What are colleges that are like Northwestern University?

College Search & Selection
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<p>Here are the rates from the last 3 CDS files posted on the Michigan site:</p>

<p>2010-11
31613 applicants, 16006 admitted … 51% admit rate</p>

<p>2009-10
29965 applicants, 14970 admitted … 50% admit rate</p>

<p>2008-09
29814 applicants, 12567 admitted … 42% admit rate</p>

<p>So an overall admit rate of 30% would represent a very big drop. Maybe Alexandre is referring only to Arts & Science, or A&S + Engineering, or Honors, or something else I don’t see broken out in the CDS.</p>

<p>Anyway, I still think Michigan is a good candidate for schools “like Northwestern” but less selective. It’s a midwestern, Big Ten research university with a fine academic reputation . Yes, as several folks have pointed out, the OP does need to clarify what “like Northwestern” really means … but Stanford, Duke, Rice, Vanderbilt, and Cornell definitely are not moving toward 30%+ territory.</p>

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<p>I don’t understand how some people in this thread associate schools largely on the basis of the admit rates. So, about 2 or 3 years ago, Chicago and Duke aren’t peer schools? lol</p>

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<p>^The OP asked, “are there any colleges like Northwestern University that have admission rates of 30% and higher?” (emphasis added). That’s why admit rates are important to this discussion. </p>

<p>Is Northwestern any better than Michigan, academically, because the admit rate at NU is double or triple the rate at UM? In some respects, no. The admit rate has no direct relationship to the quality of faculty, facilities, curriculum, or research production (although schools stronger in these features will tend to attract more top students, hence be more selective). At some schools, in some programs (engineering?), classes may move at the same fast pace whether the weakest students are succeeding or not (so, the fact that the school is less selective overall may not affect the quality/level of instruction in that department specifically.) In other programs, where the best schools offer small classes with lots of discussion and written assignments, the quality of the classroom experience may depend greatly on the ability, preparation & motivation of the students. Hence the importance of selectivity (admit rate, average GPA/rank & scores) as a crude indicator of undergraduate quality.</p>

<p>Due to self-selection effects, average test scores often are better indicators than admit rates. Michigan’s average test scores are as high as (or higher than) some schools with much lower admit rates.</p>

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<p>Pizzagirl, why do you have to go on the attack all the time?</p>

<p>The OP wanted schools with acceptance rate over 30% and were similar to Northwestern.</p>

<p>I listed the schools that had acceptance rates of 30%-33%, and of those, the ones that were most comparable to Northwestern. Of course very few will compare to Northwestern’s academics and have acceptance rates higher than 30%, but that is what the OP requested.</p>

<p>In your listing of colleges above YOU COMPLETELY AND ABSOLUTELY fail to filter by acceptance rate, and in fact, two of the colleges that you mentioned had acceptance rates UNDER 30%, WHICH VERY SPECIFICALLY SHOULD NOT BE PRESENTED TO THE OP BECAUSE THEY DO NOT FALL INTO THE CRITERIA…</p>

<p>to be specific, this was your list and the acceptance rate of each school:</p>

<p>20% - Georgetown
24% - Tufts
35% - Brandeis
39% - Kenyon
43% - Macalester</p>

<p>learn to read what is asked by the OP next time and stop with these attacks that you so often make on people that are just trying to help here.</p>

<p>If you are going to propose the two LAB’s Kenyon and Macalester, then Colgate, Carleton and Bucknell on my list certainly are at least as comparable as your two LAB’s. Your Georgetown and Tufts don’t count because they have lower than 30% acceptance rates. In addition to the LAB’s that I jotted above, the more comparable from my list include Boston College, Univ. of Virginia, College of William and Mary, UNC Chapel Hill and Carnegie Mellon (for engineering) - all of which have an acceptance rate at 30% or greater, which again was one of the primary criteria asked by the OP.</p>

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<p>Pizzagirl, in fact in engineering CalPoly SLO is very similar to Northwestern. More importantly, why do you fail to mention some of the other schools that I outlined with acceptance rates at 30% or greater, including Univ. of Virginia, Carnegie Mellon (for engineering), William and Mary, Boston College and UNC Chapel Hill?</p>

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<p>[More</a> to Explore](<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board)</p>

