Schools similar to U Chicago in academic strength?

<p>I usually hear U Chicago being referred to as the school with academically focussed students or as a place with very strong emphasis on academics. I love U Chicago and am also looking for other similar schools. Could you please suggest other schools that come to your mind when you think "U Chicago"?</p>

<p>There was a thread like this a few weeks ago, you may want to try to find it.</p>

<p>My answer(s): </p>

<p>HYPS, Columbia, Brown, MIT
Famous LACs: Swarthmore, Pomona, Carleton, Reed, Wellesley, Haverford, Barnard
maybe Williams, Amherst, Wesleyan, Vassar (substantial subcultures there)
Similar small research universities: University of Rochester, Johns Hopkins (probably the places that resemble it most outside the Ivies)
State university honors programs
St. John’s (two small colleges with rigorous Great Books curriculums)</p>

<p>Really, though, you will find lots of overlap with Chicago at any college that attracts students who care about learning and the liberal arts education model. Chicago and Northwestern, for example, seem to have totally different “feels” for two places of similar prestige about 20 miles apart. But in fact lots of people apply to both, and lots of people who only apply to one could have been perfectly happy at the other. My daughter, who never had a scintilla of interest in Northwestern, now has a friend from around here who graduated from Northwestern the same year she graduated from Chicago, and who never looked at Chicago. The two of them could be twins: same interests, same biography, same job now, tons of people they know in common. Their college experiences were enormously similar, despite all the differences between their colleges. I know Chicago-type students who are or have been completely happy at Penn, the University of Toronto, McGill, Pitt, Emory, Washington University in St. Louis . . .</p>

<p>JHS- Thank you for your elaborate explanation; it was of great help! I really like U Chicago as a school but I’m looking for similar alternatives if I don’t make it there. I shall definitely look into the schools you have suggested. Thanks again! :)</p>

<p>PS to everyone- I am looking at schools that offer good financial aid to international students, so something that fits this description would be very helpful.</p>

<p>PP: That’s going to limit you to a handful of ultra-selective colleges, not including Chicago. You have to read their financial aid policies to know for sure, but as a first cut if you look at the 15-20 colleges with the lowest admissions rates, those are probably the ones that give good financial aid to international students.</p>

<p>Chicago is okay with Fin. Aid too, right? I have a pretty good academic record and EC’s, so I would be the typical applicant, but I don’t know how liberal Chicago is with aid.</p>

<p>You have to check the website, but I think Chicago gives very limited financial aid, if any, to most international applicants. That will be the rule most places. At each college, there may be a handful of scholarships available for international students. But in general international students aren’t eligible for any (U.S.) government-subsidized aid, so only the richest, strongest colleges are willing to give aid to international students on the same basis they would to domestic students, or anything even close to it. And of course those colleges attract lots and lots of applications from international students who need aid, so it’s very competitive.</p>

<p>EDIT: I looked at the website, and it is a little confusing. The deal with international students seeking aid at Chicago is that if Chicago admits them, it will give them what it considers adequate funding. (You may disagree, but that difference is relatively unimportant.) But, unlike with domestic students, it considers international students’ financial aid needs before it accepts them. In effect, there is a defined budget for financial aid to international students, and Chicago won’t accept more international students requesting aid than its budget can handle.</p>

<p>I don’t know where I got this impression, but the strong impression I have is that the number of international students requesting meaningful aid that Chicago admits each year is very small – fewer than 20, maybe a lot fewer. So it’s not that there is no chance of getting accepted at Chicago, but it’s a very, very competitive pool.</p>

<p>Many top colleges essentially have the same policy: They have a budget for international aid, and they will pick the best international applicants they can fit under that budget. A few (like Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Dartmouth) will accept international applicants without looking at whether they need aid, and give them the aid they need if they are accepted. Lots of others will accept international students without regard to their aid needs, but will only offer some of them meaningful aid.</p>

<p>JHS, I have a related question. You talked about Northwestern and Chicago being world apart from each other, in terms of the “feel” and vibes of the colleges. Being an international student, I just know that the two are academically similar. Would you please elaborate on the differences in the “feel” of the two schools?</p>

