UChicago VS Northwestern: Chicagoland's Best Universities Compared

The University of Chicago and Northwestern University are two of the best colleges in the United States. How do the two Chicago-area schools compare to each other? This brief comparison of UChicago VS Northwestern goes over some quick facts about each school's enrollment, majors, graduate schools, test scores, social life, athletics, and more.
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[@ChicagoGeographer]

Hey everyone! Thanks for watching the video. I'd appreciate it if you subscribed-I upload videos about universities, cities, geography, and more every two weeks! Also if you're a UChicago student, see if you can find me on campus this fall. :)

[@39special88]

Your content rocks! I'll keep an eye out for you. Make sure to shill your channel more so that you get known as "the UChicago youtuber", because the people who hold/previously held that are leagues below you (to put it nicely).

[@tuowl0564]

The fact the the two institutions considered merging in 1933/34 still makes my head spin. Academia in Chicago, and the world, would be vastly different...

[@williamtell5365]

Funny, I attended both. NU for undergrad, U of C for grad school. I'm thankful for the education I received at both schools. As they say in SE Asia: "same same, but different."

[@victorsladkowski]

Absolutely love Northwestern's lakefront campus but something about UChicago just feels like Hogwarts in the best way. I'm a bit more partial to Hyde Park / Jackson Park than I am Evanston though.

[@carlthompson7179]

Excellent work,my friend. Thank you

[@youtubehandlesareridiculous]

Love your videos, I'd be interested in a video about the University of Illinois!

[@loganynguyen]

Would love more content like this for other schools too

[@w.h7285]

This video came up in my YT recommended. I watched the whole thing, loved it, then became disappointed to see how few subscribers and how underrated this channel is.. Keep making videos bro your channel will go parabolic at some point

[@ChicagoGeographer]

I'm glad you enjoyed it, thank you for watching and for the kind words!

[@yairbitran5774]

Awesome video man, really enjoyed it :). Please make another one talking about UChicago 👌🏻🙌🏻

[@luisdiegomorataya3505]

you should do a vid comparing Loyola Chicago and DePaul

[@charlesgravitt6328]

Hey man, great video! I'm an incoming freshman at UChicago so it was super cool to see this comparison since I can't actually go out and visit. I hope I can find you on campus!

[@ChicagoGeographer]

Thanks, I appreciate it! Best of luck to you for your first year man

[@jesseplung360]

Lmao get ready for 4 years of hell... and some good times too

[@ahkim3]

Hey man, how's your experience at UChicago so far? I'll be applying EA there tomorrow but it'd be interesting to hear thoughts from a current student

[@mukhtarsyrymuly3036]

I applied ED and didn't admitted. I am curious to know what your GPA, SAT/ACT scores were.

[@ggez590]

@@mukhtarsyrymuly3036 SAT prolly didn't matter as much this year. I think the main difficulty is the essays itself and a little bit of extra curriculars. Though, you should know that this is anecdotal evidence since I got in, and a person I know who had more leadership experience didn't

[@chicagoakland]

I'm just here as a DePaul grad, looking on in envy.

[@trilopark2500]

wat the fuck is depaul

[@doubled7302]

I went to DePaul it was awesome. I have fond memories of a being a student there. Chicago is a great city for students if you take advantage of all it has to offer.

[@emelya.3312]

@@trilopark2500 A university, duh

[@BiologyIsHot]

Eh NU grad student here. This whole elite university thing is fucked up. Don't feed the system. I mean, do. It benefits me to have people think it's something other than/better than a toxic environment... but also it's just an elitist and toxic setting and is actually a pretty poor educational environment.

[@hnoors]

@@BiologyIsHot yup exactly (MWU student in downers)

[@jeromemushi2442]

Obama before he was a senator, taught constitutional law at UChicago.

[@wesmarshall5426]

Thats a negative

[@NYCOPERAFAN]

@@wesmarshall5426 As is your racist bigotry.

