<p>I dedicate this thread to collegedude01.</p>
<p>P.S. I got rejected at my ED Ivy and waitlisted at the other two. And...I'm fine with that until...until...so many little stupid things make me feel like perhaps...it is not okay.</p>
<p><em>shrug</em> Low confidencec is a *****.</p>
<p>I dunno why so many people at Chicago have this inferiority complex when it comes to Ivy league schools... we have a higher SAT average than half of them, and are not too far from the other ones.... our students are just as brilliant as those out in the East, and many of our departments (most notable English, Physics, Math, and Econ) rival, if not supercede, those at Ivies in terms of reputation.... what's the deal then with this ever-recurring topic!!!</p>
<p>DAMNIT, Pyramid....the Ivy league acceptees feast off of your low self-esteem.</p>
<p>lol, amen Esquared!</p>
<p>Yeah, but then they get terribly fat on the feasting and get slaughtered by our society which gives people complexes about their weight so it works out perfectly in the end.</p>
<p>The Chicago/Ivies thing comes up way too often for such a stupid topic; they are all fine schools and there are absolutely no generalizations that could be drawn about either to conclusively say one is better than the other. Even the term "Ivy" is ridiculous - prestige shouldn't be a deciding factor in which schools offer the highest quality of education.</p>
<p>these types of threads seem to be most prevalent on the uchi forum. for this, i blame the administration at uchi. uchi is fostering a sense of uchi being a second choice for an ivy caliber student and the students out there who has what it takes to get into an ivy knows it. uchi has turned itself into a landing spot for the disenfranchised who will take any ivy over uchi, but get no ivy acceptances and settle for uchi because uchi, after all, still has a great reputation in academic circles, which is what really should matter, but it doesn't. there are the few who will say that uchi is just as good as any of the ivys because of sat avgs, but that doesn't make uchi more attractive than an ivy, just that uchi has a minimal athletic program. the "self selective" argument is only the kool aid that the truly naive cling to which explains away all of uchi's troubles. even on a surface examination, "self selection" as an argument about the students is ludicris. what uchi needs to do is to change certain admissions policies so as to keep itself from being the landing spot for ivy rejects. ea is one of the major problems. as a highly regarded institution, uchi should go ed which will eliminate all the ivy ed applicants who throw in a uchi app just in case they don't get into the ivy of their choice. why people like collegedude01 would even be upset about not getting into an ivy is insane. he doesn't have the numbers to get into an ivy. a 3.2 gpa is a joke. he should thank his lucky stars that uchi accepts students with a 3.2. no ivy would take that unless the student runs a 4.2 40. the reality is that collegedude01 and pyramid are not ivy caliber and they should be thrilled that there is a place with a reputation like uchi with screwed up admissions policies that will accept them.</p>
<p>i am proud to say</p>
<p>no.</p>
<p>uchicago is and always will be my #1.
ivies are overrated. i want a real education.</p>
<p>***pwnt!!!</p>
<p>Ivy's give a real education too...
Define 'fake' education. No really, please...</p>
<p>Just since they're prestigious schools, doesn't mean they don't deserve the credit. Harvard, Yale, and Princeton have been dictating the standards of higher education, not only for the US but for the world.</p>
<p>While I do believe that some people apply for all the wrong reasons and are prestige sluts, the Ivy's have earned their place in higher education, rightfully so. Saying anything to the contrary is just out of pure jealousy.</p>
<p>I've heard of a lot of people rejecting Ivies for uchi...yale, princeton, etc</p>
<p>tiffanyeatsramen-</p>
<p>Bravo! Wonderfully stated.</p>
<p>tiffanyeatsramen, great post.</p>
<p>I've vistied a few Ivy schools and they- in my opinion- don't have as much itellectual chemistry as Uchicago. It was unbelieveable at Chicago's campus. </p>
<p>I don't think that we uchicagoans are jealous or under-estimating the ivies curriculumn. It just seems like soooooooo many people apply to those schools because of the name brand- nothing more. Some of those students, I observed, lacked passion and ambition without a name. Meaning, it seemed that the most of them were driven by networking at the schools, not education. </p>
<p>Yes those students will do pretty well in the real world considering their brand names, but I just didn't feel a sense of want and HARD, gut wrenching work towards education-over networking. </p>
<p>just my two cents</p>
<p>deciding: we've all heard of them too. we've also heard of bigfoot and the abominable snowman.</p>
<p>we'll never really know which schools are better.</p>
<p>Too many people on here bash ivies. Why? Who cares? I am sure Ivies are wonderful schools. They are harder to get in than Chicago is. Does that make them better? No. Does it make Chicago better? No. Is Chicago a better school? For some people. </p>
<p>In the end who cares? I agree with Blacknblue we have this ridiculous complex about ivies. Many choose ivies over Chicago. They have a more powerful name dropping effect, and are more competitive to get into. Does that make Chicago kids lesser people? I think not. Hell if school was based on name dropping then I made the wrong choice! When I thought for SURE I would be rejected from Chicago I was planning on going to NYU. So for a very brief period this is what I told people. They reacted with much more enthusiasm and "awe" than they do when I tell them I am going to Chicago. Many people outside of the academic circle are unaware of Chicago... I wonder why that is?... But who cares!? In the end what do you want? Who is to say that we wont go to Chicago and feel let down? YOu never know.</p>
<p>But stop the Ivy bashing. Saying they are bad schools and that Chicago is better (although it very well may be for YOU) does not make it so. </p>
<p>Blacknblue: Where are you going?</p>
<p>P.S. how do you get a feel for intelligence of a whole student body through a short visit?</p>
<p>Yeah, stop the bashing.
