<p>What are the pros and cons of each, and which one is harder to get into?</p>
<p>First, do you mean University of Chicago – a private school in Hyde Park neighborhood, with a core curriculum? Or possibly University of Illinois at Chicago Circle, one of the campuses of the state system? Presumably, you mean University of Chicago, the private school. </p>
<p>No one can answer the pros and cons, or which is harder to get into, in the abstract. Do your research, spend lots of time on the websites, learn about the structure and programs of each school. Consider possible areas of study, environment (urban Chicago vs. Evanston), what role you want sports to play in your college life (participant or spectator). </p>
<p>Both schools are top, competitive schools with low admission rates. University of Chicago joined the Common App a few years ago, contributing to increase in number of applications and, therefore, decline in acceptance rate. Neither school is a shoe-in for any student, anywhere.</p>
<p>Good luck with your search.</p>
<p>Oh, come now. It is easy to give some idea of the differences.</p>
<p>Generally speaking, the University of Chicago is more intellectual, Northwestern more pre-professional. Each school offers subjects/majors that the other does not; for example, Northwestern has a well-known theater program but the U of C offers arcane languages such as Akkadian. The U of C has a Common Core, Northwestern is a member of the Big 10. Northwestern is located in an upscale, close-in suburb. The U of C is more urban, but we are talking a leafy green residential neighborhood with large grassy quads ringed with academic Gothic buildings and so forth. No concrete canyons: this is not NYU.</p>
<p>Personally, I have a very strong preference for the U of C. I don’t care about college sports, and I love the intellectual bent of the U of C. Your likes and dislikes may differ. :)</p>
<p>Northwestern has some pre-professional programs (in engineering and communications) that the University of Chicago does not offer. The social atmosphere of the two schools is rather different. Northwestern has many Division 1 sports programs (it’s a Big 10 football school). About 1/3 of students belong to fraternities or sororities. Chicago has no Division 1 sports; Greek life is understated. As Consolation indicates, Chicago cultivates a nerdy, intellectual atmosphere. Its integrated “Core” curriculum requires all undergraduates to take courses in all 4 major divisions of the liberal arts (humanities, social sciences, biological & physical sciences). This may mean you won’t take many courses in your major until your 3rd year.</p>
<p>Both schools are very selective. There is little or no significant difference between them in most of the areas typically measured by undergraduate college rankings (average class size, faculty resources, financial resources, selectivity, etc.).</p>
<p>First of all, this is one of my biggest pet peeves. No one, ABSOLUTELY no one associated with the University of Chicago calls it “the U of C”. It’s called UChicago.
The difference between UChicago and Northwestern could be compared to the difference between American University and Georgetown University. Georgetown is easily the best university in Washington D.C., which is a town that holds many wonderful universities. It is known for having many famous alumni, including several presidents. Georgetown is about as difficult to get into as an ivy. The same could be said for UChicago (in fact, our current president actually spent some time there). It has an amazing reputation for it’s academics however, it is very rigorous and not for everyone.
While Northwestern is also an amazing school, it’s not quite the same as UChicago. Let me put it this way, last year 5 students in my class of 800 were admitted to UChicago while 55 were accepted to Northwestern. However, like some mentioned there are certain programs that Northwestern offers that UChicago doesn’t and vice versa. If you want to be an engineer or an actor, you want to go to Northwestern. No matter which you choose, you will hear the jokes back and forth. Like “what do UChicago and Northwestern students have in common? They both got into Northwestern”. Last year, a few UChicago students bought the url “uchicagorejects.com” and had it redirect to northwestern.edu. </p>
<p>But in the end, they’re the only two Chicago schools worth giving a darn about.
