<p>In Chicago (and in the Midwest more generally), Penn, Columbia (associated with Columbia College, the arts school in Chicago), Dartmouth, Brown, Caltech, and Chicago (surprisingly even in its own city) are not well-known by the masses. Harvard, Duke, Yale, Northwestern, Princeton, Stanford, and MIT are considered the “it” schools.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>What a surprising statement from a Northwestern alumnus.</p>
<p>Northwestern students overrate their school. It’s not actually that well-known in the Midwest (if we’re talking about commoners, as you seem to be doing), nor are any of the top academic schools. Midwestern commoners care more about sports schools like Michigan and Notre Dame, and don’t really care for Northwestern or the University of Chicago at all (although Northwestern is more well-known because it’s a Big 10 school, albeit not necessarily for its academics or prestige).</p>
<p>(I mean, seriously, if Northwestern is so popular, then why is its yield so low? I mean, it’s RD yield is literally below 20%, while Chicago’s RD yield is more than twice that. If it didn’t have ED to make certain applicants come, Northwestern would have an admit rate around 40%. You’d think such a prestigious school would be attracting more of the students it admits…)</p>
<p>Among the most educated in the Midwest, the best-known schools are the usual culprits: HYPSM, Chicago, Columbia, and to an extent, Northwestern, Johns Hopkins, and Duke.</p>
<p>
Your statement doesn’t make sense to me intuitively. Americans and Midwesterners in particular care about college sports a lot and they obsess about trivial details regarding their favorite teams, rival squads, various conferences, etc. etc. so naturally people are aware of what the universities in the major conferences that have good academics. Dick Vitale talks about Duke’s academic prestige nonstop even when there are two non-conference basketball teams playing and Lou Holtz harps on forever about Notre Dame’s status as an elite school even when two different Big 10 teams are playing.</p>
<p>To be honest, I knew that Notre Dame, Duke and Northwestern were prestigious long before I knew what Penn, Dartmouth and Brown even was. Among the academic elite, Chicago definitely has the edge over Northwestern but among your everyday Joes on Chicago’s North Side, Northwestern is by far the most well-known school. I think Northwestern has the slight edge among employers since its student body is perceived to have greater social skills and more of a business-like personality.</p>
<p><a href=“I%20mean,%20seriously,%20if%20Northwestern%20is%20so%20popular,%20then%20why%20is%20its%20yield%20so%20low?%20I%20mean,%20it’s%20RD%20yield%20is%20literally%20below%2020%,%20while%20Chicago’s%20RD%20yield%20is%20more%20than%20twice%20that.%20If%20it%20didn’t%20have%20ED%20to%20make%20certain%20applicants%20come,%20Northwestern%20would%20have%20an%20admit%20rate%20around%2040%.%20You’d%20think%20such%20a%20prestigious%20school%20would%20be%20attracting%20more%20of%20the%20students%20it%20admits…”>quote=phuriku</a>
[/quote]
Do you have proof to back up Chicago’s RD yield rate or is that just speculation on your part? Both Northwestern and Chicago lag behind their peers in yield for some reason.</p>
<p>
The most educated in the Midwest know all 8 Ivies, Stanford, MIT, Caltech, Chicago, Duke, Northwestern and Johns Hopkins as these are the best 15 school in the country.</p>
<p>Harvard
Yale
Princeton
Stanford
MIT
Columbia
Berkeley
Penn
UChicago
Caltech
JHU
Duke
Brown
Dartmouth
Cornell</p>
<p>The Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2011-2012
[Top</a> 400 - The Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2011-2012](<a href=“http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/world-university-rankings/2011-2012/top-400.html]Top”>World University Rankings 2011-12 | Times Higher Education (THE))</p>
<p>1 California Institute of Technology United States 94.8
2 Harvard University United States 93.9
2 Stanford University United States 93.9
4 University of Oxford United Kingdom 93.6
5 Princeton University United States 92.9
6 University of Cambridge United Kingdom 92.4
7 Massachusetts Institute of Technology United States 92.3
8 Imperial College London United Kingdom 90.7
9 University of Chicago United States 90.2
10 University of California, Berkeley United States 89.8
11 Yale University United States 89.1
12 Columbia University United States 87.5
13 University of California, Los Angeles United States 87.3
14 Johns Hopkins University United States 85.8
15 ETH Zürich - Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zürich Switzerland 85
16 University of Pennsylvania United States 84.9
17 University College London United Kingdom 83.2
18 University of Michigan United States 82.8
19 University of Toronto Canada 81.6
20 Cornell University United States 80.5</p>
<p>“To be honest, I knew that Notre Dame, Duke and Northwestern were prestigious long before I knew what Penn, Dartmouth and Brown even was. Among the academic elite, Chicago definitely has the edge over Northwestern but among your everyday Joes on Chicago’s North Side, Northwestern is by far the most well-known school. I think Northwestern has the slight edge among employers since its student body is perceived to have greater social skills and more of a business-like personality.”</p>
<p>The point I’m trying to make is: Most midwesterners don’t really even care about academics and prestige, period. They care about sports, and they don’t really care about the level of prestige of the schools that are playing these sports.</p>
<p>I grew up in Indiana in a middle-class family, and I of course had heard of such names as Stanford, Duke, and Northwestern on TV. Never once did I, nor my parents, ever think of these schools as being prestigious in the least (and I was surprised when I found out that they were prestigious, actually). In Indiana, we think of Duke and Stanford as schools that are simply good at sports (and conversely, we always wondered why they didn’t kick Northwestern out of the conference - yes, I am biased as a Chicago alum, but even before that time as a kid, my parents and I always wondered why a team always placing last was in the league). Now, I’m sure that there’s a group in the middle that cares about sports and prestige, within which the name “Northwestern” dominates… but I think that group is relatively small. </p>
