<p>felipe is correct on ONE respect. The ONLY two places in the US that are prestige hounds is Washington DC and Wall Street...and I say that with respect having worked and been associated with both. Wall Street recruits from top schools bcos they can, and it makes it easier on their HR department -- recruit at top 10, and by definition you get smart kids. DC is similar in thinking, except that since there is no 'bottom line' by which to measure personal accomplishments, they go by pedigree.</p>
<p>True, but you still have to do well at the elites, or it doesn't matter where you go. I think a person with a 4.0 from a state university could do better in these fields than somebody with a low gpa/rank at an elite school.</p>
<p>According to Andrew Abbott, (<a href="http://magazine.uchicago.edu/0310/features/zen.shtml%5B/url%5D">http://magazine.uchicago.edu/0310/features/zen.shtml</a>) talking about students from elite universities, this may not be the case:</p>
<p>"...the best nationwide figures I have seen suggest that a one-full-point increment in college GPAfrom 2.8 to 3.8, for exampleis worth about an additional 9 percent in income four years after college. Thats not much result for a huge amount of work."</p>
<p>I'd like to offer another viewpoint.</p>
<p>A lot of students are "career conformists" in that they have no real sense of themselves or what they want, so they "check off the boxes" in med school, law school, or what have you. A lot of them either quit before graduation, or end up hating their jobs.</p>
<p>You've already decided on a double major in philosophy and chemistry, which is a pretty large undertaking, and is also rather unusual. I would imagine you're interested in the field of philosophy due to its nature of critical thinking, analyzing, interpretation, and history. Well, welcome to the core curriculum at U of C. It seems to me a spectacular breadth of subject matter, more attuned to meeting your goals than you might think.</p>
<p>Your undergraduate experience should be one of exploration and realization. You may think you're dead set on med school now, but a lot can happen in college. In terms of discovering new ideas and opportunities, and ultimately realizing who you are and developing as that person, U of C is unmatched.</p>
<p>Don't go to some mediocre state school. You got accepted to a top tier institution. Loans are nothing in the long term (especially if you're going to be a doctor, for christ's sake). To borrow an idea from economics, invest in your own human capital.</p>
<p>And if you'd like, paraphrase this as a presentation to your parents about why you want to go to the University of Chicago.</p>
<p>Debaser's point is well said. See the link in my earlier post for an elaboration.</p>
<p>That's a fantastic article. It expands on most of what I've said, and does so more eloquently.</p>
<p>Apparently I wasted my time writing those last few paragraphs. I could have replaced a few hundred words with two: "Ditto idad."</p>
<p>Addendum: Many fine educations can be had elsewhere, but Chicago's Core is quite unique. One should, however, be sure that is what one really seeks.</p>
<p>You can surely succeed by going to a state school and excelling. Although many may not respect Carl Rove, he never even graduated from college and he was one of the biggest behind-the-scene forces on Capitol Hill for 15 years. With that being said, I would personally go to the best school I could possibly get into, and I would go to UofC in a heart beat. For pre-med though, I would reconsider.</p>