Princeton vs. UChicago

College Search & Selection
1

Which of these schools would allow me the best opportunities (research, close relationship with professors, relevant electives) for eventual acceptance to top PH.D. programs in biophysics or systems biology?

At UChicago I was interested in the Applied and Computational Math major, Biological Sciences major, Physics major, Beckman Scholars Program, and Institute for Biophysical Dynamics.

At Princeton I was interested in the ORFE major, Molecular Biology Major, Physics Major, Integrated Science Curriculum, Quantitative Biology certificate, Biophysics certificate, and the Lewis Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics.

To give a brief description of me, I love learning for the sake of learning and have a wide array of academic interests which include physics, math, biology, chemistry, computer science, philosophy, comparative literature, foreign languages, and economics. I am generally introverted but also very passionate for whatever I’m doing.

I have a 1560 SAT, will be taking subject tests in US History, Bio M, and Math II later. I have a 4.0 GPA and will have taken the most advanced courses at my school. I will have taken 13 AP classes by the time that I graduate and have extensive extracurricular activities. I am not a URM. I’m debating which of these two schools I should apply early to.

Is either of these schools “better” and is the difference significant enough to affect graduate school admissions for someone who is motivated and will seek out opportunities regardless of where they attend?

2

In a word: No. But if “yes” to your first question (depending on how you define “better”), then an even stronger “no” to your second question.

Apply to both. Visit both. Decide where you feel most comfortable.

3

Agreed. Visit both and make appointments to meet faculty and students. You cannot go wrong with either one. How well you do will be dispositive, not which of these you select – should you be luck to have that choice.

4

In terms of academic quality and opportunities, they are both roughly equal. However, the campuses and local environments could not be more different. Princeton will offer better need based aid, while Chicago might offer some merit if you are a “donut” hole family. Visits to both will be very helpful.

5

Both are excellent schools academically and the names carry great respect and prestige in the academic and professional worlds (although those two worlds are more connected than many think, but that is a different story) I have friends at both schools, and have had a lot of personal experience with Princeton. The cultures at the two schools are, however, very different. The same could be said of their respective campuses. Both schools are academically tough and known for grade deflation (Princeton is one of the Ivies with grade deflation rather than inflation).

6

I have visited both. I visited Princeton in spring of my sophomore year and UChicago in fall of my junior year . To be honest, I loved both, and it wouldn’t be practical to visit both again before I apply.

I have heard rumors that Princeton students are very pretentious, and I would like to avoid that if possible. When I visited Harvard, I hated it because it was so pretentious; however, I did not get that feeling from Princeton when I visited.

If I wanted more specific information about research opportunities and typical academic paths, who would I email: faculty or admission representatives or someone else?

Overall, I feel that I have a slight preference for UChicago, but I’m still not sure. If I could be certain that UChicago was a better fit for me, then I’d apply Early Decision there. I’ve considered applying SCEA to Princeton then Regular Decision to UChicago, as UChicago is slightly less selective, and I feel that I’d have no chance of getting into Princeton during Regular Decision. However, I’m also worried that that would increase my chances of being rejected to both. If I applied Early Decision to UChicago, then I’d have the best chance of getting into one of these two schools.

7

Uchicago has a nice mid-westen vibe. Princeton with its eating clubs and prepiness is very different. I agreed re ED Uchicago. RD Uchicago is totally hopeless. They took only 2% RD this year.

8

The most likely answer is neither, because the most likely outcome is not being admitted to either.

Be sure that you have other schools on your application list, including at least one safety that you will be admitted to and know that you can afford.

9

I don’t think you really need to contact anyone just yet.

You can answer broad questions about the kind of research that is done by checking out the websites of both universities. The relevant departments (biology and any related ones) will have websites with faculty research interests on those websites, so you can see what kind of research the faculty are doing and maybe even profiles of their lab members. Most of those faculty members will take on at least some undergrad RAs to help run their labs, so that’ll give you a broad idea of what kind of research is done there. Press releases from the department can also clue you into major discoveries and such.

Do keep in mind, though, tat as an undergrad your focus is not working on the most cutting-edge research with the best researchers in the world; rather, it’s learning the basic/foundational skills necessary to go onto graduate school and do the cutting-edge work later. They’re not necessarily mutually exclusive, but it’s more important to find an environment that will nurture you and prepare you for a future research career than it is to find a place with the “best” faculty and “best” equipment/research.

As for typical academic paths - no need to ask that question, as there really is no typical academic path. Just know that you can do pretty much anything you want coming from a school like UChicago or Princeton. What you could potentially do is, once you’ve identified some faculty with research that sounds kind of interesting to you, is ask them what kinds of graduate programs their recent graduates have gone off to. I don’t think it’s strictly necessary, as a high-achieving Princeton or Chicago graduate could really go to any kind of PhD program they wanted to.

10

Consider applying SCEA to Princeton and, if rejected/deferred, then applying EDII to Chicago. You can’t do it the other way around, since Pton only has SCEA and RD.

11

They are essentially the same in every possible academic opportunity - both are as good as it gets. Both are top 5 in several of the academic areas you mentioned. Both will have small classes and as much professor interaction as you ever want. Grad school admissions and internships will be the same.

The real difference will be the social atmosphere. Chicago has a nerdy vibe and Princeton has an old money vibe.

12

People can be a bit snotty at Princeton. The town is charming and the campus is beautiful, but also geographically inconvenient. At Chicago you are surrounded by some nasty neighborhoods, but the atmosphere is super intellectual, and the airports are just a few minutes away.

13

Thanks a ton for the detailed responses, everyone. @TooOld4School When you talk about the culture at these schools, what is your opinion based on? Is there anyone with significant personal experience at one or both of these schools?

14

Also, regarding applying there seems to be two main options. Which would be best strategy?:

  1. SCEA Princeton. RD UChicago if accepted to Princeton. EDII UChicago if rejected by Princeton.
  2. ED UChicago. Rescind other applications if accepted to UChicago. If not, RD Princeton.
15

Admission is highly unlikely at either school, even with your stats. I would just go with whichever you prefer. Princeton heavily favors legacies in SCEA so that is going to skew the admission rate. Run the NPC first. Impressions are from people I know who attended both graduate and undergrad, personal visits, etc.

With all of your AP’s and good test scores you might also consider some of the top UK schools.

16

Of the two strategies in #13, I suppose #1 is a slightly better way to roll the dice (just because it could give you two shots at an “early” advantage.) However, the best way to maximize chances of finding a good program isn’t by gaming the admissions systems of these two schools. It’s by adding other alternatives to your application list. Consider Cornell, Johns Hopkins, Rice, CMU, Rochester, CWRU, your own state flagship, other state schools (if you don’t need need-based aid), etc.

17

I was also considering applying to:

Johns Hopkins
Williams
Swarthmore
Cornell
Rice
MIT
(State flagship as a safety)

18

“I have heard rumors that Princeton students are very pretentious”

I am not so sure about that. I am sure each school has students that are pretentious, but many won’t. My cousin went to Princeton when Brooksheild was his classmate, that was long time ago. He told me even Brooksheild was not pretentious, she treated everyone as “classmates”, or equal.

I have met a lot of students from UofC as I am a proud parents of UofC, yes, they are all down to the earth.

I think you should make up your mind and apply early to the best school you want to be by getting an overnight stay on campus during the school days, visiting is not the best way to judge the culture differences.

19

lol why mull over this decision when you haven’t been accepted to either?

20

He’s wondering which to apply early to.