[@halwag]

Things u missed: Northwestern is now a top ten school, has a very good engineering school (UC has none), a good journalism and theater/music school, very entrepreneurial business/tech program, law, business, medicine is in its own campus downtown, the sports ctr/football ctr is also NW Evanston, the campus is hard by Lake Michigan (brrrr!), a tech ctr. in Silicon valley, no crime in trendy n. suburb of Evanston (unlike UC in south city). Both schools do research at the Fed. Argonne labs, and Fermi ctr.

[@jollyholly2851]

Northwestern is not global top 10. UChicago is consistently global top 10.

[@halwag]

@@jollyholly2851 . Thanx for comment. About 'global U.', you may be right. UC is very strong in Arts&sciences&Professional schools. Domestically, both schools are ranked close. UC chose not to field sports teams, whereas NU does. How about a chess team, UC! Anyway, a degree in law, business, med is a guarantee of a good job from either school. But today, engineering too is important (for that, go to Illinois.).

[@jollyholly2851]

@@halwag Yeah of course. If you're interested in Engineering, why apply to UChicago. But same goes for an English literature major--she would not want to attend MIT.

[@halwag]

@@jollyholly2851. Thanx for reply. Actually, not all MITs are ' cyber-geek-heads'. Some actually read novels and sing songs.

[@mr.muhammad5605]

@@halwag what about Computer Science at UChicago?

[@charlest.5742]

I'm about to go into DePaul as an undergraduate film major, so I'm pretty excited to be in the city of Chicago coming from the DC area.

[@ChicagoGeographer]

Awesome, congrats!

[@alexhuitron181]

Hey man, the building you show at 3:00 is the Ryan Center for Musical Arts. Not Wirtz.

[@ahkim3]

Thanks for the great vid! Do you have any thoughts on their engineering/cs departments?

[@ChicagoGeographer]

Thanks for watching! I have heard good things about CS from some friends, though like a lot of classes here it can be tough. UChicago doesn't have typical engineering programs, but they do have a new molecular engineering major which is really cool.

[@ahkim3]

@@ChicagoGeographer sweet, thanks again!

[@AdrianRuiz-gp5ru]

Just got a likely letter of admissions from uchicago and I’m pretty psyched! It’s my first admissions decision from my application cycle and hopefully I got more acceptance letters, but I’m pretty intimidated about how people say it’s “unnecessarily hard” which I’m scared will prevent me from doing extracurriculars

[@ZaibatsuHeavyIndustries]

Congrats on 900 subs!

[@ChicagoGeographer]

Thank you!

[@neonbleached5685]

Love the vid! You deserve so many more subs

[@ChicagoGeographer]

Thanks!

[@georgecuarteros4403]

Thanks for the video. Very informative. It’ll help me guide my son entering 9th grade to prepare for his college of choice…..

[@phemstros]

You missed Medill at NU, the No. 1 Journalism school in the nation

[@trilopark2500]

no one gives a about fuck no.1 journalism

[@lamaripiazza5226]

It’s not that’s Columbia

[@phemstros]

@@lamaripiazza5226 thats postgrad

[@negbefla6956]

Tschuip

[@coewroub1398]

NU is my dream school, but I would also be happy with UChicago! Both are great schools!

[@apolloumbra3312]

3:08 isn’t Wirtz, it’s the Ryan center for musical arts which we all just call Bienen or the cruise ship building. Wirtz is across the street.

[@timewave02012]

What's your major? I didn't pay much attention to any university in Chicago, because I was looking for an electrical engineering major-although I ended up living in the Chicago suburbs and working with quite a few IIT graduates.

[@ChicagoGeographer]

I'm an environmental and urban studies major currently!

