<p>I still have no idea as to where I want to go for my undergrad experience, but I am 99% sure I want to attend the University of Chicago for graduate school, either to pursue a master's in the social sciences field or to attend the Booth School of Business. That being said, I am wondering if there is any advantage or disadvantage in attending UChicago for undergrad too ( I was admitted EA). I know that at some schools, like UC Berkeley, the faculty encourages students to broaden out and go to other institutions for their Master's; in fact, I know a current UC Berkeley senior whose academic advisor doesn't want him to stay at Berkeley. Is UChicago like this?</p>
<p>On a personal level, I'm thinking that it'll be great to go to different schools in different parts of the country for undergrad and grad, but I know that getting into an academic powerhouse like UChicago for graduate school will be very difficult (esp. Booth). Would going there for undergrad help?!</p>
<p>General impression: No, UChicago normally does not accept its undergraduates into its graduate programs. It seems to operate like UC Berkeley, in that it wants you to network outside of the university when you start applying for graduate schools.</p>
<p>I have, however, come across a few graduate students who have attended UChicago for undergrad. One of them switched majors (from English for undergrad to Slavic Language for grad school, if I’m not mistaken), which he mentions may have helped him in the admissions process. Another grad student actually stayed in the same major, but her area of study is apparently so specific that UChicago’s only one of four institutions that actually has a program that fits her requirements, so that also may have affected the admissions outcome. (At least, that’s what she told me when I asked.) So, it’s not impossible to be accepted for grad school at UChicago if you also attend its undergrad, but it seems to be a rare occurrence.</p>
<p>I don’t think what neltharion says is really accurate. For academic terminal master’s programs (i.e., not MBA), depending on the program, there are lots of Chicago graduates. (Some programs are not really designed for them, because they are there to buff up the resumes of people who went to lesser-known colleges.) In the law and business schools, I don’t know the precise numbers, but I am certain that the college is the #1 feeder. Probably to less of an extent than with Harvard College and Harvard Law School, though, or Penn/Penn Law School, but not by that much.</p>
<p>Some parts of the dynamic are never going to change: more personal ties, or personal ties once removed, more accepted students decide to attend, more students get accepted because it’s more likely they will attend, but the professional school wants to make certain it is getting students from everywhere, not just it’s own college.</p>
<p>I strongly disagree with neltharion, and agree with JHS. To put it bluntly, from what I know, Chicago’s grad programs have a strong preference for the undergrad. I have friends at Pritzker Med, Chicago Law, Booth etc., and especially for the professional schools, Chicago seems to be pretty incestuous. From what I recall at Chicago Law, out of a class of 180 or so, 12-16 students went to Chicago undergrad. That’s pretty much equivalent a ratio to the 20-25 penn undergrads a year who go on to Penn Law (UPenn law has a class size of about 250). There are tons of Chicago undergrads at Chicago Booth, Pritzker as well. </p>
<p>For the grad schools, it may be different because the Chicago undergrad emphasizes sending its students to OTHER grad schools. From what I know, it’s a bit frowned upon to get a PhD from the school that grants you your undergrad degree. </p>
<p>Overall though, yeah, I’d say incest is significant at Chicago.</p>
<p>Chicago has a program that accepts graduating Chicago undergrads into Booth, they then work for a couple of years before attending, no further application required. Chicago also has an MA program in the social sciences (MAPSS) that often can be combined with the BA degree and has but one required course. The student can draw from the entire social science and related spectrum of courses to design a focus. BA/MA degrees are also available through the School of Social Service Administration, the Committee on International Relations, and others.</p>
<p>Even back in the day, we had several U of C graduates in our lab at Chicago seeking graduate degrees. There was a time when Chicago actively discouraged undergrads from applying to grad school at Chicago, but that was a very long time ago.</p>
<p>UChicago undergrads make up the largest portion of UChicago Law School. Cue7, the number of UChicago undergrads at UChicago Law School is much higher than 12-16. From what I heard, there are currently about 26-30 students who attended UChicago for undergrad in a given class.</p>
<p>Oh, my bad. I should have clarified. I was mostly talking about this situation:</p>
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<p>Most of the grad students I’ve talked to who attended undergrad here have told me it’s typically uncommon. Granted, all of them are in the Slavic Language department, so my sample size is terribly small.</p>
<p>Divine Comedy - Whoa, are you sure about that? 25-30 Chicago undergrads in a given CLASS at chicago law? I got my 12-16 students figure from when I checked the law placement stats in the pre-law advisors office a loooong time ago (like, 14 years ago). </p>
<p>Chicago undergrad has gotten stronger of late, so it’s very possible that 25-30 chicago undergrads are in a given class at chicago law, but that still seems like a LOT to me. Having close to 1 of every 5 students hailing from Chicago undergrad seems like a ton - even more than the ratio found at Columbia, NYU, etc.</p>
<p>Two of S1’s friends are now at law school at Chicago and they said a very large group hail from the College. (An aside: both were accepted by higher ranking schools, but liked Chicago better.)</p>