You're just making Chicago and yourself look bad.</p>
<p>i'm not bashing anybody, or at least i'm not intentionally trying to. i think anybody and everybody thinks that "ivies are the best" when that's not necessarily true. everybody bashes uchicago for "not being good enough" and i'm sick and tired of hearing it. </p>
<p>and ridethecliche-
you're riding the cliche (hehe) by defending the ivies' status. don't you think the harvard/yale/blah blah empire is dying? </p>
<p>there's more to life than measuring prestige of a school and whatnot. </p>
<p>just be proud that you're even getting an education, i suppose.</p>
<p>in the end, i'm happy with where i am going and everybody else should be, too. the real challenge is what we do when we get out of college and become leaders in the international community.</p>
<p>UChicago was my first choice school, and I still want to go there for grad school even though I got waitlisted at Chicago. It's all good considering that I probably wouldn't have been able to afford it anyway...</p>
<p>There's more to life than prestige, agreed. But that prestige is earned and not just thrown at a school. Your saying that the prestige means nothing is total ******** and lacks respect. Harvard is and will most likely continue to be the pinnacle of the standards of higher education. UChicago will never attain that status, not because it's a bad school, which it isn't, but just because it won't.</p>
<p>I'm damn proud i'm getting an education, the only thing i'm not proud of is the fact that it seems that i'm just going to go to the higest bidder as far as college goes...
But that's life, and a 40 grand difference is more than i can stomach.</p>
<p>i guess if it's "prestigious" that george bush went to yale... then by all means... </p>
<p>hahahaha whatever.
it's just a word. :)</p>
<p>prestige or no prestige, i'm going to college! yay!</p>
<p>and i definitely think that people should look at other things besides prestige when deciding where to go for college... but to each his own.</p>
<p>I concur about the need to end bashing, but I don`t see a reason why not to continue exploring the differences of these several institutions. I think that one of the reasons that so many of us may very well "suffer" from this Ivy complex is that several of us may have turned them down or decide not to apply altogether, and, consequently, live with the seemingly never-ending question: "but you didn't want to go to Harvard?"</p>
<p>I don't know how it was for all you people, but I quite vividly remember my parents speaking extremely sternly with me about how an idiotic move it was on my part not to apply to the big H (mind you a few weeks before I had just returned from 11 weeks at Harvard, and knew that it was not the experience I was looking for).</p>
<p>My point? - As its been suggested, Chicago might be a great school for YOU and Harvard may be better for someone else - I fully agree!!! But as we all know, not all of society sees this (read <a href="http://www.opinionjournal.com/taste/?id=110006623%5B/url%5D">http://www.opinionjournal.com/taste/?id=110006623</a> for a great insight into why), and so I find it only beneficial for us to discuss the pros/cons of each. I am, however, dismayed at people who complain when we point out the egregious grade inflation at a school like Harvard, the high (relatively, of course) student:teacher ratio, and the more concentrated focus on networking rather than academics. They are all simply facts. I know many current Harvard College students who fully agree, and some like that aspect of the school, and some don't. On the same plane, I know people at Chicago who were unpleasantly surprised when they saw that the intelectual atmosphere wasn't as fervent as they thought it would be, yet others would wholly disagree. </p>
<p>This is indeed all subjective, and I agree that they are all great schools. But let us not end the discourse on the differences of each, since, although many of us have made the ultimate decision by now, there will be several thousand down the line who may benefit from this discussion.</p>
<p>ChadH,</p>
<p>Its just that- A FEEL- not a fact. When I visited Uchicago I got a personal FEEL that those students enjoyed learning, or at least they put on a damn good illusion for the prospies. At a party I went to the students were heavily drinking and doing analysis at the same time. I never thought that was possible.</p>
<p>At the ivies, students' conversations that I overheard were indeed dry and unenthusiastic. They, the 70 or 80 students I met during my stay, didn't have a sense of humor; they seemed really uptight and conservative.</p>
<p>I'm not saying that my OpinionS are true for everyone. Hell, some people may think that the Bulldogs are the most driven students in the world. But I just didn't get that feel during my visit.</p>
<p>--to each, his own</p>