Please Help! Deciding between NU and University of Chicago

[tk89]

<p>gd016:</p>

<p>All valid points.</p>

<p>However, please see Bala re: the 19th century German university student in question. I believe that said student belongs to him.</p>

[tk21769]

<p>tk89, I think there is a tension in your comments between healthy, constructive iconoclasm on the one hand, and a failure of temperance and justice on the other. You mentioned Aristotle; I assume you know what I mean by temperance and justice. </p>

<p>A site that explores the Philosophy of Liberal Education pretty well is here:
[Philosophy</a> of Liberal Education](<a href=“http://www.ditext.com/libed/libed.html]Philosophy”>Philosophy of Liberal Education)</p>

<p>I like the mission statement at the top of the page:

The aim of liberal education is to create persons who have the ability and the disposition to try to reach agreements on matters of fact, theory, and actions through rational discussions.

</p>

<p>It reminds me of another statement, which as I recall was engraved on the walls at Chicago’s Harper Library:

Read not to contradict and confute, not to believe and take for granted, not to find talk and discourse, but to weigh and consider.

</p>

<p>Those two statements speak to the need for balance and fairness in ones views. Extending that concept, yet introducing the role of iconoclasm, iDad on another thread offered up the following quote from a Faculty Guide to teaching at Chicago:

Chicago has developed a celebrated–some would say notorious–brand of academic civility. It is a place where one is always in principle allowed to pose the hardest question possible–of a student, a teacher, or a colleague–and feel entitled to expect gratitude rather than resentment for one’s effort.

</p>

<p>It is perfectly appropriate and helpful to ask hard questions about what we mean by excellence in education, or the purposes of education. Some of your remarks, IMHO, veer off from edgy iconoclasm into plain rudeness. It would be more interesting to draw on your knowledge to expose differences (and similarities) in the missions of these schools, without jumping into sweeping characterizations based on your observations about sweaters and teeth.</p>

[mdcissp]

<p>It is just one plane trip to the same city to see both universities. I suggest you visit and get an over all view of both places. Northwestern is in the first suburb N. of Chicago. U. of Chicago is south of the city. A lot of it depends upon social fit. By reputation, I think you will meet more diverse types of interests at Northwestern (great theater school, journalism school, speech school, etc.) whereas at U. Chicago seems to be very well suited for very intellectual, bookish types. If Engineering is your thing, then I would go with Northwestern.</p>

[tk21769]

<p>I do believe the OP already made the choice for Chicago. See #76.</p>

<p>I understand the “very intellectual, bookish” perception. However, alumni of the College include not only Nobel laureates, but also Chiefs of State, Cabinet-level officials, Senators, Actors (e.g. Ed Asner), Musicians (e.g. Composer Philip Glass), the former President of Walt Disney, Obama’s campaign adviser,film directors and producers, the publisher of the Wall Street Journal, CEO of Skype, etc.</p>

<p><a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_University_of_Chicago_people[/url]”>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_University_of_Chicago_people&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

[tk21769]

<p>On the Wikipedia “People” page, note in particular the number of prominent journalists, even though Chicago has no school of journalism, or the number of actors (producers, directors etc) even though it has no theater school.</p>

[Sam_Lee]

<p>

@tk89

Honestly, NU is simply a glorified trade school. I have friends who have gone there and they work at rather pedestrian jobs and live ordinary, suburban Chicago lives. Nothing wrong with that…</p>

<p>I’m sorry, but with all due respect to the Boilermakers, NU, at least at the undergrad level, is essentially an upscale Purdue University</p>

<p>Again, NU is primarily a trade school. It’s an attempt to re-create Cornell-on-Lake Michigan, and a poor one at that.

</p>

<p>School : Number of alums (BA/BS) as S&P 500 CEO in 2004
Northwesten: 5
Cornell: 4
Purdue: 3
UChicago: ZERO
<a href=“http://content.spencerstuart.com/sswebsite/pdf/lib/2004_SP_500_Profile_Data.pdf[/url]”>http://content.spencerstuart.com/sswebsite/pdf/lib/2004_SP_500_Profile_Data.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>

Sam, what are you now, an accountant or a dentist?

I am a student. I know two Chicago alums. One is an actuary for an insurance company in LA and the other one is a librarian for the Berkeley public library. I guess it takes UChicago education to see that being an actuary or a librarian is less “pedestrian” than being an accountant or a dentist. Thanks for sharing your incredible insight.</p>