<p>"it's their ridiculous essay prompts that make them chicago.</p>
<p>And an easy way to winnow out the faint of heart, I might add.</p>
<p>for many yes, for the others, a pretty good chance of acceptance as compared to more selective schools. i imagine that the essays are not an overly big concern for those that apply to the ivys and stanford and aws that use uchi as a safety.</p>
<p>Yes, BlackandBlue, I was saying UChicago and all the ivies and AWS probably all have too many pretentious people for my taste. I really don't see why you're bent on proving UChicago is less favorable than the ivies, and that their essays and their location are not the main factor. Frankly, you have no idea, and neither do I, about what would happen if you could transport UChicago to the east coast and put it on the common app. But if you look at the geographic breakdowns of the ivies, they're mostly from the coasts. UChicago is mostly from the midwest. I think geography is a huge factor when it comes to all the above-listed colleges.</p>
<p>Oh, I think if you moved UChicago to, say, Boston and put it on the common app, more people would apply. Fortunately, that is not likely to happen.</p>
<p>Blacknblue, as an intellectual game you may want to think about the hypercompetitive schools in a slightly different sense. When you are rejecting 9 of 10 applicants (as Harvard and Princeton do) you are going to have to select for academic perfection in nearly all cases for the academic admits. A couple of B's and off you go to eat worms at U of C. But all this perfection does not necessarilly translate into spectacularly successful grads. Many times, it is the much maligned athletes that succeed beyond expectation (see the Parent's forum for details - there are several lively discussions going on). </p>
<p>What I'm trying to get at is that when you have to cut so many, you will cut some that you shouldn't. At Chicago, all you pick won't love you, but many will. Most of the parents I talked with at the Snell Hitchcock master's reception at orientation (before UofC chucked the parents out, lol) said that UofC was their kid's first choice. I saw one girl that was not happy - either she will come around or transfer - and one young man that had that deer in the headlights look. Not too bad out of the 50 or so kids I saw.</p>
<p>Places like Chicago and MIT are clearly not for everyone - these are two schools that I always implore people to visit - you will love them or be profoundly uncomfortable - nothing in between.</p>
<p>ohiomom, there's a misconception on this thread, started by persons that either can't read or are hyper-sensitive to any type of non gushing commentary about uchi. i never said that attending any particular institution would be determinative of success. There are very successful people who graduated from uchi as there are burnouts from the ivys. the original poster was wondering if he could get into uchi and i said that his chances were good since uchi accepted 40% of their applications. a couple of posters took that as a slight even though that is the number on all guidebooks. they then felt compelled to come up with scenarios such as if uchi doubled their applications, then their admits would be much lower, really ridiculous stuff, which would put uchi in a better light. These people should be more concerned with other threads on this forum that deals with the safety of the areas surrounding uchi and the overall unfriendliness of the student body than whether uchi accepts 40% of their applicants. you are correct, uchi is not for everybody, hence their low yield. i would also take the words of the parents at the reception with a grain of salt. what do you really expect them to say? that they were stuck with uchi because they got turned down by, say, dartmouth? people do get defensive about their child and i understand that. the only reliable indicator is the yield which would give a better indication of first choice or safety. another poster stated that amherst has a 39% yield, a little bit higher than uchi. what does that indicate? that amherst is also a safety school, for the same applicants that use uchi as a safety school. does that diminish the prestige of amherst? i think not, so i just don't understand why uchi people are so uptight. that same previous poster also tried to mislead by stating the williams yield was equally low, but in actuality it was close to 50%. thus williams (for whatever reason) is usually a real first choice school. the numbers don't lie.</p>
<p>BlacknBlue</p>
<p>Are you currently a student? What school do you attend?</p>
<p>I have to agree with BlacknBlue, I think people here are a bit (unnecesarily) defensive of UChic. No one is attacking the value of the school, we're simply saying it's not as prestigious as some other institutions.</p>
<p>BlackNBlue,
"that they were stuck with uchi because they got turned down by, say, dartmouth?"</p>
<p>Oh, I think that (or similar) was the case with the unhappy young lady. As far as what most of the parents were saying - body language is hard to disguise. I've sat through a lot of admissions sessions with parents sucking up to adcoms - not a pleasant sight. </p>
<p>I am curious as to where your impression of unfriendlyness came from. Biff and Buffy are'nt there to fall all over you, its true. But there didn't seem to be much of a difference between Chicago, and say, Brown: during the school year, some of the kids are going to be very busy and not thrilled with wandering prospies. On a more personal note, all I can say is that my son is enjoying his experience and housemates thus far. </p>
<p>The UChicago Director of admissions gave a wonderful speech at opening convocation - here is the link:<a href="http://phoenix.uchicago.edu/ted/classof2009.html%5B/url%5D">http://phoenix.uchicago.edu/ted/classof2009.html</a></p>
<p>You may not believe it - but it pretty much summed up how most of us felt.</p>
<p>Olo -
not to give you a hard time personally - but how are you defining prestigious?</p>
<p>Oh, not a problem. The definition of prestige I'm using is simply common renown. Pull a man off the street and ask him to name the ten best universities he can think of, and U of C will likely not be on that list (although his state's flagship school likely will be). Tell a man in Turkmenistan that you're at U of C, and he'll likely go "oh." Tell him you're at MIT and he'll go "wow." This is my definition of prestige. It's the quality of renown that's not necessarily related to anything other than how well known the school is, and how desirable it seems to people with common knowledge.</p>
