Northwestern’s peer schools

[Anonymous]

Anyone that has a shot at Northwestern is going to be an extraordinary student. And the academic difference between a student applying to Northwestern or Princeton is negligible. My kid was interested in Northwestern. And DC's other schools were Duke, Vanderbilt, Harvard, Chicago, Penn, and Notre Dame, with Michigan and McGill as safeties. Ultimately for these students, it's a vibe check. Northwestern is not for everyone in 2025. But they do get extraordinary students regardless. Mine chose a different school than NU, but they all roll in the same peer group.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP - we aren’t looking at Michigan, UCLA, or any state schools, just fyi. So very grateful if the responses keep that in mind and it doesn’t go off the rails like many DCUM threads can do.

This mentality in itself is what makes threads go off the rails, it comes off as cringe and elitist

OP here. Sorry about this impression. I should have explained that my child would do much better in a smaller university for a variety of reasons. And will not be studying anything like engineering either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Trying to understand this better. Having now toured and read, it seemed to be academically and reputationally a notch or two above WashU, Emory, Georgetown, Vanderbilt and Tufts. I mention these as comparisons as they are mid size “good” schools. Would it then be a peer school of Duke? Lower Ivies? Academically similar to the best SLACs such as Williams or Amherst?

Northwestern is a top 10 school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All the ones you listed are peer schools. Rice too, and Michigan. Same group of kids. Pointless to parse "reputational notches" as it's the same type of kid/school. Huge overlap with Tufts at our school: mainstream kids with a variety of interests. Tufts' location gives it a leg up (we're east coast).

No way is there a huge overlap at your school with anything involving Northwestern.

NUs acceptance rate is in the mid dingle digits. They aren't accepting enough kids from a single high school to create "overlap"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP - you lost me at “lower ivies”. WTF??

Northwestern alum here and people at NU don’t talk or think like that so doesn’t sound like a good fit for you.

Agree.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Northeastern

Hahaha.

Every year there are scores of very disappointed kids who thought they got into Northwestern, only to discover the crushing disappointment that it was just Northeastern

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Northwestern draws a lot of journalism kids. And theater kids. That’s distinct.

And music kids.

Bienen is one of the top conservatories in the country.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP. Here's an official answer from Northwestern itself.

https://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/dfr/2023/ReportHTML.aspx?unitId=147767
The custom comparison group chosen by Northwestern University includes the following 25 institutions:
Boston University (Boston, MA)
Brandeis University (Waltham, MA)
Brown University (Providence, RI)
California Institute of Technology (Pasadena, CA)
Carnegie Mellon University (Pittsburgh, PA)
Case Western Reserve University (Cleveland, OH)
Columbia University in the City of New York (New York, NY)
Cornell University (Ithaca, NY)
Duke University (Durham, NC)
Emory University (Atlanta, GA)
Harvard University (Cambridge, MA)
Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore, MD)
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge, MA)
New York University (New York, NY)
Princeton University (Princeton, NJ)
Rice University (Houston, TX)
Stanford University (Stanford, CA)
Tulane University of Louisiana (New Orleans, LA)
University of Chicago (Chicago, IL)
University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA)
University of Rochester (Rochester, NY)
University of Southern California (Los Angeles, CA)
Vanderbilt University (Nashville, TN)
Washington University in St Louis (Saint Louis, MO)
Yale University (New Haven, CT)

I can also say that Pedro Pascal is my peer. I'm just not sure he'd say the same.

Northwestern is above many of the schools on that list, but northwestern was just being midwest nice and included them so they didn't get their feelings hurt.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP - we aren’t looking at Michigan, UCLA, or any state schools, just fyi. So very grateful if the responses keep that in mind and it doesn’t go off the rails like many DCUM threads can do.

This mentality in itself is what makes threads go off the rails, it comes off as cringe and elitist

OP here. Sorry about this impression. I should have explained that my child would do much better in a smaller university for a variety of reasons. And will not be studying anything like engineering either.

Can you narrow down the intended majors? Maybe then people could give you better info.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All the ones you listed are peer schools. Rice too, and Michigan. Same group of kids. Pointless to parse "reputational notches" as it's the same type of kid/school. Huge overlap with Tufts at our school: mainstream kids with a variety of interests. Tufts' location gives it a leg up (we're east coast).

Absolutely not - potentially unpopular opinion, but Northwestern, like Duke, does not need to rely on ED2. My opinion is that any school needing ED2 to gin up its selectivity is not truly selective. Northwestern is a peer of Duke, Cornell, and other similar schools that don't need ED2, which frankly just preys on applicants' vulnerability after ED1 to hover up smart, nervous kids. And I say that as someone whose kid is applying to a school with ED2 this upcoming cycle. But it is just facts that all these ED2 schools would be MUCH less selective in the RD round if ED2 didn't exist.

Absolutely agree! Hopkins and UChicago are a notch below Northwestern because of this, despite all 3 being in or close to T10 almost every year. Northwestern is a Duke and Ivy peer, a clear T10. Full stop. Anyone who spends time parsing the ivies is wasting time.

Except Harvard lists Hopkins and Chicago as peers, and Yale lists Chicago. Neither list Northwestern.

https://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/dfr/2023/ReportHTML.aspx?unitId=166027

https://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/dfr/2023/ReportHTML.aspx?unitId=130794

[Anonymous]

US News ranking is inferior to QS ranking…
Anyhoo, NU belongs in Dartmouth/ Brown/ WashU cluster.

MIT/Stanford/Caltech/ Uchicago etc are in 1 or 1.5 tier above

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Northeastern

Hahaha.

Every year there are scores of very disappointed kids who thought they got into Northwestern, only to discover the crushing disappointment that it was just Northeastern

Typical Northwestern arrogant douchebag.

Avoid this school.