<p>I'm sure you've all noticed the following types of things. I see my super-smart and awesome chem teacher, wearing my U of C shirt, and he asks, "so how was UIC?". He doesn't know what the University of Chicago is. And I live in IL only 2 hours away! (That's how bad my school is). Point being, UChicago is not an extremely prestigious to the average person. But then a businessman uncle asks me about college plans, and the mention of UChicago makes his eyebrows shoot up and his face look totally surprised, because he knows how awesome a place it is. Other respectable smart poeple I know have no idea what it is, and when I say I might major in economics, they ask "does it have a good program?". Then I talk to some DC folks about Georgetown, and when I drop the UChicago name they get all happy and practically scream "EXCELLENT school. EXCELLENT" And almost openly indicate to me it is better than Gtown. How can UChicago be such a great school empirically, with such a great reputation to the intellectual and business commmunity, with almost no exposure on the level of the general population?</p>
<p>Well, one of my class valedictorians, going to Yale and accepted to Harvard, Amherst (early write), Williams (early write), and Pomona (no rejections, actually), asked me how many state schools were in the Illinois system. I started explaining the system to her...until she asked how the Chicago campus figured into the system. I continued rambling, comparing it to one of the CA state schools...until I realized she had been ********ting her support for my decision for the past month and in fact didn't know anything about Chicago. I asked her if UPenn was a state school. She said of course not. I said, good to know you, of all people, are more ignorant than I could have imagined, in the sense that she had the gall to lie to me. And I've known her for 10 years. Whatever, I'm out of here.</p>
<p>I think it has to do with its relatively unknown athletics and a name that would suggest it being a public school. Not being a part of the Ivy League or the Big 10 (I think thats the name) might also make it less known to the common person.</p>
<p>That is definitely true, Jack. In a way it's kinda sad how most people know/don't know schools based on their sports. I suspect that the Southern Illinois basketball team makes some kids in my town think that SIU is a pretty good school to go to. But just the same, at my school and in my town at least, which is 2 hours from UChicago and 6.5 hours from WUSTL, if you mention WUSTL everyone is like "wooo genius school" and UChicago doesn't even register. But WUSTL does not have more recognizable athletics than U of C. But then again, WUSTL is very effective at marketing, some would say they are more effective at marketing themselves then at actually teaching.</p>
<p>Why would anyone care about this? </p>
<p>U. Chi is known by folks that care about such things. It's not by the masses, who don't care. (OK, some don't care but do know. It's accidental...)</p>
<p>In all seriousness, this strikes me as another one of those prestige questions. If you want prestige, DON"T go to U. of C. Go to Notre Dame, for one.</p>
<p>Whats wrong with caring about what other people think about your college? We are always judged by things such as the clothes we wear, the language we use, and even our ethnicity. Isn't being judged by the academic institution that you attended one of the preferable characteristics to be judge by? I think you would agree that Chicago is a great school, and as far as I see it the OP is simply asking how much Chicago meets its potential in regards to recognition by the common person / how much it deserves (in relation to its academic excellence), and why there is such a discrepancy. </p>
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U. Chi is known by folks that care about such things. It's not by the masses, who don't care. (OK, some don't care but do know. It's accidental...)
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<h2>The OP already knows this...he already gave examples of this. He's asking WHY. I don't see why you have such an attitude; I hope you have a better day tomorrow.</h2>
<p>drummberdude_07: I don't know much about WUSTL but I have heard in this forum that they market themselves pretty good. Also, I think there was a discussion about how they changed certain things in order to be ranked so high in the USNWR and unfortunately such dubious rankings really affect how people view a college. Although Chicago doesnt seem to care (O'Neill actually talks against them quite a bit) they still hold a 'decent' rank (15 I think).</p>
<p>Ahh yes, Ted O'Neill is quite the rebel. He's an inspiration to me, really, with the way he fights things like the Common App, the SAT Writing, and Early Decision, and defends the Core. He's a dying breed among college admissions deans.</p>
<p>If one wants to see how much of a rebel, I recommend reading his essay in "College Unranked."</p>
<p>An excerpt:</p>
<p>"However, the event that stands out as different, as too much, as a turning point, was the moment when the [College] Board made a tactical error, at the meeting those of us present will never forget, when Gaston Caperton announced that we had amassed a surplus of $100 million and then led us off to the top of the World Trade Center to have a party. [.....] After checking out the views from Windows on the World, word came down that the College Board, the membership organization, would also be a for-profit company, collegeboard.com. [.....] In short the Board seemed more and more to be about marketing and revenue generating, for a time boldly as a dot.com, but still unrelentingly as a not-for-profit. [.....] There is no longer a dot com. Does that mean that marketing efforts have subsided? Every time there is a new Board forum, national or regional (and now, with the overwhelming Board presence -- short-lived, one hopes -- selling goods through NACAC "panels"), new schemes emerge for the selling of more things. A plan to offer lists of students who should be taking APs but who are not, with more rebates built in for schools with more test takers; an "AP diploma" that would pretend to rival a rigorous and coherent curriculum like the IB (more tests sold); and who knows what next? Just today, an announcement arrived, ill-worded and ill-conceived, that the College Board is "rolling out a new brand and is branding -- is branding -- is branding." Is this education? Is this English?"</p>
<p>My goodness. God praise you for that link!</p>
<p>eric is right (again. as always.)
idad has a magic sack of links indeed.</p>