<p>Meaning, basically, pick your random guy in the world (let's say Peru) and ask him who he'd rather marry his daughter off to, someone from Harvard or someone from U of C. Chances are he'll say the guy from Harvard, even if, living all the way in Peru, he knows nothing of the actual education at both schools.</p>
<p>That's prestige. It's "commonly associated worth." Harvard's is greater. Does this mean it's a better school? Not necessarily. I don't think so. But it's commonly associated worth is very, very, high.</p>
<p>EDIT: I do not mean to be sexist with the "marrying the daughter off" thing, it's just that in some places of the world, women don't typically get educated. I figured I'd be safe statistically.</p>
<p>Olo
Yes, I certainly agree that using that definition, Harvard has just about everyone beat hands down - both in this country and around the world. Common worth and net worth, too. Unless we're in March Madness and then, statisically speaking, we'd both be wrong and the girl would be married to a basketball player. </p>
<p>Actually, your hypothetical man in Turmenistan may be better educated than many in the US if he knows about MIT (not that this would surprise me).</p>
<p>My dad (who is 88 and lives with us) has a hobby of attempting to rank everything... politicians, tenors, golfers, journalists... so my own preference is to look at categories of schools - as they apply to specific individuals.</p>
<p>Well, I was in Turkey and Germany two years ago, and everyone knew what MIT was, and everyone gave the "Wow" comment when I told them I was applying. Not even accepted or waitlsited, but just the fact that I was applying was impressive. When they asked what other colleges, I mentioned both Caltech and the University of Chicago, and only one person knew what Caltech was, and none of them recognized the University of Chicago.</p>
<p>As for ranking everything, there's nothing wrong with that. Just rank it according to your own needs, not some artifically created ones.</p>
<p>Germany knowing about MIT isn't surprising - Turkey is to me, but that just shows my own ignorance. I will tell you that in semi-rural Ohio, MIT is not, in most circles, a common name. Ohio State is.</p>
<p>If you are not already in college, best wishes on the whole adventure. I know some great folks from MIT and Caltech.</p>
<p>Indeed I'm not, but I'm in the grind right now. Still have to finish those UChic essays. :)</p>
<p>Just came across this entry from absoluteastonomy.com, seems someone else has heard of UChicago.</p>
<p>The University of Chicago is a private co-educational university located in Chicago, Illinois. Just over a century old, it includes a number of academic units of prominent stature. It is highly regarded as a teaching institution and one of the most prestigious universities in the world; the last National Research Council peer review ranked the University of Chicago at the top in the list for both faculty quality and teaching. John Podhoretz, an alumnus, has said that The University of Chicago is the most intellectual and bookish of American schools...</p>
<p>idad, do you actually ead these postings? noone ever said that uchi in unknown. uchi is just not as selective as the ivy's and aws. just deal with it. it doesn't mean that uchi is not a great institution. it is. it's just that over 60% of the students who get accepted feel that there is another institution that may be better suited for them. whether it be the other school is more prestigious or the other schools are more friendly or the campus at the other school is safer or whatever. like i said before, uchi people are soooo sensitive. not being a selective school must really touch a raw nerve.</p>
<p>which goes back to my previous question: Why is the yield at Uchi so low for such a great school?</p>
<p>banedon17, why do you care about yield?</p>
<p>BlacknBlue, where are you going to school?</p>
<p>a lot of over qualified students apply to the ivy's, but not all can get in, even with 1600 sat's, 4.0/4.0, valedictorian etc. so they also make applications at schools who are at the next tier (not in terms of the quality of the education, but next tier in terms of desirability). that next teir includes uchi. most applicants accepted applicants to the ivy's and stanford and mit and caltech and aws also get accepted by uchi. not in all cases, but for the most part, once a student is accepted at one of those other schools, they tend to choose those schools over uchi. that is why the yield at uchi is so low. of course, an isolated student or two or three, may actually decide to choose uchi over those other schools and some others may choose uchi because uchi offered more money, but for the most part, students selected to those other schools will choose them over uchi. to appease all the sensitive in our audience, that does not mean that the quality of the education at uchi is not as good as those others. it just means that those other schools are probably MORE prestigious (i say more so that the over sensitive uchi people will not think that uchi is not percieved as prestigious) and thus more desirable. I just wish the uchi people can understand this and get over this minor inferiority complex they have concerning prestige and desirability. uchi is still a world class institution. </p>
<p>other factors may also play into why uchi is not the choice of those also accepted to an ivy beyond the prestige factor and that may be the stories circulating about the students not being that friendly, the weather, the fact that uchi is in the middle of a very dicey neighborhood, their reputation for a rigorous program (although, i am sure that this is the least of them, since most students accepted to a very selective college is highly motivated and are super achievers anyway.)</p>
<p>The post said nothing about selectivity. It was posted re: a discussion of the definition of prestige, and it was simply an example found randomly on an astronomy website. Don't be so oversensitive. And, don't confuse popular with prestige, but that is another topic.</p>