[@albertvillalobos1377]

I'm a dad in the burbs with a high school senior. I take her to dance class in Chicago on Saturdays and get 3 hrs to kill so I've been using it to look at schools. I'm not sure if I've seen the other campus but Northwestern is something out of a college/frat movie, it's impressive. It's a little town that sprawls for blocks along the lake. I didn't realize it was so far outside Chicago but there's a bunch of mansions along the route I just kept driving in awe and poof University world.

[@skiparkcityut]

Northwestern you get big ten football and basketball. Really different college experience

[@yousefmohamed6153]

What about specializing in medicine, who is the best?

[@lucasliam8238]

You have an amazing voice

[@ChicagoGeographer]

Thank you!

[@lucialee1232]

Very informative

[@bennyksmusicalworld968]

Dam that's like Harvard and MIT merging. Truly a lost merger of potentially epic proportions

[@maureencora1]

I Wonder If UC Had Been Football & Basketball in the Big 10 and NU was Div.III?

[@thefingerofgod69]

That was fun.

[@LoremasterLiberaster]

Hey Chicago Geographer are you an undergraduate or masters level at UChicago?

[@ChicagoGeographer]

I'm an undergrad! 2nd year to be specific

[@LoremasterLiberaster]

@@ChicagoGeographer congrats and be proud of yourself. You are at an excellent university

[@19MAD95]

Now do DePaul vs Loyola

[@hermes-stanlvu4116]

While everyone else Illinois dream is to attend U Illinois in Urbana-Champaign

[@mckinseyand2022]

Both schools are amazing.

[@meghand8682]

Stanford frosh that got rejected by both here. I wanted to stay in the Chicago area, but I’m really excited to start anew in California!

[@robmidford2924]

Grew up in L.A., was rejected by Stanford, went to Medill, instead.

[@meghand8682]

@@robmidford2924 haha wild how college admissions work. still haven’t gotten to step foot on campus yet because of remote learning protocol, but I’m really excited to see California and all its cities for the first time

[@kennedylareign]

Man Stanford was my dream school, and I was rejected, but I somehow got into UChicago. It’s almost laughable how ironic and random the process is! Good luck at Stanford :D

[@Beabeegirl]

@@kennedylareign so did you do REA for Stanford and RD for Chicago?

[@kennedylareign]

@@Beabeegirl i did rd for both stanford and chicago!

[@joliettraveler]

If you are looking for engineering or accounting go to the University of Illinois in Champaign/Urbana.

[@ethanmeyer1480]

ah yes, instead of the beautiful city of Chicago, people should consider the world-renown cornfields found in the villages of urbana and champaign

[@teosoto0360]

i would love to see loyola chicago vs depaul

[@NYCOPERAFAN]

Lower-tier Catholic institutions nowhere near the levels of Georgetown or even BC and Notre Dame.

[@rosepink2773]

Please how to get free tuition for one of these universities in Illinois ?! My daughter has early graduation from her high school in illinois… And she wants to do about Computer with high salary and she confused….Any advice 🙏🏻 thank you,

[@NYCOPERAFAN]

University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana is better in Computer Science than either of these two.

[@negbefla6956]

UC geared towards graduate school. NU undergraduate

[@freeasfuc]

As your comment suggests, I saw someone on the internet saying that in terms of undergrad, NU>UC, but in terms of grad, UC>NU. I'm wondering why this is so even though proportionally and litterally there is a greater number of grads at NU compared to UC, while the number of undergrads at both institutions is similar.

[@BiologyIsHot]

The green line? Proof UChicago students don't get to leave Hyde Park. Although NU students also don't leave Evanston, either unless they do summer research at the med school lol

[@stevenweix4330]

As an alum from Northwestern, I expected a video from a U of C alum to be less balanced but I'd say it's pretty accurate-- ❤

[@user-fs8tl7ni1w]

DePaul is the real Chicago school. A Catholic, Big East Conference university. It’s right in the heart of Chicago-it’s very best neighborhood. The neighborhood is like Paris. DePaul has a primacy of teaching, not research. Most undergraduates don’t need to do research…they need to learn. Also, do either NU or UC have an undergraduate business school? DePaul does, and it’s fantastic!

