<p>Both are “academic Ivies” in my opinion. One plane trip to Chicago will allow you to visit both schools. Chicago is, along with Swarthmore, Princeton & Yale, the best all around undergraduate education in the country for the serious student with superb intellectual abilities. Northwestern University is more similiar to Cornell University & to the University of Pennsylvania in the sense that the undergraduate programs offer substantial pre-professional offerings. Northwestern University is well known for journalism, acting/drama, the one of a kind SESP, engineering. Journalism, acting/drama & SESP (by default) are the best programs in the nation. Northwestern University & the Univ. of Chicago students tend to be highly intelligent, hardworking & goal oriented. The Weinberg College of Arts & Sciences at Northwestern offers an outstanding liberal arts education to students who are typically in the top 10% of their class and score above 1450/1600 on the SAT I while demonstrating significant involvement in ECs. Two great universities with very different campus cultures.(Sorry if this sounds like an advertisement for these schools as that is not my intention. I get excited about Chicago & Northwestern because they are–at the very least–Ivy academic equivalents with substantial endowments where a superior student actually has a very good chance for admission; 25% chance at Northwestern and 30% chance at Chicago.)</p>