<p>Does it matter? It depends on what you mean by matter. The qualitative experience of those schools will be different. Chicago and Middlebury will be filled with top students - even the very bottom students will have been in the top 25% of their high school classes, and accomplished students to boot. There are opportunities at those schools that may be unavailable at other places, and the environment may be intellectually stimulating in a way that Temple won’t be. I mean, I liked my small LAC and the students there were driven and ambitious. But I’m a grad student at Columbia and the students here are on a completely different level as far as prior accomplishments and future endeavors. Had I come here for undergrad (and I’m glad I went to my school - but as a thought experiment) I would’ve been exposed to things I never imagined possible, and probably learned a lot about options I didn’t know existed.</p>
<p>A motivated and driven student can access top graduate schools/med schools from virtually anywhere, including Temple. If cost is negligible, though, and the cost would be the same at either place, I would definitely not even consider Temple. You have two of the best schools in the nation available at an affordable price.</p>
<p>Do people care about prestige? Yes, they do. While people can be successful from any school and it won’t matter much once she has a graduate degree, I have noticed that people give my Columbia pedigree a second look when I mention it. It impresses people. I’ve no doubt (and have been told) that some of the recent interest in my CV, as I look for postdocs, comes from the fact that I am being trained at an Ivy League university. Plus, prestigious schools offer intangible things like I mentioned above - intellectually driven classmates, better resources, better career centers, more connected alumni networks. If this was a cost issue, it wouldn’t matter, as she could succeed anywhere; however, given the choice, she should certainly choose UChicago or Middlebury. The network she forms at either one of those schools (but especially UChicago, as you opine) will be vastly different than the kind of network she forms at Temple. I mean, my LAC classmates were no slouches and many of them have recently graduated from prestigious med schools or law schools or are finishing up PhD programs now at top places, like me. But coming to a place like this, or like UChicago, you meet future hedge fund managers and investment bankers and ambassadors and people like that. It’s just qualitatively <em>different</em>.</p>
<p>At this point I think it would be down to personal choice. You sound like you’re a fan of Chicago but that you are trying to convince your daughter. Personally, I know I’d thrive in a small and intimate environment in a bucolic setting more than a quirky place like UChicago in a gritty city like Chicago, so I would choose Middlebury over UChicago even if people perceive it as better. Really, Middlebury is consistently ranked in the top 5 colleges in the country so I don’t think there’s too much difference re: selectivity and prestige between them (reputation is different; more people are familiar with UChicago than Midd, but the people who need to know Midd know Midd. The job prospect “second look” may be a bit different outside of the Northeast/East Coast, though; more people in, say CA or OR or TX will be familiar with UChicago than Midd).</p>
<p>She talked to someone who went to Stanford for a year, came back home to Temple, loved it, and then went to Chicago for grad school, but I think their case is an extreme abnormality.</p>
<p>I don’t think it’s an “extreme” abnormality. I know many people who went to more prestigious graduate schools than their undergrad was. I myself dreamed of attending Columbia as an undergrad, but couldn’t afford it. I went to a top 100 LAC on a full merit scholarship and ended up at Columbia for graduate school.</p>
<p>Still, I say she should choose Chicago or Midd.</p>