<p>Others can probably do that better than I. But Northwestern is generally thought to be very social and sports-oriented. Fraternities and sororities are much larger and play a more important role in daily social life than at Chicago. The campus has a more suburban feel. The ratio of undergraduates to graduate students is much higher (and the undergraduate population much bigger). Northwestern also has various schools that provide specialized training to undergraduates – business, education, music, communications (including journalism, acting, and filmmaking programs) – and applicants have to specify which of them they are applying to, in some cases committing to a particular major. All of that would be anathema at Chicago. Northwestern is a member of the Big 10 athletic conference; it has some big-deal sports teams populated by scholarship recruits, and competes against places like Michigan and Ohio State.</p>

<p>In part because of its size, Northwestern has a much higher local profile in Chicago than the University of Chicago does. Northwestern alumni are everywhere. </p>

<p>The net result is that Northwestern comes across as more dominant-culture, more career-oriented, and much more social than Chicago. Some recent students have told me that they thought it had an anti-intellectual tone (vs. the hyper-intellectual tone at Chicago), but other students swear that isn’t true. </p>

<p>Both universities are really national universities, but I think it’s fair to say that Northwestern has a better reputation in Chicago than it does in New York, and the University of Chicago has a better reputation in New York than it does in Chicago.</p>

<p>Reed, e.g., meets full need for four years for all admitted internationals, just not very many, 20 to 25 needing aid per year, so you must present a strong application.</p>

<p>From what I’ve seen (I go to Chicago and my best friend from high school goes to Northwestern), Northwestern is more extroverted/mainstream nerdy (video games and Pokemon jokes, etc.) and Chicago is more intellectual/introverted nerdy. The academics are a bit more intense at Chicago, and extracurriculars are more intense/selective at Northwestern; my friend’s having trouble meeting people outside his dorm because the parties/clubs are so difficult to get into. But in either case, plenty of crossover and overlap between the two schools.</p>

<p>But that’s just our experience. YMMV.</p>

<p>JNS- Yes, I had read about their methodology in fin. aid for international students but your information has been really helpful as I wasn’t aware how many foreign nationals do get aid. Chicago’s policy on Fin. Aid for Int’ls is actually similar to other need aware(for Int’l-many of these are need blind for american citezens) schools which consider the amount of aid the applicant needs while evaluating the application; the application is put into a much more competetive pool basically. I discovered Chicago quite late but after researching about it, I like it so much that I hope I’m one of those 25 lucky people!</p>

<p>vossron- Thanks for your input! That puts it about equal to Chicago innit? Puts both in quite a ‘stingy’ bracket!</p>

<p>Rny2- That’s interesting to know! The student body at U chicago is one of the major factors in my liking it as a school apart from the great academics! I must have a strong academic system- I simply don’t like getting easy grades.</p>

<p>How about Carnegie Mellon?!</p>

<p>Carnegie Mellon is awful with aid! Or so I heard?
Academically, yes it’s very good.</p>

<p>are you sure that Chicago only funds 25 incoming intl.students/yr?This seems a bit disproportionate given that 100+ intl undergrads enroll every year.But then again the other 75 could be the rich intl students that can pick up the full tab.seems it never rains but pours for the intl student applying for aid…sigh…</p>

<p>“Puts both in quite a ‘stingy’ bracket!”</p>

<p>Well, for Reed, those 20 to 25 internationals are about 15% of those receiving financial aid. What percentage would it take to move out of the stingy bracket?</p>

<p>^Oh, I wasn’t aware of that. Reed is not a school I have researched thoroughly. That makes it a pretty good option.</p>

<p>JHS,</p>

<p>There’s a large performing arts scene at NU; it sorta balances out the Greek scene.</p>

<p>That makes sense, Sam. Of the friends I have in my generation who went to Northwestern, several were actors (who later went to law school). Chicago (the city) is a great place for theater and music, of course – that’s a huge plus for all the universities there, and it means that they all get a fair number of students who care about those things. </p>

<p>I also have the sense that the frat scene at Northwestern is full of smart, basically nice people and not as mindless as it can get elsewhere.</p>

<p>I just checked CMU. It doesn’t offer aid to Internationals.</p>

<p>Maybe I should have also asked this in my OP:</p>

<p>** Which other schools are you U Chicago Hopefuls applying to? **</p>