If not Chicago, then....

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Chicago ✅
1

<p>Every year, I tend to help compile a database of schools I think are awesome and worth looking into if you like Chicago. My attempt here is to try to minimize what Papa Freud might consider a "fixation" on Chicago and other elites by displacing it onto other schools.</p>

<p>So, here goes. I'm going to try to categorize them to make it easier for you to see why I like each school and for you to go through them.</p>

<p>And, as always, please add to this list!</p>

<p>SCHOOLS THAT MAKE ME WANT TO GO TO COLLEGE AGAIN:
MIT
Carleton
Hampshire
Reed
Berkeley
Harvey Mudd</p>

<p>-- all of those schools, to me, seem to be at the intersection of intellectual and playful. The one school I left off that list that could go on is Brown.</p>

<p>CHICAGO/ CHICAGO SUBURB COLLEGES:
Loyola University of Chicago
DePaul
Roosevelt
Columbia College Chicago
Illinois Tech
Shimer College
Wheaton (religious)
Lake Forest</p>

<p>ILLINOIS COLLEGES:
Chambana (University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana)
Knox College
Illinois Wesleyan</p>

<p>SCHOOLS IN CHICAGO'S ATHLETIC CONFERENCE: (similar in size, urban-ness, geekdom)
Carnegie Mellon
Rochester
NYU
Case Western
Emory
Brandeis
Wash U</p>

<p>WOMEN'S COLLEGES: (if you want a great education, great community, and toned-down party atmosphere, I think women's colleges are superb. PM poster mini for more about how his D turned down many excellent schools for Smith and benefited greatly from Smith).</p>

<p>Smith
Bryn Mawr
Wellesley
Scripps (in the Claremont system)
Simmons (in Boston)
Mt. Holyoke
Agnes Scott</p>

<p>WEST COAST COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES:
University of Washington
Evergreen State
Lewis and Clark
Willamette
Occidental
Pomona (Claremont)
Pitzer (Claremont)
Claremont McKenna (Claremont)
UCLA
UCSD
Whitman</p>

<p>SOUTHERN/ SOUTHWEST COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES:
Rice
St. John's Santa Fe
Sewanee
Rhodes
Trinity University
New College of Florida</p>

<p>EAST COAST COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES (get ready...):</p>

<p>Goucher College
University of Pittsburgh
Sarah Lawrence College
University of Maryland
Bard College
Vassar
Wesleyan
McGill (I don't know if Canada is considered the East Coast, but I'll overlook that for now)
Clark U
Fordham U (IMO very underrated... where I grew up, Fordham was the gold standard of colleges and students who are Ivy-capable went there. Plus it's in the Bronx, which means you have New York City as your playground. It is Jesuit though).
University of Vermont
Swarthmore
Haverford
Bowdoin
Bates
Colby
Tufts
St. John's Annapolis
Skidmore</p>

<p>MIDWEST COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES:
Macalester
Oberlin
Grinnell
Earlham
University of Michigan
University of Iowa
University of Wisconsin
Indiana University
Notre Dame (again, not for everybody, but they have fantastic academics)
Colorado College</p>

<p>These are just colleges that I've researched and like. All of them have some kind of arty and intellectual outlet or some kind of emphasis on "Great Books."</p>

2

<p>Hey Unalove,
You have no idea how happy I am to see Notre Dame on your list. My two EA schools are Chicago and Notre Dame and everyone always thinks I am out of my mind. Admittedly they are very different but I am glad someone agrees with me that I am not applying to two complete opposites. I have some logic, really!</p>

3

<p>Carleton!!!</p>

4

<p>I am wondering why you did not include Vanderbilt or Emory in your southern schools?</p>

5

<p>Georgetown University
Johns Hopkins University
Univ of Pennsylvania
Boston College
Dartmouth College
Bowdoin College</p>

<p>...yeah I'm all over the board</p>

6

<p>
[quote]
SCHOOLS THAT MAKE ME WANT TO GO TO COLLEGE AGAIN:
MIT
Carleton
Hampshire
Reed
Berkeley
Harvey Mudd</p>

<p>-- all of those schools, to me, seem to be at the intersection of intellectual and playful. The one school I left off that list that could go on is Brown.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Harvey Mudd and MIT were S1's #2 and #3, he loved Reed and would have applied if they had more math/CS, and spent a life-changing summer at Hampshire. Berkeley is on the list for grad school. Don't know why some folks thought his list was so weird -- it's all of a piece!</p>

7

<p>What about Caltech? (There are days when I still long to be there, but at least it's open for grad school.)</p>

8

<p>I'd add Kalamazoo to the Midwest list. The people there were so fantastic (with a fun nerdy/intellectual vibe) that it's made it on to my "Want to go to college again" list.</p>

9

<p>Schools that make ME want to go to college again: None.</p>

10

<p>S was deferred then waitlisted at Caltech. He visited and sat in on a philosophy class -- noone was engaged and the prof threw a lot of math and logic into the course just so people would stay awake, he felt. It had none of the institutional love for Core that S was seeking. Chicago's math is better, anyway! ;)</p>

11

<p>idad--</p>

<p>I didn't include Vanderbilt, Emory (and Duke, and USC) for a few reasons. I haven't read anything about either school that makes me think it would be a good fit for somebody like me asides from the fact that they have smart students. I feel like there are other schools out there that have smart students and more of an appealing environment for me.</p>

<p>That feeling of course changes from person to person.</p>

<p>I didn't include CalTech because a) I haven't really researched it, b) it's too small on the undergrad level, and c) I'm a humanities major who just happens to love math, not vice versa, so I'm swooning over Mudd and MIT in a way that I'm not over CalTech.</p>

<p>From students who have attended CalTech, though, it sounds like they do a great job of fostering a sense of family through their own house system.</p>

12

<p>oh my... I wish I had seen this list six months earlier! It would have made things so much easier.... >.<</p>

13

<p>Another glaring omission on the women's college end is Barnard. There are a lot of ways in which Barnard/Columbia and Chicago are like peas in a pod.</p>