Which model is that? Aside from Columbia, which is much more pre-professional than Chicago as blossom noted, the schools mentioned don’t have nearly as extensive core curricula. JHU does have a similar relatively intense academic and intellectual vibe but it’s not as pervasive. Harvard is nothing like UChicago in vibe, location, student body especially in terms of quirkiness, or curriculum.
Chicago is very much a ‘fit’ school, a great option for students who will thrive/enjoy/succeed in an intensely academic and intellectual environment. I second the recommendations of St John’s, Swat, Reed, and Brandeis. Some others might include Rochester, Cornell in some schools, Case Western, CMU.
I’m going to suggest something “out of the box” - University of Toronto.
Toronto is similar in size, actually a little bigger than Chicago. It’s the other large city on the Great Lakes, so similar vibe and weather. It’s one of, if not the most, diverse cities in the world.
U of T has an amazing breadth of courses. Students are required to take a variety of courses in different academic areas, but those courses are not proscribed. Most declare their majors at the end of first year, but it’s not required. Students can declare a specialist (kind of a super-major), two majors or three minors. It has a very nerdy student body.
I am referring to the basic model of a private institution that combines a globally-significant research university with similarly-significant professional schools and a broad liberal arts and sciences college.
Alternative models include public universities, liberal arts colleges, and “tech” institutions. And of course there are plenty of borderline cases, like, say, Dartmouth, which is a university and not an LAC, but much more focused on undergraduates than most of the Ivy League, or Cornell which has a public component, and so on.
But Chicago is a fairly straightforward example of that model I described above, as are the other universities I mentioned as “cousins”.
But what does he LIKE? What are his interests, what does he do for fun, what work or volunteer experiences does he have? I think being a strong student has very little to do with one’s passion or calling. If he likes the idea of a core curriculum - wonderful - he should pursue that in his college search. And as I had one who was very much undecided on major, schools that don’t require you to declare early makes absolute sense. But I think the vast majority of people find their true passion through their interests and values - some passions require specific skill sets which may or may not be achievable through hard work and knowing your strengths there is relevant, but personally I wouldn’t put a school to find his passion on the college wish list. Many a student stumbled into their passion through a random extra curricular which could happen anywhere. And many students - like adults - never find a true “passion” they find something they enjoy well enough that pays the bills.
And my 2 cents on open vs core for an undecided - I think having more flexibility to take a variety of classes of interest is way more valuable in truly understanding your interests.
I don’t think Case Western has an “open curriculum” (we were focused on the engineering school which has very well defined course requirements), but the school does encourage double majors and minors and many students take classes outside their major. Students do not need to declare a major until the end of their sophomore year. Our tour guide was a MechE major with a minor in Econ. The school is allowing our son to fill his humanties requirements with business classes so he can graduate with a business minor without taking additional classes.
CMU is interesting in that it is very strong in disparate fields like engineering, musical theater, comp sci, industrial/graphic design and business. The school is very innovative in cross disciplinary majors or concentrations like Engineering and Public Policy.
Both schools are similar in that they are in fairly large cities with diverse populations, are strong in a wide range of fields so there are students with different strengths and interests, and have diverse student bodies. This may be unfair, but I have always thought of Case and Cleveland as similar too, but a step below, CMU and Pittsburgh.
I never said CWRU had an open curriculum. Just that it is similar and attracts some similar students to UChicago, which also does not have an open curriculum.