<p>Chicago and Harvard are similar in the sense that they are both wealthy, world-class American private research universities with liberal arts colleges in large cities. Which means that they are about 90% the same – along with a number of other, similar universities. The 10% that is different is really different.</p>
<p>-- It’s wrong to say they are located in areas “right outside of a major urban area”. By any definition, both are smack in the middle of major urban areas. But Cambridge is a wealthy, vibrant, glitzy neighborhood, and Hyde Park is a little plain and sleepy, and a longish trip from anything exciting to do in Chicago. In general, Chicago (the city) is much bigger than Boston/Cambridge, and much more spread out, too.</p>
<p>-- There is a lot of hugeness at Harvard. It doesn’t make so much difference at the college level, but elsewhere in the university it really shows. All the professional schools are much larger, and the graduate programs are larger, too. In general, the student population at Harvard is about 40% larger than at Chicago. Harvard is also much wealthier than Chicago – probably the richest permanent private secular nonprofit the world has ever known.</p>
<p>-- It seems like there is a real culture of self-promotion at Harvard. Mostly on the faculty, but often among the students, too. People are very, very impressed with themselves, and consider themselves to be Extremely Important. There is often a lot of rivalry within particular schools or departments. Arguably, that leads to a lot of achievement, and all the self-promotion leads to a lot of general-public fame. Chicago is much more ivory-towerish. There is a very strong culture of civil discourse – people who play to the press or the cameras are not respected; people who listen to others and adjust their positions to reflect good points someone else has made are the norm. People spend more time talking to each other than writing for The New Yorker. There is a lot of interdepartmental collaboration.</p>
<p>-- Chicago seems very midwestern. People tend to be soft-spoken and polite, and don’t consume conspicuously for the most part. At the undergraduate level, there is nothing like Harvard’s final clubs. Chicago doesn’t get a lot of celebrity students, either – no Natalie Portmans or Rivers Cuomo. The closest thing was Anna Chlumsky, and that was 15 years ago.</p>
<p>-- While the faculties and student bodies at both trend left of center, conservative viewpoints are more present at Chicago, at least insofar as economic policy is concerned (the religious right is almost entirely absent from both universities).</p>
<p>-- The Harvard house system is fabulous and really adds to people’s experience. Very few students ever live off campus, in part because it’s much cheaper to live on-campus and the houses are special. Chicago’s house system actually antedate’s Harvard’s, but it doesn’t work nearly as well, and 90% of students move off campus by their third year. The neighborhood housing is nicer and cheaper (and sometimes closer) than the university dorms. The dorms are where you really see the wealth difference between the two universities, although Harvard is just beginning a long-delayed renovation program for its houses.</p>
<p>-- The undergraduate culture at Harvard makes classroom experience secondary to extracurricular activities in many respects. Whether it’s writing for The Crimson, playing a varsity sport, or doing social justice work in the surrounding community, students tend to see that as their central activity, and class as something they do because they have to. At Chicago, everything is subordinate to the classroom. People talk about their classes; there is social pressure to do all the reading and hold up your end.</p>
<p>-- Both colleges have core curriculums, but Chicago’s takes a lot more time and ensures a lot more overlap in what everyone knows and what reference points they can use. The core at Chicago is definitely a mixed blessing, though. Many/most Chicago students love the idea of the core, and are really ambivalent about the execution of it. Harvard keeps revising its version, so I’m not sure what it is without looking it up.</p>