The stereotypes (although kind of true) are:
DePaul is strictly for techies and hipsters
Columbia is for actors and techies who didn’t get in anywhere
Loyola is second-rate to Northwestern
UIC is ok sometimes
Roosevelt is basically non-existant</p>
<p>“First of all, this is one of my biggest pet peeves. No one, ABSOLUTELY no one associated with the University of Chicago calls it “the U of C”. It’s called UChicago.”</p>
<p>Actually, this used not to be the case. However, the administration realized a few years ago that people calling it “the U of C” was doing harm to the University of Chicago brand name, since no one knew what “the U of C” was. Now, all the students and alumni are SUPPOSED to call it UChicago (although this isn’t always the case). What’s still bad is that the Chicago Tribune/Sun-Times insist on saying “the U of C,” so even though UChicago gets a lot of news coverage, it doesn’t get a resulting boost in brand name since no one knows what the hell “the U of C” is referring to.</p>
<p>Anyway, back on topic. I’ve stated my opinions elsewhere, but Chicago is clearly the more prestigious/rigorous school, and is much harder to get into. Northwestern is a good, very underrated school, that offers the same educational quality as, say, Duke.</p>
<p>“The difference between UChicago and Northwestern could be compared to the difference between American University and Georgetown University.”</p>
<p>NU is much closer in quality to UChicago then American is to Georgetown. That was a bad example.</p>
<p>“Let me put it this way, last year 5 students in my class of 800 were admitted to UChicago while 55 were accepted to Northwestern.”</p>
<p>Let me take a stab at why that might be. NU is much more the full collegiate experience than Chicago and many more students applied there.</p>
<p>Other than the fact that they are both some of the best colleges in the nation (And world) they aren’t really anything alike. If you imagine sitting around and discussing the philosophy of ancient indian tribes in college, UChicago is more for you. If you imagine going to student produced plays, football games, etc. than Northwestern is more for you.</p>
<p>Those are gross generalizations, but that gives you the gist of it. UChicago is more intellectual and nerdy, whereas Northwestern is more like a regular college. I heard one person describe it as Northwestern is Gryffindor and UChicago is Ravenclaw (Although, I’ve never actually read Harry Potter, so that doesn’t really make sense to me).</p>
<p>Actually, the same amount applied to both as many students in Illinois (where I’m from) apply to both because they are very similar in nature. And, I admit it was a mistake comparing NU and UChicago to Georgetown and American but what I meant was the sense of rivalry between the schools and that a lot of American students applied to Georgetown. I’m just very familiar with the GTown/American rivalry because I was very close to going to Georgetown but decided not to. I admit that there are much better comparisons.</p>
<p>Prestige and rigor are a little hard to measure and compare, so let’s leave that one alone for now. As for selectivity, just look at the numbers:
… NU … UofC*
1st yr students in HS top 10% … 92% … 95%
SAT CR … 716 … 738
SAT M … . 735 … 738
admit rate, F 2012 … 18% … 16.3%
admit rate, F2010 … 23% … 18%
([2006-2012</a> admission rates](<a href=“http://northbynorthwestern.com/story/nu-acceptance-rate/]2006-2012”>http://northbynorthwestern.com/story/nu-acceptance-rate/))</p>
<p>They don’t look all that different to me. </p>
<ul>
<li>I’ve been associated with the University of Chicago for decades. I call it “the University of Chicago”, “Chicago”, or … “the U of C”. I all-but-never (I’d hesitate to say ABSOLUTELY never) call it “UChicago”. “The U of C” is a more logical abbreviation. It accounts for every syllable of the full name while using fewer letters. If somebody can’t figure out from context that I’m not referring to the University of Cincinnati, well, tough. Besides, what kind of tool would give a rat’s cūlus about “boosting the brand name”?</li>
</ul>
<p>It seems I am not alone.
[Women’s</a> Guide to the UofC](<a href=“http://wguide.uchicago.edu/]Women’s”>http://wguide.uchicago.edu/)
[CCIST</a> Career Exploration: Can the UofC Prepare You For a Successful Career in Technology?](<a href=“http://event.uchicago.edu/maincampus/detail.php?guid=CAL-402882f8-2ee2e9bf-012f-0310cb2e-000008dfeventscalendar@uchicago.edu]CCIST”>http://event.uchicago.edu/maincampus/detail.php?guid=CAL-402882f8-2ee2e9bf-012f-0310cb2e-000008dfeventscalendar@uchicago.edu)
[The</a> ARC 3.5m Telescope - UofC information](<a href=“http://astro.uchicago.edu/uc-apo/]The”>http://astro.uchicago.edu/uc-apo/)
[Diamond</a> Consultants Fall Case Competition (hosted by the UofC Consulting Club)](<a href=“http://event.uchicago.edu/maincampus/detail.php?guid=CAL-402882f8-2aaa2aba-012a-c5a34ab5-00000001eventscalendar@uchicago.edu]Diamond”>http://event.uchicago.edu/maincampus/detail.php?guid=CAL-402882f8-2aaa2aba-012a-c5a34ab5-00000001eventscalendar@uchicago.edu)
[Flying</a> the UofC Flag | Flickr - Photo Sharing!](<a href=“http://www.■■■■■■■■■■/photos/uchicagotravel/4563301226/]Flying”>Flying the UofC Flag | University of Chicago Alumni Travel | Flickr)
[Meeting</a> the UofC President | Chillin’ Chicago](<a href=“http://chillinchicago.com/meeting-the-uofc-president/]Meeting”>http://chillinchicago.com/meeting-the-uofc-president/)</p>
