<p>The answer to your question is going to depend on the student and the academic discipline, as well as the desire to go to graduate school. </p>
<p>To really answer the question of Chicago’s “boost” to graduate school admissions, we’d have to set up some kind of experiment with a test group and a control group, and we would have to minimize variables. Ideally, you would take a high school senior interested in going to law school, send them to the University of Chicago, see if they got into Harvard Law or whatever, and then send them back in time to the same emotional/intellectual place they were in as high school seniors, send them to another comparable elite… and then send them back in time again, to a state school…</p>
<p>But the shortcut answer is that Chicago offers many tools to help students realize their personal/professional/academic goals.</p>
<p>CAPS (Career Advising) is good, provided that you do not expect to go in there with a resume and come out with a prestigious summer internship. They help connect you to many university resources and can suggest ways to pump yourself up, but they cannot give you a job. That’s your responsibility. I have been pleased with my experiences with two career counselors at CAPS, for giving good life and good career advice.</p>