<p>Which do you think has a better campus?
On a 10 point scale, which school has the friendliest and most outgoing people?</p>
<p>Lastly and probably most importantly, which school has the most intellectual attitude? I'm not exactly the pre-professional type, and I'm not sure what I want to study in college. All I know is that I want a place where I can grow intellectually. I want a school that gives room to explore many options. Can you guys tell me what you know of these two schools? Thanks!</p>
<p>I’m not much use in this discussion, but one of my favorite quotes is pertinent:</p>
<p>I think that’s how Chicago got started. A bunch of people in New York said, “Gee, I’m enjoying the crime and the poverty, but it just isn’t cold enough. Let’s go west.”
<p>Hmmmm. the Big Apple or the south side of Chicago? Let me think. Seriously,The free spirits are at Columbia and it you can’t find them there then go to Greewich or Flat Iron.</p>
<p>I applied to both schools, but have only visited Columbia.
The vibe that I got on campus at Columbia was pretty laid-back, with really cool student tour guides and a good community feel.
All that I knew about Chicago before applying+CC came from the ~10 packages that they sent me in September/October/November. I got the feeling that UChicago is just as intellectually stimulating as Columbia, but more quirky and offbeat, which suits my style
Plus, I love both cities. They’re both large and withhold many internship opportunities (something that I will be looking forward to)</p>
<p>Disclosure: Columbia was my first choice, but I was deferred then rejected, and I am now a 1st year attending UChicago.</p>
<p>Better campus: UChicago (it’s pretty darn beautiful), but Columbia definitely has the better campus location if you want to spend a lot of time in the city. Chicago and NYC are both amazing cities, but Columbia is legitimately in NYC while UChicago is in the Southside, about 30 minutes by public transport from downtown Chicago.</p>
<p>Friendliest/most outgoing: I haven’t met many Columbia students, but I attend UChicago, and a large proportion of the students are very socially awkward, especially if you don’t get into one of the “mainstream” dorms (Max or South) as a first year. Not to say they aren’t friendly and eager to make friends, but they just don’t do it in a traditional/common way. That being said, my personal experience from living in the Northeast is that New York City has a knack for breeding a-holes that are significantly rarer in the Midwest. I don’t know how that specifically affects Columbia’s student population though.</p>
<p>Intellectual: UChicago definitely has a huge intellectual vibe to it. Some students take too much pride in this and end up sounding like conceited d-bags. This bothers me on occasion, but it’s not too too common. And ultimately I’m still really grateful that a lot of kids take their core curriculum seriously and are genuinely interested in the texts that we read. I’ve heard that Columbia is one of the more “intellectual” Ivies, but that’s the most I can say about it.</p>
<p>As for freedom to explore many options, I think UChicago’s “quarter” system (really trimester, since they count summer as a quarter) helps you take a few more classes during your time there. The standard is to take 4 classes per quarter, so 12 classes a year. I think it’s designed so that on average, one third of your classes will be core, one third will be your major, and one third will be electives. They’re pretty generous about allowing AP credit to fulfill core requirements, so I only need to take 10 classes for the core, and I was given credit for one of the classes required for my major. </p>
<p>My verdict: I can’t really imagine having a better academic experience at college than I am having right now, at UChicago. Nonetheless, I would rather be at Columbia, mostly for the location (I’m sort of obsessed with NYC), and partly for the (possibly, slightly) more socially mainstream student body.</p>
<p>Thank you Calexico! Your explanation was very helpful.</p>
<p>However, I’m slightly confused by how Chicago students are socially awkward. Can you elaborate on how that is so? The idea of a student body that is socially awkward definitely frightens me a little. I’ve heard nerdy, but I’ve never heard Chicago students mentioned as socially awkward. A Chicago student saying that makes it even more surprising.</p>
<p>I’ve been accepted to both of these schools, but haven’t visited either yet. I love the core in both of these schools and think they really my personality. Unfortunately my major doesn’t suit the schools, so we’ll see what happens come April. Most of the info I’ve gathered are from friends that have visited/ going or just reading info online, so please take it with a grain of salt.</p>
<p>Weather: I have gone to New York (in the winter) and used to live in Illinois and in my opinion both are pretty soggy and miserable when it’s cold. It really won’t make much of a difference weather wise. In my opinion, Illinois is great in the summer and we’ll see what Columbia is like during spring. </p>
<p>Grading: It’s not incredibly important unless you plan to go to graduate school, but Columbia and Uchic have different grading systems. UChic is known for grade deflation, whereas Columbia is not… to say the least. Either way the classes are going to be hard and you’re still going to have to work for your grades, but if GPA is big on your list of worries, Columbia will make it easier for you to get As. According to my Uchic interviewer, at least one class in UChic is going to make you say screw (yay euphemisms) it there’s no way I can do well. It’s not like it’s any easier at Columbia either though :)</p>
<p>The Core: Columbia has a set of classes known as the Core, whereas Uchic has a set of subjects in which you can pick classes for as theirs. I like the idea of sharing the same classes in Columbia better as that seems like the best way to make friends, but I also see the practicality of having a bit more room to choose.</p>