<p><a href=“http://fyuchicago.■■■■■■■■■■/post/3151183541/u-of-c-not-uic-since-1892[/url]”>http://fyuchicago.■■■■■■■■■■/post/3151183541/u-of-c-not-uic-since-1892</a></p>
<p>American to Georgetown is not the same as Northwestern to Chicago. A much closer analogy would be Cornell to Columbia. I agree that Chicago has a slight advantage over NU, but it is negligible. The two universities offer significantly different undergraduate experiences, and for students considering the two schools, “fit” and cost of attendance should be the only two consideration. It is petty to differentiate between the two schools in terms of academic excellence or presitge. Both excel where those are concerned.</p>
<p>cscaman</p>
<p>Northwestern is nothing like American, which is not even the second best school in DC. I too prefer the intellectual nature of UChicago. But nationally for undergrad, it holds a slight edge over NW, but only slight, and for certain programs (mostly pre-professional) NW is the only game in town.</p>
<p>cscaman,</p>
<p>Mea culpa. Did not read all the posts and realize now I was piling on.</p>
<p>Mcdoes, </p>
<p>The posters have given you a pretty good idea of the pro’s/cons. Make sure to visit both schools. NW sits on Lake Michigan, looks like a country club, and caters overall to a preppier clientele. UC looks more like Hogwarts, is more international, and has a very large core that will take you close to two years to complete. Chicago is generally the more intellectual of the two, but there are plenty of intellectuals at NW as well and NW has a strong reputation in many humanities. Also, Chicago has been trying to get away in the past few years from its nerdy reputation, but I do not know if this is more marketing than reality. </p>
<p>My twins applied to UC and did not even think about NW because of what they perceived as fit. Both are great schools, and you will not go wrong at either (unless you want big-time sports and then NW is where to go).</p>
<p>If you are smart and socially savvy (or want to be), go to Northwestern. If you are (or want to be) classically bookish smart, go to UChicago. They are equally smart, but Northwestern tends to attract the more popular leader types and UChicago the more “life of the mind” types though both types exist at the two schools.</p>
<p>Based on my grad school experience at Harvard, Harvard students are definitely much more the Northwestern type than the classic UChicago type. This could be a good or bad thing, but Norhwestern and Harvard students care not only about intelligence but also popularity and social reputation. Exposure to this mindset, in my opinion though, is excellent preparation for the elite professional world. I have seen way too many idealistic UChicago/Swartmore grads become embittered when their college years end and they are forced to interact with their not only equally smart but also socially savvier, more popular, better-looking, and more physically fit/graceful counterparts at Duke, Harvard, Northwestern and the like. UChicago guys who are ugly get especially mad.</p>
<p>wildcatalum,</p>
<p>Thanks for the insights, and this fits the picture of the dualing notions of merit – the most intellectual v. the all around men of high character (think Fitzgerald’s character, Dink Stover re Yale). This also highlights the importance of social IQ. Regardless of what school one attends, especially in business, law and even academia where a large percentage of success is defined by the ability to attract clients/deals/funding, social IQ and good networking skills often play a larger role in advancement than brain power alone.</p>
<p>Bookish nerds can definitely be charming and attract a good client base but only if one doesn’t have any hangups about being a bookish nerd. Being good-looking and fit definitely help. Do not shoot the messenger here.</p>
<p>Chicago attracts the Academia-type student (the love of knowledge for its own sake.) Every prestigious universities (and many non.) have these students. Chicago just tends to have way more of them.</p>
<p>Northwestern’s the preppier school, akin to USC or Vanderbilt. It’s more balanced overall, in terms of college experience and student body. Which one’s right for you depends on what type of student you are. </p>
<p>Personally, I’d probably be a better fit for Chicago since i’m much more into the hardcore intellectual exchanges that, while i’m sure are present at Northwestern, are probably much more prevalent among the student body at Chicago. But as I learned in my time at UCLA, professors at their office hours are a great resource for this too.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>wildcatalum, about how many Chicago and Swarthmore grads would you say you’ve watched become embittered after interacting with students at Duke, Harvard, Northwestern and the like? And how would you know you haven’t overlooked a few good-looking Swatties you assumed must have been Northwestern alumni?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I went to grad school at the U of C. I have a number of relatives and friends who received undergraduate, graduate, and/or professional degrees from the U of C. My BIL’s grandfather’s name is on a building there. <strong>EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM</strong> refers to it as–as tk72169 says–either “Chicago” or “the U of C.” </p>
<p>This UChicago thing is a pathetically unnecessary marketing ploy.</p>