Northwestern. Happy now, pizzagirl?</p>
<p>No, not because they are colleges I “scoff at” - but because they were colleges that were nothing like Northwestern! JamieBrown is seriously citing Pepperdine and Cal Poly/San Luis Obispo?? How are they possibiy like Northwestern in any way, shape or form?</p>
<p>^ Awesome, yes. But unique? Not sure about that. NU, from an outsider’s point of view, is somewhat similar to Duke and Stanford. Of course, this is just my personal opinion, so you can take that with a pinch of salt.</p>
<p>Pizzagirl, NU and Pepperdine are both private schools overlooking large bodies of water…
CalPoly and NU both have great engineering programs. Maybe it’s time you get out of the midwest… ;)</p>