<p>***Students who viewed the profile for Northwestern University on collegeboard.com also looked at these schools. We’ve listed the 20 most “also viewed” in descending order of overlap popularity. ***</p>

<p>Cornell UniversityIthaca, New York
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Boston UniversityBoston, Massachusetts
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New York UniversityNew York, New York
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Brown UniversityProvidence, Rhode Island
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Columbia UniversityNew York, New York
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Boston CollegeChestnut Hill, Massachusetts
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University of ChicagoChicago, Illinois
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Carnegie Mellon UniversityPittsburgh, Pennsylvania
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Harvard CollegeCambridge, Massachusetts
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University of PennsylvaniaPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania
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University of MichiganAnn Arbor, Michigan
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Duke UniversityDurham, North Carolina
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Stanford UniversityStanford, California
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Yale UniversityNew Haven, Connecticut
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University of California: BerkeleyBerkeley, California
See Profile</p>

<p>===============</p>

<p>of the above, the following had acceptance rates at 30% or greater:</p>

<p>Boston University
Boston College
New York University
Carnegie Mellon
University of Michigan</p>

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<p>I think Vanderbilt, Emory, and Wash U are the most similar to NU. Admit rates are not a great measure of selectivity – the #s of admitted students tell you a great deal more.</p>

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<p>that might be true, however, the OP very specifically requested colleges with 30% or greater acceptance rates and NONE of your selections fall into this category</p>

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<p>I am arguing with the OP about his stated criteria. If a student asks a question based on what I believe to be a mistaken assumption, I don’t believe I serve him well by ignoring his error.</p>

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<p>^^^^good point there</p>

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<p>Duke, Vanderbilt, Emory, and Wash U are in many ways quite similar to Northwestern, but I don’t think the OP’s 30% admit rate cutoff is totally off-base. Duke is probably harder to get into than Northwestern, while Vandy and Wash U are probably similar or only slightly easier. Emory has a 29% admit rate–close enough that I’d include it.</p>

<p>These schools have several things in common with Northwestern: medium-sized private research universities with strong academics, low s/f ratios, and secular, i.e., neither affiliated with nor influenced by any particular religious denomination at this point in their institutional histories.</p>

<p>Another feature of NU that was striking to me and my D2 when we visited there last summer was that Greek life is very strong, with 32% of male students in fraternities and 38% of females in sororities. That was a big turn-off to my daughter and I’m no fan of it myself, but some people find it a positive. IMO whenever you get that much Greek presence, it starts to dominate campus social life and becomes a defining characteristic of the school. In that respect, too, Duke (29% M, 42% F), Vandy (35% M, 50% F), Wash U (25% M, 25% F), and Emory (29% M, 33% F) are quite similar to Northwestern.</p>

<p>At a slightly less selective level (>30% admit rate) but still with strong academics, Wake Forest (35% M, 50% F), Lehigh (38% M, 39% F), RPI (21% M, 16% F) and Case Western (28% M, 31% F) all fit the model of small-to-midsize, private, secular research universities with low s/f ratios and a very active Greek presence.</p>

<p>Among the larger LACs, Colgate (32% M, 29% F) and Bucknell (43% M, 48% F) are quite similar in all respects but size.</p>

<p>Now if you’re looking for “similar” in particular academic programs, that’s another matter. In engineering, for example, I’d say Cornell, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, Purdue, and Carnegie Mellon are most similar, but most of these schools are in other crucial respects more different than similar.</p>

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<p>“all fit the model of small-to-midsize, private, secular research universities with low s/f ratios and a very active Greek presence.”</p>

<p>Tulane, too – and like NU, Emory, Vandy, and Wash U, it’s in a big metro area.</p>

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<p>Let’s not forget College of William and Mary, a 6,000 undergraduate student public university with excellent academics, which as close to the appearance of a private university as any public…</p>

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<p>Yes, I think W&M is an interesting choice.
Between the others on JamieBrown’s lists, Carnegie Mellon and Michigan work – maybe Boston College … But Boston University and NYU are so inextricably linked with being smack dab in very urban settings, without a traditional campus feel, which feels to be a real disconnect with Northwestern’s look and feel.</p>

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<p>^^^fully agree with Pizzagirl</p>

<p>personally I believe Princeton is closer to Northwestern than even Carnegie Mellon and Michigan, however, we do have that acceptance rate criteria thingy</p>