<p>Is this hypothetical or actual? If this is hypothetical, it’s just an attitude survey. All behavioral scientists know that there is a huge gap between attitude and action.</p>
<p>if this is real data, I don’t understand how one could neatly come up with Chicago vs. Harvard as in 15 % vs. 85 %. These number will ONLY hold if these students were accepted to ONLY Chicago and Harvard, and nowhere else. In reality, these kids are accepted to multiple schools, and the actual distribution should be more like 15% Chicago, X % Harvard, and Y % some other school. I seriously wonder how could this web site (linked below) confidently say this cross admit % (always totals 100% for two school) in light of the consideration I just explained (meaning, a third school not mentioned in the dyad was chosen).</p>
<p>According to the numbers cited below (and on the web site), Chicago vs. Rice means 45% vs. 55% which gives the impression that Chicago loses out to Rice. In reality, it may be Chicago 45%, Rice 25% and other 30%, which conveys a very different picture, that is, U Chicago wins over Rice handily.</p>
<p>Yet another example of how one could paint a very misleading picture by selectively quoting statistics.</p>
<p>I post rarely, but I check posts by other in some of the top schools.</p>
<p>What I find most refreshing about Chicago forum is that the posters, current/past students, current/past parents all tend to be very civil, even handed, and rational (just look at JHS, Cue7, etc). There is rarely any uncivil comments on other schools on this forum. Certain amount of school pride and boasting, yes (like in any other school forums), but not by cutting down other schools. When it is done obviously, it’s the other Chicago students/alums/parents who tone down any perceived exaggeration. In other school sites, such even handedness does not seem to be the norm. I concluded that U Chicago attracts a certain kind of people - students, alums and parents alike. This actually increased its standing in my mind.</p>
<p>What I am really curious about is why people who have not attended Chicago or have no relatives at Chicago will frequent this particular forum to argue with people that their school is better than Chicago. I did not know people have that much time to visit other school forums to argue. Just seems a really strange choice for a hobby.</p>
<p>(PS: I am checking out some good schools for my nephew overseas)</p>
<p>The data you site from the website parchment.com has largely been discredited. Parchment doesn’t adequately reveal how it compiles its data, and its doubtful it uses the most comprehensive data available. </p>
<p>As a few surprising examples, according to Parchment:</p>
<p>53% of cross-admits choose Penn over Yale.</p>
<p>69% of cross-admits choose Penn over Brown. </p>
<p>60% of cross-admits choose Penn over Columbia. </p>
<p>56% of cross-admits choose Princeton over Penn.</p>
<p>80% of cross-admits choose Yale over Princeton.</p>
<p>There are many others but, as you can see, these numbers don’t pass the initial sniff test, and they certainly don’t seem to say much about actual revealed preferences (where I doubt Penn has an edge over Yale, or that Yale has such a dominant edge over Princeton).</p>
<p>My S1 is a third year at U Chicago. I just LOVE the school based on everything I learned over the years and what my son is telling me (he is deliriously happy with his choice of school).</p>
<p>That said, I think IN GENERAL, Columbia and Penn do get better mind share than U Chicago and Duke (I live we NJ).</p>
<p>We can all come up with some esoteric data points here and there to prove that U Chicago is better than its peers, but this exercise is really silly. Because one can come up with all sorts of data that can prove X school is better than Y school - for any pair. </p>
<p>The fact of the matter is, U Chicago’s mind share is below where it should be vis-a-vis its outstanding qualities compared with its peers in general. So if U Chicago decides to move up, then there is healthy room for doable (read: very manageable and achievable) improvement -which is a good thing. It will be much tougher if U Chicago is lacking in some fundamentals that cannot be easily addressed with good marketing and PR work.</p>
<p>But I agree with a lot of opinions stated so far: that is, at the level of top 10 schools or so, it’s the fit that matters most. The student’s future prospect is not going to be measurably different because s/he chose U Chicago over Duke or visa versa.</p>
<p>Below HYP, the next 5-10 schools can easily be described as peers. And, even including HYP and next top 10 schools or so, the fit between the student and the school is the most important factor for success.</p>
<p>I’m choosing between duke and Chicago. I just got to say this post was extremely helpful…I just wish I new which type of atmosphere I want to be part of</p>