Chicago v. Michigan

<p>I have been accepted into University of Michigan EA and University of Chicago EA. I have a serious interest in public policy studies with a concentration in education. </p>

<p>What is your opinion about which university I should attend and why?</p>

<p>I believe we have a guy here who was also accepted to both. ab1234209 or something like that. He ended up going to Michigan, but he’d def be the guy to talk to about the differences between the two.</p>

<p>thats entirely up to you.</p>

<p>Son is accepted to both. But I have a feeling that UM will not have a good financial package of OOS because it’s a state school… I might be wrong…</p>

<p>Yeah, it was ABsomething, try searching for waitlist threads from last year, and you should be able to find it.</p>

<p>Alright thanks guys</p>

<p>Congrats on getting into both those institutions. It truly is an accomplishment (be proud!). Now, if you want to compare those two institutions in public policy studies, then I would best advise you to go to the faculty pages (to see what areas the faculty specializes in)/course listing for that department/graduate school (or job, whichever you want) placement stats. No rankings, no comments from people on college confidential, or basically, nothing, can be used to compare the two institutions for you (besides, maybe, graduate school/job placement stats) besides your individual interests and own point of view. Courses available at UMich may not be available at UChicago (courses that you would enjoy taking), and vice versa, faculty at UMich may specialize in specifics of public policy studies that you aren’t particularly interested in, and, again, vice versa. You simply have to determine which factors are important to you, and then attempt to compare the two institutions using those factors. Granted, there is virtually no way to quantitatively compare the two institutions and so, in the end, it’s going to come down to an imperfect comparison between the two institutions but you assuredly should try your best to compare them. Personally, I would say that you couldn’t go wrong with either of your choices as both of those universities are world class universities that most students would love to go to if only they were given the opportunity. All in all, if you have the capability of getting into both of those institutions, then there certainly must be something special about you and you most likely can make the most rational decision possible, so all I can do is wish you good luck.</p>

<p>Sorry if some of this isn’t applicable to public policy studies (although I think it is) or if some of this is incoherent as I have a massive headache right now and too much homework to do :(.</p>

<p>There’s no need for that hostility around here.</p>

<p>It’s quite common for students to get accepted based off of their “connections” to the school. When I went to the University of Chicago about 15 years ago, my roommate got in just because he knew somebody, I don’t quite remember the specifics of the matter but it was happening and I’m sure it continues to happen in every university. </p>

<p>But by my recollections, the University of Chicago’s public policy program wasn’t all that great, in terms of quality of teaching, student environment, funding, enthusiasm towards real-world application (Something that one would assume be intrinsic to the studies) and “prestige”</p>

<p>I’m not sure on the University of Michigan however.</p>

<p>Interesting… </p>

<p>i had a similar experience my graduate year of high-school. I graduated in 06, and was accepted both to Johns Hopkins University, and New York university. I had interest in both the fields they majored in so i was truly unsure. It was one of those “make or brake” situations.</p>

<p>I was sitting at home explaining the collage dilemma to my parents. I really wasn’t sure what to do at the time, both were renown and outstanding collages. </p>

<p>Then i realized the answer was simple. I had to divide it into a clean pro and con list. I decided to go to the local library for further information (my network was down). I told my parents goodbye and headed out. I went outside whistled for a cab and when it came near,The license plate said fresh and it had dice in the mirror. If anything I can say this cab is rare, but I thought ‘Now forget it’ - ‘Yo homes to Bel Air’ I pulled up to the house about 7 or 8 and I yelled to the cabbie ‘Yo homes smell ya later’. I looked at my kingdom.I was finally there,to sit on my throne as the Prince of Bel Air.</p>

<p>Since neither JHU nor NYU are at Bel Air I take that posting in this thread was a joke.</p>

<p>I just got off of the phone with somebody I knew who majored in Mass Media and knew very many people in the public policy area (I’m a devout alumni) and he actually thought the studies were very intensive but lacking actual meaning, comparing it to a typical high-school class rather than a real-world college course. I’m not sure on whether that helps or not.</p>

<p>Well. I don’t have any connections. I think my extracurriculars, essays and coarseload pulled me through. I appreciate all of yall’s timein responding to this. I like the Fresh Prince… good show that doesn’t really relate, but thats cool anyways. </p>

<p>I have been looking at Chicago and they have a lot more emphasis on the Core Curriculum. For someone who has gone there, how intense are the math and science programs in that?</p>

<p>19 APs doesn’t sound like “awful” to me.</p>

<p>I think you should focus on the location and type (private/public) of the two colleges. I really doubt they have a significant difference in academics and people here on CC aren’t going to be able to help you with that.</p>