<p>As for employers… that’s kind of a ludicrous speculation when the average salary of Chicago alums is always about $10k/year more than that of Northwestern alums. (Check payscale’s summary.)</p>
<p>“Do you have proof to back up Chicago’s RD yield rate or is that just speculation on your part? Both Northwestern and Chicago lag behind their peers in yield for some reason.”</p>
<p>Nope. Not in recent years anyway. But historically, Chicago’s EA yield rate has been slightly higher than its RD yield rate (about 3-5% more), and I’m assuming that still holds. If so, that would likely put Chicago’s RD yield at about 37-38% for the class of 2014, and likely above 40% for the class of 2015. (There’s no official word on the overall yield of the class of 2015, although indications are that it was way higher than expected (and by the number of admitted students, they were expecting about 41-42% yield). The administration had to put undergrads in grad housing because an unexpectedly high number of students decided to enroll and there was no space left in undergrad housing. Source: [Record</a> yield rate leaves undergrads in grad housing The Chicago Maroon](<a href=“Scalzi: From the U of C to a galaxy far, far away – Chicago Maroon”>Scalzi: From the U of C to a galaxy far, far away – Chicago Maroon).)</p>
<p>USNEWS Worlds Best Universities</p>
<ol>
<li>Cambridge</li>
<li>Harvard</li>
<li>Yale</li>
<li>University College London</li>
<li>MIT</li>
<li>Oxford</li>
<li>Imperial College London</li>
<li>University of Chicago</li>
<li>Cal Tech</li>
<li>Princeton</li>
</ol>
<p>USNEWS US National University Ranking</p>
<ol>
<li>Harvard</li>
<li>Princeton</li>
<li>Yale</li>
<li>Columbia</li>
<li>Caltech</li>
<li>MIT</li>
<li>Stanford</li>
<li>University of Chicago</li>
<li>Penn</li>
<li>Duke</li>
</ol>
<p>The Times Higher ED World University Ranking</p>
<ol>
<li>Cal Tech</li>
<li>Harvard</li>
<li>Stanford</li>
<li>Oxford</li>
<li>Princeton</li>
<li>Cambridge</li>
<li>MIT</li>
<li>Imperial College London</li>
<li>University of Chicago</li>
<li>UC Berkeley</li>
</ol>
<p>It’s kind of funny.</p>
<p>I am a “star” according to my relatives in Asia.
But, some people in the Midwest (yes, even in the city of Chicago) think I am attending UIC or Chicago State.</p>
<p>20more:</p>
<p>It’s kind of odd. UChicago gets more layman-prestigious the more you move away from Chicago (mostly thanks to the rankings, I think). Here in Japan, I get more attention when I mention my alma mater than what I got when I was in Chicago! I wish I could say that that would change, but I just don’t think people in the Midwest care that much. Fortunately, employers are aware of the name regardless of location… in job interviews, there are almost always a few mentions of UChicago’s prestige and questions about its purported difficulty.</p>
<p>Phuriku, among the educated elite in the Midwest, the most well regarded universities are Harvard, MIT, Princeton, Stanford, Yale, Chicago, Michigan, Northwestern and Notre Dame. Schools like Brown, Caltech, Cal, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Duke, Johns Hopkins and Penn are obviously well regarded, but like most universities, cannot overcome regional bias.</p>
<p>Vanderbilt is prestigious in the south. Duke is prestigious everywhere (other than maybe chapel hill).</p>
<p>
Why isn’t Wash U in St. Louis on this list? I don’t think Cal is acknowledged in the Chicago area at all. I used to live in Naperville and I’ve never heard the school mentioned as a possible college choice by any of the smart students at any of the high schools in the area. Its basically only known in California. The premeds like JHU but generally the 8 Ivies, Stanford, MIT, Chicago, Duke, Notre Dame and Wash U are seen as the “prestige” schools. Michigan is often regarded as a very well-reputed backup school if one fails to gain admission into these ultra-selective privates.</p>
<p>“The premeds like JHU but generally the 8 Ivies, Stanford, MIT, Chicago, Duke, Notre Dame and Wash U are seen as the “prestige” schools.”</p>
<p>In the midwest there is no question that Northwestern is more highly regarded than WUSTL.</p>
<p>I’d venture to say University of washington has more visibility and prestige than “wash you”.</p>
<p>wherever you went to, your children went to, and your relatives went to are better than the places that rejected you, your children or your relatives. The way this thread is going, a good portion is in the way US News measures ranking. If you are affiliated with the college, that college is better than others.</p>
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</p>
<p>Wustl is generally better respected by premeds. This is a well known fact. Their med school placement is phenomenal</p>
<p>
Sorry I forgot to include Northwestern when I was typing that list accidentally. WUSTL is definitely prestigious in the Midwest but I would agree that Northwestern is seen as being a tad bit more prestigious.</p>
<p>
This is correct. I would go to Northwestern for business, Wash U for med school and whichever one I liked more if law school was my goal.</p>
<p>WUSTL is not more prestigious than Northwestern. Maybe in Missouri or some backwater state, but the rest of the country and in any major city, Northwestern is the more respected and prestigious school. Most people outside of the middle haven’t even heard of WUSTL.</p>
<p>Man, informative, the people I know in St. Louis could buy and sell you for lunch, and have lifestyles that you could only dream of. You have <em>really</em> got to get out of the East Coast sometime. You really seem not to understand that there is wealth, education and sophistication everywhere.</p>
<p>LOL, yes, I need to come visit for some of that Missouri sophistication. Look, there is nothing wrong with WUSTL or Missouri/Kansas, but please don’t try to tell me WUSTL is as prestigious as Northwestern. No one is stupid enough to even come close to thinking that.</p>