[@emilyanne13434O]

i’ve been wanting to go to UChicago since i was a child but my gpa would never let me in omg

[@graceyang9607]

:(( i just applied EDII -- should've applied EDI tbh -- and results come out in two months! (hobi's cheering you on hehe)

[@luisdiaz1997]

I feel that, had a 2.0 gpa out of high school, but just got accepted to UChicago for grad school :)

[@graceyang9607]

@@luisdiaz1997 wow, good on you!! congrats!

[@monke8363]

@@luisdiaz1997 im curious to know how did you make up for it?

[@daveyjones3016]

@@luisdiaz1997 Good stuff bro 🎉.

[@msk4584]

subscribed

[@banardadams8776]

Uchicago is my dream school

[@user-fs8tl7ni1w]

UC is in a very rough neighborhood; Northwestern isn’t even in Chicago, except grad/professional schools.

[@Jstwrd]

Is roosevelt university good?🤔🤷

[@NYCOPERAFAN]

No.

[@freeasfuc]

I could probably get in there by submitting for my common app essay an argumentative essay on why yield protection is bad.

[@davidmotyka2708]

The university of Chicago is the best as when I was blinded in one eye the Doctors made it where nobody knew in 1953.

[@princeofcupspoc9073]

This is a wonderful example of how to "damn with faint praise." Brilliant, as expected. If you don't understand what I'm talking about, then you should go to Northwestern.

[@cantchangemynamefor90days6]

it’s so subtle i can’t even tell if it’s just implicit bias or not. i’ve always thought the phrase “where fun goes to die” was a little morbid, considering what will -literally- happen if you try to have fun at night :/

[@Stryfe52]

WHAT DOES ANY OF THIS EVEN MEAN?!!??

[@ottovonjizzmark9864]

I think Northwestern students just don’t have time for subtle talk or to notice these implicit biases. They’re too busy having fun, making friends and enjoying life. Too bad other institutions can’t say the same ; )

[@rumilb]

I*wa disliked this video

[@ChicagoGeographer]

Such an I*wa move

[@jahirlopez715]

UChicago is TOO hard to get into which just leads to people who are competitive and super nerds attending... that's why it was a no for me. Northwestern U is way better.

[@Stryfe52]

God bro. I hate super nerds, Northwestern has a better campus anyways…

[@AndrewMacedo-ob6jx]

I mean, it's a 7% acceptance rate vs a 6% acceptance rate. They both have fairly similar GPA and SAT figures to nowadays. I'd say both are extremely hard to get into, and that quarter system at NU is rough. Granted, UChicago's student body may be a bit more academically focused, but that is one of the main selling points of the school.

[@NYCOPERAFAN]

Yes it's academically superior and more rigorous thus harder to get into.

[@orange1719]

Northwestern is better overall!!!

[@NYCOPERAFAN]

So delusional only a Northwestern alum would believe it!

[@FarahS.]

UChicago seems to have a lot of violence cases…

[@alexschneider5510]

UChicago has no social life. Also it has one of the highest suicide rates of any school. And Northwestern loves its sports teems but they aren't actually that good

[@donniedarkoisthemostunderr4785]

Social life=drinking, whoring and screwing around?

[@muhchung]

When you have a life of the mind, you don't need social life.

[@arcisvar4863]

@@donniedarkoisthemostunderr4785 no you pathetic twat, it means on occasion...going out with friends, meeting new peopl,doing things that are new and exciting, making new friends and memories. As opposed to dying slowly inside a stuffy room for four(plus) years of your short short life.

[@AndrewMacedo-ob6jx]

@@muhchung Hah! Did you steal that from a UC ad?

[@NYCOPERAFAN]

Chicago exceeds Northwestern in almost every common category. Northwestern's best programs such as Journalism, Theatre etc. are usually in areas/fields not taught at U of C. No contest really (similar to Columbia vs. NYU in NYC).