<p>Prestige: Icky subject I honestly don’t know much about how they’re seen in the business world so I hope someone can expand on this to help me as well. I thought Uchci was a state school for the longest time until around sophomore year. Then again I also thought Columbia was a school in England until about high school. ( Not the brightest kid alert here ) I’ve tried to get a better idea of how people see both schools now. I’ve had longer to figure out Uchic and it seems to be very strong in econ and therefore business, physics and bio, and law. There are probably others, but those were the ones that caught my eye. Columbia, I don’t know as well. It seems to produce a lot of people in finance however. Unfortunately Uchic has denied the existence of engineering in its majors and Columbia seems to be trying very hard to attract engineering students. </p>
<p>People: I really can’t tell you much here. Most of the friends I know who have applied and gotten into Uchic are really smart but also as mentioned before not extremely social. There is definitely a socially awkward aspect to Uchic that Columbia doesn’t seem to embody. One of my friends visited this mid-winter break and told me he had an entire conversation with a physics major who was brilliant, but also couldn’t make eye contact with him during the entire conversation. However, I also went to a Uchic gathering a few months ago and all of the alumni there were fine, though some were a bit on the nerdy side lol. I’m personally pretty socially ■■■■■■■■ around strangers but become fine once I get to know someone. So I guess I would fit the Uchic “stereotype”. I don’t think this aspect of the school really attracts me however. I only have one friend going to Columbia. She’s also a bit crazy (see the pattern of friends that I have yet? lol) but I think what differentiates her from my Uchic accepted friends is that she’s very ambitious. That’s just my two cents on how I see the schools differently. Uchic does have its weird students, but it is mostly filled with very smart and also very ambitious students. I think I’ve heard about Uchic producing a lot more intellectual, professor like students than industry driven people however. My idea of Columbia isn’t very clear yet. I can’t wait to get to know it better come spring </p>
<p>Anyways my fish are starting to eat my new duckweed D: I’m gonna stop talking now and feed them.</p>
<p>“Some students take too much pride in this (the intellectual atmosphere) and end up sounding like conceited d-bags.”
This is so true. Just take a look at the Chicago forum on CC.
Thank you for being honest Calexico.</p>
<p>No problem! Actually, now that you bring it up, I think “nerdy” is a much better term than “socially awkward”. And even then, my perspective is probably skewed by living in a dorm that is generally considered a little weirder and nerdier than the rest of the school.</p>
<p>I graduated from Chicago in 1989, when the number of applicants was relatively small. Many who applied then were essentially “self-selected,” because the reputation of the school as an intellectual hothouse for nerds was unattractive to most college applicants (in 1989 probably 7,000 applicants; 2013, 30,000 applicants!). It was a little oasis. What struck me, however, is that Chicagoans did not want the school to become an Ivy-League clone, we reveled in what set Chicago apart from better-known, more prestigious schools. I was NOT an H, Y, P reject, for the record. I went to U of C because it WAS the U of C. If you read one of the posted threads at the Chicago Forum, however, you will note that Chicago has tried, apparently very successfully, to reshape its public image: it has abandoned full-blown quirkiness for mainstream appeal. </p>
<p>What I have noticed – particularly on the Chicago forum – is how many Chicagoans seem to have become “prestige whores,” wondering anxiously when Chicago will supplant either H, Y, or P. They have become both anxious and arrogant with P.R. success and are really pushing the prestige buttons. What they don’t realize is that to supplant H, Y, or P, Chicago has to defeat C (Columbia). I don’t like the tone of the “new” Chicago, at least as represented on the CC forum. </p>
<p>I also have a very close relative at Columbia. What I have noticed about the two student bodies circa 2013, is that Columbians are much more secure in their status as students at the intellectual Ivy, and rarely obsess about supplanting H, Y, or P. Not because they don’t believe their school is equal to or superior in some ways to H, Y, or P, but because Columbians seem a bit more “chill” about who and where they are. Unlike the crumbling aristocracy that believes only H, Y, and P are “true” Ivy League colleges, Columbians seem not as caught up in all the prestige nonsense. Chicagoans recent obsession with rankings and with supplanting H, Y, or P seems to suggest a lack of comfort with what Chicago uniquely is. Back in my day, THAT is what we cared about: what was unique to our Chicago experience. It seems as though today’s Chicagoans will not feel secure in the school’s rising status unless it officially dethrones one of the so-called Big Three. And that kind of insecure arrogance is rampant on the Chicago forum. I hope the forum does not represent the school.</p>
<p>Therefore, go visit. Were I a college applicant today, I might pick Columbia over Chicago, for curricular, and personal reasons. Chicago 2013 is not the Chicago I remember and revere. It is trying too hard just to be another “prestigious” school. That is very un-Chicagoan.</p>
<p>I completely agree with the above poster. I also used to have a very positive impression of the University of Chicago, however, the current crop of students make me sick to my stomach (this is a generalization based on what I have been witnessing on the Chicago forum).
