<p>Back off, gang.</p>
<p>NYU is a fine school. Chicago is a fine school. To argue over which is better is a waste of time. Either school could provide anything an undergrad could want intellectually. Either would serve well as a springboard for grad or professional school. To argue that the average student at one school or the other is this way or that is irrelevant, because none of the posters here are "average" students, right? </p>
<p>:-)</p>
<p>I think it's important to remember to take anything a college guidance counselor says with a tremendous grain of salt. Most of the time, it is a job that's been carved out of the cottage industry that college admissions has becomed and is accordingly opportunistic and hysterical. I happened to have a good college guidance counselor at school this year, a sane one, but the one I used to have a year ago was ignorant and misguided. Remember, college guidance counselors at your average public school are evaluated on HOW MANY people they get into schools, not WHERE. That may not have been the issue at stake here, but it is just one example of how skewed the thought process is. And also take into account general ignorance about colleges that exist out there beyond the scope of the supposed all-knowing college guidance counselor. Don't make your decisions based on appearances--and remember, if you don't get an excellent response from someone to whom you mention Chicago, the response does not reflect on Chicago, instead, it reflects on the person to whom you're talking.</p>
<p>I completely didnt touch my guidance counselor as did most of my classmates (though my last name puts me in with the only really good one at the school). Our apps were handled more by our IB coordinator who not only knows her stuff (just because of the experiances and becuase she used to be a recruiter or something for mount holyoke) but she knows us way better than the counselors whom we only visit when our schedule is messed up (they deal primarily with trouble kids).</p>
<p>My S had absolutely no help from his GC. He had to remind her to send in recommendations, mid year reports etc, several times. She provided no advice about colleges.</p>
<p>Same with me. I had to hold my GC's hand.</p>