<p>For research purposes, I'd like to spark a little debate (I'm not sure if there's been a thread with this exact purpose before, though it has come up now and again; if I'm incorrect to start this thread, feel free to throw a link at me).</p>
<p>The premise up for discussion is:</p>
<p>From a purely ACADEMIC standpoint, and disregarding all other factors which might make a school "bad" or "good", the University of Chicago is unmatched. Do you agree or disagree with this statement, and why?</p>
<p>I wouldn’t say unmatched. U-Chicago is an amazing school; but unless the school offers a PhD in underwater basket weaving too, some school will beat them somewhere. Nobody is perfect.</p>
<p>I think ‘as good as any’ is defensible, but not ‘unmatched.’ There are a number of other schools with a similar institutional commitment to academic excellence, as well as comparable faculty/student quality.</p>
<p>Most of the more “knowledgeable” people I’ve talked to seem to regard Chicago as the equivalent of Princeton and Stanford in terms of academics… </p>
<p>Of course, their judgment is largely subjective (i.e. “I work with UChicago guys and they always seemed extremely well-prepared and apt”).</p>
<p>The only people who will usually believe UChicago is weaker than schools like Princeton are a lot of college applicants. Many people, even on this site, believe that the Ivy League schools are the only quality schools. In reality, they are wrong, but you see a lot of that. Other than that, UChicago has a great reputation. Graduate Schools view UChicago’s undergraduate school in a very positive light. Employers very much respect the UChicago. Internationally, UChicago has a GREAT reputation. Basically, the people who view it as a great school are the people who are educated about colleges.</p>
<p>^ I know that Chicago is a great school academically. In fact, it’s one of the strongest, but UChicago is not “unmatched.” Rather, it’s similar in caliber to other top schools. Not as it matters to an undergraduate like me anyway.</p>
I agree that some people on CC have a bit of an obsession with Ivies in particular, but I think you’ll find that the vast majority of CCers are among the most educated college applicants and thus, as you said, will rate Chicago highly.</p>
<p>Getting back to the original premise for this discussion, I would venture to say that while Chicago is not necessarily unmatched in terms of pure academics, it is probably the only university with a pervasive undergraduate intellectual atmosphere. I say university because there are also a few liberal arts colleges, notably Reed, where this atmosphere exists as well.</p>
<p>I agree to an extent. I mean, one of my best friends majored in rhetoric at UC-Berkeley and another did chem at the University of Florida. Both are highly intellectual and neither felt deprived intellectually or socially during their undergrad years because they found their academic and social niches.</p>
<p>What makes Chicago a little more special is that it takes what would be a smaller segment at another university and there’s a whole undergraduate population of students who are more or less similar in academic values.</p>
<p>Is it more intellectual than a school like Brown, Columbia, or Princeton, or another highly selective university that prides itself on its academic experience? Maybe; maybe not. I’ve always assumed these schools have more commonalities than differences.</p>
<p>Just to clarify, that’s why I included “pervasive.” Even amongst other strong schools, HYP included, there seems to be a stronger cultural embrace of intellectualism at Chicago than is present at almost every other school. Correct if I’m wrong though, seeing as you’re the alumnus and I’m just a measly RD candidate.</p>
<p>I agree that the colleges being discussed here are far more alike than they are different, and far more alike than most applicants and their families, and even current students, understand. And it follows from that that it would be awfully hard to defend “unmatched” enthusiastically. </p>
<p>The best argument for it, though, is the one some people have been giving: the universal commitment, among both students and faculty, to a culture of unconstrained intellectual inquiry. And, I would add, to a culture of civil academic conversation, which is really part of the university’s intellectualism but one that is often missing elsewhere. The Chicago faculty seems to avoid a lot of the rifts and partisanship one sees elsewhere because they really do treat one another with a lot of respect, they seem more willing than people elsewhere to reconsider their positions based on other people’s arguments, and no one there is ever allowed to confuse politics with intelligence. Every university will claim that it stands for something like that, but none of them walks the walk like Chicago.</p>