There is so much self-aggrandizement and arrogance evident on that forum that I find myself actively rooting against the university. I literally cringe when I read something vacuous and condescending posted by members of the Chicago forum, and I would advise anyone who is seriously considering attending Chicago to be absolutely certain that they will be able to tolerate the company of such individuals over the course of four years.</p>
<p>Better campus: Probably Chicago, purely out of space constraints. New York more than makes up for it, though.</p>
<p>Friendly: Columbia, but not by much. The stereotypes for both schools are kind of true, and campus can seem like a cold place if you don’t find your niche. It’s there if you look for it, though.</p>
<p>Intellectual nature: You really can’t go wrong between the two. Obviously, both have their fair share of pre-professional sharp-shooters, Columbia being a top feeder to finance/consulting positions and law/med schools. But really, both are significantly more academically oriented than your typical school and more than adequately prepare you for great PHD programs. Really, only liberal arts colleges have a more intellectual atmosphere, to the point where it might be a hindrance if you change your mind down the line about your goals.</p>
<p>You can’t go wrong between the two just based on these. Assuming you got into both, evaluate them on other criteria (fin aid, location, social atmosphere, dorms).</p>
It’s hard to be intellectual without being snobbish.</p>
<p>
The sample is extremely tiny (barely 2-3 active 2017 EA admits) and so heavily skewed. Do you expect a forum, even one of UChicago, to exist without a locus of identity external to itself? Maybe you should try the UChicago Facebook group, where the most prominent discussions are about the greatest academics, the quickest way to become a polyglot, and favorite poets.</p>
<p>You may want to compare apples to apples and see how the analogous thread on the UChicago forum is doing.</p>
<p>
If that was the only reason for self-selection, I don’t see how it isn’t applicable today, and judging by how you derisively speak of UChicago’s intellectualism, you (and Gailforce for that matter) would agree.</p>
<p>
How many? 4? I’ve seen 2 threads talking about UChicago supplanting HYP, and most of the responses have been dismissive of the idea of a college supplanting another.</p>
<p>
In what? Rankings? USNews and ARWU are the only rankings in which UChicago doesn’t outright beat Columbia (it’s tied with Columbia in one, and one rank behind Columbia in the other). In prestigious scholarships (even without correcting for Columbia’s larger student body)? In endowment per student? In student stats (SAT/GPA ranges, % of people in SAT/GPA ranges). UChicago is ahead in all these metrics…</p>
<p>I say UChicago is about equal to Columbia (and that is being generous to Columbia), but it’s really nothing worth mentioning. The impression that UChicago is “behind” Columbia is anachronistic, but also ridiculous, not least because the idea of a college being “supplanting” another is preposterous. </p>
This coming from the person who suggested Columbia over Chicago “in the blink of an eye”. </p>
<p>
I don’t think any Chicagoan is oblivious to the fact that Chicago is “rising”. “Rising” and beating HYP are two very different things. That we are “rising” is an inescapable fact. That we are beating out (or on par with) any of the big three, is disputable. S and M should be part of the big three though.</p>
<p>
Something tells me that you did not altogether escape the sanctimoniousness that UChicago allegedly bestows upon it’s students.</p>
<p>
Finally, some acknowledgement of the fact that half a dozen kids may not be representative of a school.</p>
Chicago does have a reputation for being very unchicagoan…</p>
<p>
Three posts in, Gailforce admits that his entire impression of UChicago is based on the terrible sample, that is a college confidential forum.</p>
<p>
I’ve heard the UChicagoans tend to self-lacerate ([Think</a> we’ve got it bad? U. Chicago has it worse - The Daily Princetonian](<a href=“http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/2000/03/07/399/]Think”>http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/2000/03/07/399/))
I’ve heard people saying that UChicago did more of the telling than the selling and: “had these facts to offer, but didn’t seem too keen on promoting them” ([A</a> Windy City Welcome Weekend at Chicago Booth | MBA Over 30](<a href=“日本草莓视频-如何下载草莓视频-色版草莓视频-色草莓视频”>日本草莓视频-如何下载草莓视频-色版草莓视频-色草莓视频))