<p>I got accepted at both too!</p>

<p>The Core Curriculum at UC is literally the same that you’d get pretty much anywhere, it’s extremely standard. It’s dull, dry, work-intensive, demanding for no apparent reason. It seems like every class you take is a filter class, but it’s ever year. I regret not going to a local community college to get my core classes done first. In fact, the Chicago has many community colleges, have you looked at those?</p>

<p>You can’t be serious blackholacola. I’ll admit that I’ve had some of my friends get deferred/rejected from places where I thought that they’d get in (UChicago included…all the kids from my school got deferred/rejected :(), but is it really that hard to believe that people get into universities on the sole basis of merit alone? I don’t understand what kind of assumptions you drew from his statistics that made you suspect him of being unqualified to make it into these schools by his own merit, but, whatever assumptions you did draw are inherently flawed. Did you see his teacher recommendations? Did you read his essays? Did you see his transcript and see what classes he took throughout his time at high school? Did you see his application in relation to the rest of the applicant pool? Did you see his application from the perspective of his socioeconomic and geographical background (along with his application in relation to the school that he’s in)? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then you’d be lying since you’re obviously no adcom. Now, let’s build off that. How can you possibly deduce the legitimacy of your statements from the mere statistics that he posted on CC? The statistics provided here and the mere remarks of recommendations being ‘good’ cannot allow you to deduce ANYTHING at all. There is no such thing as a ‘good’ recommendation or a ‘good’ essay. First off, everyone thinks that their essay is good because they crafted the ideas for it in their mind and, to them, it makes sense and is written in a way that they believe is good quality. However, that doesn’t mean that the essay is actually ‘good’ under any meaning of the term. The adcom may find that the essay does not tell them anything about the individual, only that the essay seems to have good structure and syntax. The essay may seem too cliche to the adcom while the student does not think so, etc. etc. The point is, you didn’t see their application, you can’t read the mind of the admissions officers, and, therefore, you can’t make any valid judgments. Don’t be blaming your failures on some irrational belief that everyone who got in over you cheated their way there (including this yoshorty fellow) as those are completely erroneous. I understand the anger and inadequacy that you’re probably feeling after getting deferred/rejected, and I understand that you may want to vent some of that anger, but just remember - they only rejected a stack of papers with your name on it, not you. (I know I do this too much, but I should be getting to bed because I’m really tired so sorry for any rambling!)</p>

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<p>Yeah, right. Like UC would accept any community college credit. It’s hard enough to get credit from a top private university. </p>

<p>Also, the Core has undergone some changes since you went to college 15 years ago.</p>

<p>Sorry for the double post, but I feel the need to address WilksF: A core curriculum is not for everyone. Quite frankly, only certain institutions can keep a core without diluting the education one receives from the university. The reason? A core is meant for people who want to learn something about everything; people who want to actually understand everything that they possibly can about the world. Most people have limited interests and sometimes only concern themselves with one subject that they are passionate about or just have interests in getting a job in the future (they view their education as a mere means to some greater goal that involves lots of money and, sometimes, don’t want to learn anything at all). Without a driven student body, a student body that actually likes to learn, there is no reason for a core. All it does is dilute the students’ education by making them memorize a bunch of facts that they can instantaneously forget the second that they finish their final in a class since they aren’t interested in the subject(s) being covered. Not only that, but a class isn’t truly a class unless there are people in the class that have inquisitive minds; minds that aren’t afraid to challenge the concepts being learned and have intellectual discussions about the topic. And no, it doesn’t matter what major a person wants to pursue or where they are passionate about. A student body composed of people that are actually built for the core can have intellectual discussions about anything - no matter the topic. I would think that that’s what UChicago would look for in prospective students, but I don’t know how you slipped by (if you do, indeed, go to UChicago). Regardless, the solution isn’t to go to Chicago community colleges before going to UChicago - the solution is to not go to UChicago at all if you dislike the core so much. (I have a feeling that this is incoherent rambling, but I can’t even concentrate for more than 3 seconds to reread this thing again, so sorry if this post is completely ■■■■■■■■! Time for me to go to bed >_>.)</p>

<p>UChicago’s core curriculum is not extremely standard or in any way relevant to anything having to do with a community college. The core classes are challenging and have lots of meaning, they do give you a lot of broad background which is actually interesting and useful. The classes are also unique. I’m pretty sure UChicagos core curriculum accomplishes more than a community college does.</p>

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<p>qq. Someone who has better connections than me got in. QQ life isn’t fair. Oh wait, life ISN’T meant to be fair. Suck it up kid.</p>