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I can't tell if that's sarcasm
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<p>No it was genuine. You just got through saying they'd drop the UnCommon App for prestige purposes, and whadya know. Two days later.</p>
<p>actually it was a little more than two days ago; see the bumped thread that nobody responded to.</p>
<p>well, whatever, good job Miss Cleo. You can spot a whore from weeks away.</p>
<p>Around here, "Columbia" refers to Columbia College in Chicago. And UChicago translates either "Oooo AMAZING" or "UIC". What is sad is that I only live about 2 hours from Chicago. I think it's more of a urban/rural affluent/undereducated split than regional, although regional ties obviously play a part (insert bias against stuffy liberal northeasterners here).</p>
<p>i don't get the point of the last few posts...</p>
<p>lmao - tennisdude could spot a prestige whore several days in advance...shortly after he said they'd go to the common app, they did.</p>
<p>With the number of schools using the common app, including pretigious ones, I don't know that it's "being a prestige whore" as much as leveling the playing field, whether you view that as good or not.</p>
<p>One must wonder why Chicago would choose to convert to the Common Application if it already has a fair share of competitive applicants that are interested enough to write strange essays. I could make an educated guess.</p>
<p>Maybe it doesn't think it has enough. Or maybe it just wants MORE than its fair share so it can admit better students, thus improving the school. On second thought, maybe it just wants to make you angry.</p>
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On second thought, maybe it just wants to make you angry.
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<p>That's probably it.</p>
<p>idad,
I love your posts on this topic, especially #10: </p>
<p>"Let's face it, the man on the street equates Stanford with Northwestern, that is, private schools that somehow mange to field big time sports teams. The Ivy League means little more than a weak football conference where the rich kids go. U of C and UIC, aren't they the same school (if they have heard of them at all)? Harvard, Princeton, and Yale is where spoiled, not necessarily smart, old money son's and daughters go to school. Duke along with its neighbor North Carolina (not knowing which one or, if any of them, is a private school)has a great basketball program. The state U's are where the good teams are."</p>
<p>In six sentences you encapsulate the ying and yang of the "prestige wars" that so often dominate CC.</p>
<p>Why do people continue to incorrectly equate a school's prestige with its popularity? Just because everyone in the country has heard of Ford doesn't make Ford a more prestigious car than a Maserati. Generally, when we talk about prestigious schools, we should be more concerned with the perceptions held by people with knowledge or influence rather than Joe "dishwasher" Schmoe. Personally, I could care less if the common guy/girl on the street has never heard of my school. It only is important to me if that person is head of recruiting at the company where I seek employment.</p>
<p>I don't agree with the switch to the Common App either, but in all fairness, Chicago intends to retain the essays in the form of the supplement.</p>
<p>"My gut (and it's just a guess, OK?) tells me that Vassar is better known around the country than Brown, and that most people would tell you that Penn is the state school of Pennsylvania."</p>
<p>heh, I doubt that's true about Vassar...I think in general larger universities tend to be more well known than small liberal arts colleges.<br>
Examples:
When I told my parents that I was going to apply to Wesleyan, they thought I meant Wellesley for the longest time.<br>
I live about five minutes away from Haverford College, and even though it's ranked in the top 10 LACs, people that I talk to who aren't from the area or aren't looking to apply to LACs haven't even heard of it.</p>
<p>I only know the Penn thing to be true in one instance...a girl in my English class last year said she was applying to Penn as her safety, and everyone immediately started telling her she was crazy, but she actually meant Penn State when everyone else thought she meant UPenn.</p>
<p>As much as I dislike the common app and all it stands for, I don't think UChicago is going to change that much. More people might apply, but high caliber students will still get accepted. I honestly see no need for the change, because the un-common application was amazing. The argument that the un-common app discouraged some "intelligent" students from applying is totally bogus: if you don't have the intellectual fortitude to write like an extra couple of paragraphs, then you shouldn't go here.</p>
<p>UChicago has been considered one of the world's finest universities for a long time (11 on the Times Higher Education Suppliment in the world), though more for graduate study then undergraduate.</p>
<p>Pulkit, i suggest you worry less about the prestige cos after a certain cut off, it ain't gonna matter much. </p>
<p>After all, who's gonna say: oh i think a berkely grad is better than a uchic grad than a blah blah blah grad. </p>
<p>its more a matter of which sort of person matches which sorta job no? or course? i mean, u noe what uchic is famous for, look for employers/jobs that value this sorta thing or somethin.</p>
<p>Oh and Daigh, how astute! Its true...sadly...Narnia is only home to my innermost being. My 'other' location is somewhere much much more mundane.</p>
<p>theskyfellin:</p>
<p>Well. I can't prove it and you can't prove it. It's just my sense that Vassar was the best known name (nationwide) among the seven sisters, and that this name recognition still exists to some degree. I base that only on the schools I had heard of when I was growing up and the response I got from others when two of my children were admitted by Vassar (neither attended). On the other hand, the name "Brown" just hasn't evoked that sort of response.</p>
<p>Now, I don't live in the Northeast, and I'm sure things are different there.</p>