<p>Thanks for all the input everyone. I'm leaning towards Yale right now, mostly because my parents don't want me too far from home, haha. I wish I could go to both. When I take into consideration Yale's strength in my intended major, it kind of tips the scales. But gosh .. how could I possibly turn down Chicago??</p>
<p>To tell you the truth, I felt more comfortable at Chicago. I've been in a very sheltered gifted and talented program with the same ~15 kids since age ten, and Chicago students seemed more like the kids I've been around my whole life. The students at Yale just seemed .. intimidating. Then again, I'm sure I'd adjust.</p>
<p>I would really, really suggest that you go to the school that you feel more comfortable at. I think that it is very important to listen to how you feel, not necessarily what your rational mind tells you. Remember too that you are likely to change your major--being that you aren't looking at something really unique that only a few schools do well, I wouldn't let those concerns hold too much weight. </p>
<p>kemet, speaking as one such Yale, etc. rejectee, I don't think that the fact that UChicago isn't as super-selective as Yale is very important--there are many more perfectly intelligent applicants as spaces at Yale, and those kids who were crowded out in other ways (extras, demographics, bad luck) make for wonderfully gifted student bodies at places like UChicago, even if they are Yale's castoffs!</p>
<p>Ok, sure. Then enroll at Yale, and don't look back. You're a talented, smart person, and it's good you're going there to really pit yourself not against, but WITH the best. It's about growing really, in intellectual and personal maturity. The initial apprehension will always be there, but it's all about overcoming that and finding your niche in a relatively unfamiliar environment.</p>
<p>And everyone else, going with your heart does not mean "on impulse", which implies something done on the spur of the moment without due consideration. Going with your heart after every consideration has been made is not impulse, it goes right down to the question "where would I fit?", which is nominally the most important consideration made when choosing college. This is college choice, which demands a somewhat altered set of standards in selection as compared to say, job opportunities and challenges in the future. </p>
<p>We'll have to agree to disagree on this count.</p>
<p>Kermet my kid's on Chicago's facebook with kids who've turned down LSE, Harvard and Stanford. Lots and lots of Brown rejectors. Not everyone moves to the same drumbeat. </p>
<p>Ramesses II, I applied to transfer to Chicago from a more "prestigious" college (according to CC and US News :rolleyes:). I'm not bashing the student body at Chicago; I was merely pointing out that not everyone at Chicago is initially thrilled to be there, although DSC suggested otherwise. Like advantagious, however, I see no reason why this should affect anyone's decision.</p>
<p>(Kermet? I didn't expect that mutilation from someone with your screen name!)</p>
<p>D.T., the OP could find all those challenges at UChicago, too. I don't want to come across as a UChicago honk--that is hardly the case, I didn't even apply, and I applied and didn't get into Yale and would have liked the opportunity to go. But this is not Yale v. 2nd or 3rd tier school--this is no. 2 vs. no. 9, this is two schools with incredible student bodies. MIGHT Yale's student body be more accomplished as a whole--possibly, especially in the fine distinctions, like extras. But is Yale's student body really better than UChicago's, intellectually--I tend to doubt it, or the distinction is very slight at best. I think that it is a very damaging stereotype to claim that the best are only at HYPMS and not only exclude the LAC's and other very selective universities, but also a university as academically excellent as UChicago's. I'm not buying it--there are plenty of people who have stats as good or better as the average Yale student who didn't get in for whatever reason, and they have to go somewhere, and if that place is UChicago, than UChicago surely has an excellent student body. </p>
<p>Again, go to Yale because it is the right fit for the OP--and it very well may be. But don't go because of some real or imagined extra level of academic rigor--that can't make you happy if the school isn't right for you, for one, and I don't think that it exists, for another.</p>
<p>it sounds like the OP would prefer the U of C in this case..if the students at Chicago are who you are more comfortable being around, then you should definitely go there. I hope to see you at Chicago next year</p>
<p>I wasn't trying to say that everyone at UC had it as their dream(but with the 'Uncommon App' they do try to reduce their being used as a backup).</p>
<p>I think that both schools are great for you(OP), but you posted something telling: "How could I turn down UC?" Your brain is saying Yale, but your heart UC. When your brain can't go wrong(2 v. 9; = can't go wrong), go with your heart.</p>
<p>But you are not going to be 'losing' with either choice.</p>