[@RobertSmurda]

Why is it Northwestern's fault that UChicago has a lack of variety? NU is top notch in materials science, journalism, theatre, music, chemical engineering, biomedical engineering, industrial engineering, etc. Why shouldn't we count those when comparing the universities? That's like if we said UChicago is better than MIT because all of MIT's engineering programs don't count because UChicago doesn't have them. Even if you want to only count the programs that UChicago has, UChicago is marginally better. They are equal for sciences - they have different specialties - NU has the 2nd best research output in the U.S. for chemistry while Chicago is better at physics; they are about equal for biology. UChicago is clearly better at humanities -- I'll give you that. UChicago is better at theoretical math but NU is better at practical math. They are equal for computer science (equally bad, that is). UChicago is better at Econ, but the gap has closed a lot since the '50s and '60s. UChicago econ used to be significantly better than all other programs, but the difference is small now. Kellogg and Booth are equal - they are both non HSW M7's. UChicago law is better - I'll give you that too. The med schools are the same. So overall, UChicago is slightly better at what they share, but NU has much more variety. Surprisingly to me, NU has better research output than Chicago even though NU is a more pre-professional school while Chicago is supposedly academic. If you want to argue Chicago is better, that's reasonable, but it's certainly not some blow out like you make it seem.

[@MrGman636]

Location alone, I'd choose Northwestern 10/10 times. But I digress as someone who attended Loyola for grad school.

[@NYCOPERAFAN]

@@MrGman636 Loyola's in a crappy neighborhood too, in fact one more dangerous than Hyde Park (though better connected by public transit).

[@freeasfuc]

T10 NU students don't need to argue with T20 students. Let them have the freedom to think.

[@daniromta]

As a UChicago alum, there is no comparison here. UChicago is old money, status, prestige. Who is northwestern even…

[@freeasfuc]

So, does your school make it to the T10?

[@NYCOPERAFAN]

@@freeasfuc Many years it's been in the top 5.

[@freeasfuc]

@@NYCOPERAFAN Even as a Northwesterner, I have a great amount of respect for UChicago, even to the point whereby in 11th grade, I had it as my dream school in addition to admiring Chicago school economists and Prof Eugene Fama. However, realistically speaking, T5 seems a little too hard of a goal for UChicago in the coming years, especially given that JHU(got so much money during pandemic) Duke(near bio hub which is increasingly growing) and Columbia(peer rating will increase because people will forget about the scandal) are likely to rise in rankings, UPenn Northwestern (both solid across all fields and gradually getting better) (+ Maybe Cornell also) will probably keep their current spots, but UChicago and Yale don't have strong STEM programs in an age when that's the most important. My guess is that UChicago will only fluctuate in rankings within the range of 10~15 in the coming years with NU being tied with or ranked above that.

[@muhchung]

Rivalry? What rivalry? They are not of the same tier. Chicago is tier 1, NWU is tier 1.5 or 2. Has anyone heard of Northwestern School of Economics, Sociology, Political Science, or Anthropology? No!! Because they simply do not exist.

[@arcisvar4863]

Ok willynn UChicago good NU bad. Now go watch them students before they all start committing suicide at an alarming rate.....oh it already is the highest in the country? Who would have thought that of a TIER 1 university.

[@alexhuitron181]

Alright asshole, if you’re going to talk shit about Northwestern (NU) at least do some research. NU is a tier 1 research institution and it has some programs that are ranked higher than they would be in UChicago, and vice versa. Who’s better and who’s worse means jack shit because they’re both great colleges. The only people who care about which of these top 10 schools are better are fools like you.

[@phemstros]

Huh?

[@phemstros]

Er..Kellogg?

[@ProficientC]

That was at the expense of sports dated back to a decision made in the 1930s. A top 10 college not in NCAA Division I is a joke.