<p>Northwestern or Bowdoin?</p>
<p>Pretty subjective question, but most people would probably answer Northwestern. Its undergraduate programs are superior than that of Bowdoin (which is a fine school in it’s own right) and Northwestern is more selective. And NU grad schools are almost self-explanatory.</p>
<p>It’s tough to compare universities to LACs, though.</p>
<p>I’d say Northwestern, but it depends on the person and the region he or she is from i.e. a person living near northwestern would say northwestern is way better than bowdoin and vice-versa</p>
<p>^Perhaps there is a regional bias between MIT and Cal, but I think Northwestern and Bowdoin are dissimilar enough that people are not attracted to either based on geography. People living in the Northeast definitely do not [uniformly] think that Bowdoin is more prestigious. Not even close.</p>