<p>The Uncommon App isn't just about reducing its image as an Ivy backup, it's about being a skunk in the college admissions process. While other colleges have a common application and a kind of "everything for everyone" mentality, Chicago is very clear-cut about its self-selectedness and its general nerdy vibes. It's about throwing as many warning signs to students as possible that those who are looking for "a place to go" should apply elsewhere.</p>
<p>What I love most about Chicago is that it combines the academics and uber-eliteness and name-recognition of a school like Yale with the kind of wacky, offbeat vibes of schools like Bard and Reed. For me, Chicago was an absolute no-brainer: I got in Early Action, could have applied to other schools if I wanted to (the apps were written) and decided it wasn't worth the postage.</p>
<p>I specifically loved that its core forces everybody to be confronted with the likes of Kant, Marx, Freud, and Aristotle, and because you'll be reading (suffering?) through these texts with many other first- and second-years, you'll be able to go into your house lounge at three in the morning and start cursing some dead white guys out. Chicagoans have a tendency to be outspoken and daring and aren't necessarily obeisant to political correctness.</p>
<p>To me, the only positive aspect of Yale was the fact that I would be able to tell people where I went at cocktail parties and they would be impressed or possibly intimidated. Yale didn't offer me a siren song-- I knew it was a great place to be, a great place to live and learn, that there would be an abundance of smart people and an abundance of good professors, but I felt that, minus the cocktail-party bump, my state school offered the same thing.</p>
<p>Oh advantagious, I wasn't implying any of the above. I understand where you're coming from and I'll agree. When I said pitting against the best, I think it's fair to say Yale has a fair share of the best students, and not that ONLY Yale has the best students. I respect U Chicago and its intellectual rigor as much as I respect Yale's. I was just referring to the OP's decision to go to Yale (or is he still deciding?) and said fine, now that u've decided, just go! Yale's great. </p>
<p>I hope my post did not imply that I exclude all the other fantastic schools out there with intellectual rigor and faculty brilliance and all that. I love the LACs (heck, I only applied to LACs!). Just that the scope of this discussion should focus on Yale and U Chicago.</p>
<p>I'm one of those that voted for Yale. I lived in Chicago for many years, and have relatives and friends that attended UofC, so I know well the curriculum and enviroment, which is WHY I voted for New Haven. And, yes, Chi-Town beats nearly every other city in the country, but the UoC surrounding 'hood is no better than New Haven.</p>
<p>Chicago and Yale may garner similar respect in academia, but does that name recognition apply to employers? not necessarily. It depends on what you want to do afterwards, if you're looking at grad school, it doesn't matter...if you're looking for a job, go with Yale...that's just my opinion.</p>
<p>If you are uncertain about your major, then I would choose Yale because UChicago does not have the same name recognition or prestige (U.S. and abroad) as Yale. </p>
<p>Nonetheless, UChicago is a superb school, but they need to do more in marketing the school's strengths to future applicants.</p>
<p>Four years at Yale is not only an education, it's a part of a student's identity for the rest of his or her life. Honestly, an 18-year-old who's made a visit or two to several campuses can't really make a fully-informed decision about all the aspects of various schools that might make them good or poor fits. But what you do know for certain is that for the next 70 years, people will accord you respect and assume that you're extraordinaily capable when they learn that you graduated from Yale. That's not evidence of egocentrism or a prestige fixation - it's just an honest assessment of the value added by Yale's place in our society.</p>
<p>Or they will assume that you are rich, snobby, and intimidating and will be instantly suspicious of you. Large employers will have heard of UChicago, and will know of it's academic rigor. I'm not even sure it matters, anyway--over on the parents forum, there is/was a thread listing where the top officials in the parents' company had gone to college, and while they were Ivy grads, there were also tons of grads of schools that I hadn't even heard of (and I am certainly not uninformed about colleges). </p>
<p>In this day and age, and for a student accepted to both UChicago and Yale, I find it pretty unlikely the grad school is not on the horizon. Even if it is not, it seems to me that those people who don't graduate from HYP somehow manage to get jobs in this world--good jobs! Prestige CANNOT MAKE YOU HAPPY. It CANNOT MAKE YOU SUCCESSFUL. Only YOU can do that. The marginal benefits of the added prestige of going to Yale are slight anyway--if it is not as good a fit as UChicago, you shouldn't go there. Is deciding fit an exact science? No, but your gut is right more often than not.</p>