^ Caveat, that’s the B-School, but they should be (and have every right to be) the most snobbish of all of UChicago (top 3 B-School, but I digress).</p>
<p>
By what he’s said, I’m guessing BJ or Snitchcock…</p>
<p>
From what I’ve heard, it’s more one part nerdy and two parts quirky than socially awkward. We’re probably more socially awkward than Columbia’s students in general, but you can definitely find your crowd here. Oh, and I hear that UChicago is shedding it’s quirkiness in favor of a more mainstream student body (or at least that’s what most people on this thread are saying).</p>
<p>I am posting for the first time and have to agree that the CC forum for Chicago doesn’t make it look very good. My child is attending Chicago in the fall and has been so turned off by the snobbery and also status/prestige consciousness of the CC’ers on that board that he stopped reading it.</p>
<p>He knows he will find regular UChicago kids when he gets there, and knows that CC kids are often not representative of the larger population of students, but he mentioned that it definitely comes off as sort of desperate nerd trying to join the popular group while still maintaining a brainiac snobbishness. </p>
<p>For my son, the appeal of Chicago was that it isn’t part of that Ivy League status/competition and he mourns the culture change.</p>
<p>He is also awaiting results at Columbia. If he should be admitted he will go spend a day there and might go there, something that was inconceivable 3 months ago when he was all Chicago, all the time.</p>
<p>cjforme, please understand that the posters on cc UChicago are not at all indicative of the students attending the school. Most students at the school don’t pay any attention to to cc; my son never did. He also was drawn to the fact that UChicago was not part of the Ivy League culture/competition. While he senses there is a change in student body that is more in line with the type of student who would attend HYP or Columbia, the overall culture of the school is still the same UChicago that attracted him in his college search. He is finishing his first year now, and has been very pleased with his choice to attend UChicago.</p>
<p>@cjforme
What you said seems rather contradictory (one the one hand you say that you realize that CC isn’t at all representative of the student body at large, and in the same vein you’re basing an opinion on CC), but I agree that the right decision is to visit. Maybe you could report back afterwards and forever quell the myths (either way).</p>
<p>I wouldn’t want to call out certain posters and mainly I think it is teenage enthusiasm and sometimes a but of hubris and that’s understandable and natural.</p>
<p>I just think the tone has changed a bit from when my older son applied to Chicago several years ago and for our family the change is for the worse not the better.</p>
<p>So who knows what he will find on campus, I am actually one who believes kids can have a fantastic experience at almost any school (it is what you make of it) but there are certainly kids who get their first impressions from CC forums and this years postings seem less “Chicago-y” than those in the past.</p>
<p>I understand why this seems like a huge deal to seniors. It IS a big deal but these are such amazing, elite schools that nit picking among them seems a little “privileged/lucky people” problems As I often said to my children “Be Nice” and you seem much more confident and assured.</p>
I honestly don’t know much about how they’re seen in the business world so I hope someone can expand on this to help me as well. I thought Uchci was a state school for the longest time until around sophomore year. Then again I also thought Columbia was a school in England until about high school. ( Not the brightest kid alert here 
) I’ve tried to get a better idea of how people see both schools now. I’ve had longer to figure out Uchic and it seems to be very strong in econ and therefore business, physics and bio, and law. There are probably others, but those were the ones that caught my eye. Columbia, I don’t know as well. It seems to produce a lot of people in finance however. Unfortunately Uchic has denied the existence of engineering in its majors and Columbia seems to be trying very hard to attract engineering students. </p>
</p>