<p>Which is more competitive?</p>
<p>Can you clarify your question? (“competitive” as in selective or rigorous?)</p>
<p>Chicago likes to look for fruity kids with peculiar backgrounds, and its grade deflationary policies and its self-purported, self-perpetuated learning for learning’s sake reputation together foster subtle, heavy competition.</p>
<p>As in, the kids at Chicago aren’t going to be after one another’s throats, but the competition is going to be high, because an unusually high proportion of the student body is going to be working its hardest.</p>
<p>UChicago-Nerdville</p>
<p>selective. I’m wondering if I should apply to both or just one.</p>
<p>Sefago: thanks for telling me. I don’t want to go to Nerdville, where I could learn stuff and make cool physics flamethrowers (as my teacher did). I want to go to Laxville, where I could smoke pot, get laid, and run-around in circles in order to prepare me for the world.</p>
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<p>You live only once mate. Lots of time to ponder the great mysteries of physics when you are six feet under.</p>
<p>In terms of selectivity UChicago>Gtown, but I dont know how much the gap is.</p>
<p>I thought Uchicago would be higher too, but according to Collegeboard, Chicago has 5000 undergraduates and accepts 27% of applicants. Georgetown has 7000 and accepts 20%. </p>
<p>Also, at the risk of starting a flame-war, college is a place that surrounds you with intellectualism. I have lots of time to party when I’m not in college. In fact, my opportunity to party will always remain since clubs and bars always stay open. Yet, i will not be surrounded by intellectual people my entire life.</p>
<p>UChicago’s application is self selective, Georgetown’s less so.</p>
<p>Basically, a lot of kids want to apply to Chicago just because it’s a top school, but find that the extra essays are too much for them, so they don’t apply. But the kids that do complete the Chicago app should be a stronger pool than an applicant pool full of both kids that just apply for the heck of it and the kids that take the Chicago essays very seriously.</p>
<p>Comparing Georgetown to Chicago is pointless as they are very different schools. Both are extremely selective, but one excels only in International Relations while the other excels in virtually every single traditonal discipline. </p>
<p>I am not sure either school is right for the OP. One is academically one-dimentional while the other does not seem to fit the general setting he seeks. </p>
<p>Shadowzoid, what is your intended major? What are your stats (GPA, courses taken, SAT, SAT II, ECs etc…)?</p>
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<p>Even if those figures were up to date, which they aren’t, they would not tell the whole story. Suffice it to say that both are very selective. You cannot clearly distinguish them on this basis. However, you may have specific needs or interests that make one or the other (or neither) a better fit for you. They are two very different schools.</p>
<p>Georgetown offers a solid liberal arts education but also leans more toward specialization and career preparation (including off-campus internships). The different physical settings (as well as different approaches to faculty hiring and curriculum) make Chicago more of an insular Ivory Tower, whereas Georgetown is more about networking on and off campus.</p>
<p>I’d prefer an adjective other than “fruity” to describe Chicago students … but it’s true, they are not so typically the young Masters of the Universe or scholar-athlete types favored by some other selective schools. The most distinctive feature of the Chicago admission process is their quirky essay questions. The school promotes an atmosphere of continous thoughtful discussion in and out of the classroom. They look for students who will enjoy and contribute to that, in some cases from a fairly off-the-wall perspective. They don’t seem to care a whole lot about crafting a balanced class to fill a field hockey team or the orchestra pit. For instance the College used to hold an annual unrehearsed performance of the William Tell Orchestra in Rockefeller Chapel, to which anyone at all could show up and play (cf. Mark Twain: “Wagner’s music is better than it sounds.”)</p>
<p>I could go on and on about differences but will spare everyone an even longer post. I agree to some extent with Alexandre about the futility of comparing them.</p>
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<p>I don’t get this self selective argument? Chicago also recently went to the common application so it can get more apps just to reject more ‘self selecting’ students, just to bring down the yield to a respectable number. </p>
<p>Gtown on the other hand refuses to play that game…</p>
<p>“UChicago’s application is self selective, Georgetown’s less so.”</p>
<p>I agree with trollnyc. It’s hard to argue that a top 15 school is self selective. All of them try to get as many students to apply so they can reject most of them. UChicago is in this game just like any other top 15 school (with the possible exception of Caltech, which is very much unlike the other 14 schools in the top 15 in almost every way).</p>
<p>UChicago definitely!</p>
<p>UChicago’s acceptance rate went down to 18% last year, lower than Georgetown (though only by ~2%). Definitely different types of students, as well as different program strengths. Georgetown is known for its IR/Poly Sci departments and Chicago is known for its strength in the humanities - Classics/English/Philosophy. Chicago also has a huge core curriculum heavily focused on the humanities/world issues/critical thinking. Great for some people, not for others.</p>
<p>I think the term “self selective” was a convenient way to account for the fact that, although Chicago’s admit rates were rather high for many years, so too were its average scores. If current rates persist at sub-20%, maybe it will be time to put this usage to rest. I’m not so sure that’s going to happen, though.</p>
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<p>…are long gone. (UofC has a mean gpa similar to other private colleges, including Northwestern.)</p>
<p>btw: Georgetown also offers undergrad biz, which is extremely attractive to some.</p>
<p>Georgetown has a unique environment. If you are not in international relations, political science or business, you are likely to be in the minority.</p>
<p>USNWR lists the top “five most popular majors” in G’town: 21% international relations; 11% finance; 9% political science and government.</p>
<p>Alexandre, how do you know that either schools are not a fit for me? I haven’t released any information about me to base that statement on.</p>
<p>^ Re-read your post #5. Were you being sarcastic?</p>
<p>yep he was move on to post 7.</p>
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<p>Depends on what the student wants from his experience.</p>
<p>Nevertheless UChicago is stronger than Gtown in the liberal arts and sciences. In terms of selectivity, i think Chicago is slightly harder.</p>