<p>anyone who matters will recognize chicago. name recognition would not even be a concern of mine in deciding whether or not to attend chicago</p>
<p>Of course, if you were a <em>real</em> UChicago student, you would be so hip you would appreciate how underground and unknown UChicago is xD.</p>
<p>Hahaha yeah but even my school counselor hasn’t a clue what UofC was. </p>
<p>But like I said, I still appreciate the school just the same…I was just amazed that so few knew about Chicago! I think it has a lot to do with the fact that it has only become so selective recently…but I have a feeling it will become more well-known in the future. 
And so true – the people who will be deciding whether or not to accept me into their law school will most certainly know what University of Chicago is. </p>
<p>And oh okay Rny2…sorry I’m not a <em>real</em> truly hip UChicago student…
I guess I’ll see what I’m lacking when I go visit in a week and a half. :P</p>
<p>If you go to Asia, everyone (including the general public) knows the school. In the US, the general population tends to be considerably less educated about colleges. Which is fine… what really bothers me is when purportedly educated people like college counselors don’t know what it is. Considering Chicago’s contribution to academics, there simply isn’t an excuse. However arrogant it might seem though, college counselors aren’t a particularly elite or educated group of people whose opinions have consequences for your upward social mobility. That role lies in your employers, who are well educated about the prestige of the University. Just the other day at an interview for my top-choice job, one of my interviewers made a verbal note that I was on a “very elite track” with my study of mathematics at UChicago. In fact, the most pressing issue within that interview was that I was perhaps on such an elite track that I would soon quit my job at said company after being hired and go on to a more prestigious position. Make note that this was a job completely unrelated to academia and economics, and even in that sphere, Chicago makes its presence known.</p>
<p>It is true that Chicago will probably gain prestige in the next decade. This is the inevitable result of a considerably lower admissions rate, an expanding College, and a higher spot on the rankings list. However, I won’t pretend that it will reach Harvard any time soon.</p>
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<p>Since when did this become important!? Unless the OP is looking to do this, I think it is a silly thing to say. I also hardly agree with this assessment…</p>
<p>Since when do you know anything about the school’s reputation? And how would you know anything about it? The only thing you know about is how the general public perceives the school, which I’m not talking about.</p>
<p>Just look at the THES global reputation rankings. Chicago ranks #15 in the world, and that ranking is based solely on international reputation. Just because some Americans tend to be ignorant of the state of higher education (yourself included) doesn’t mean that this extends worldwide or to the professional community. Rather, to the contrary, since internationally and in the business community where education is more valued, the top colleges are well-known and their reputations well-established. Your denial of such indicates that you know very little about reputation outside of the public perception, which thereby serves to invalidate your uninformed opinions.</p>
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<p>The general public does not know the school in my Asian country. My dad’s into stock trading and Wall Street stuff, yes he knows the school. Other people know maybe HYPSM. No lower Ivies, no Caltech, no Cal/UCLA… Most of the people had no idea Columbia was an Ivy when I told them I was going to do ED there.</p>
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<p>I guess I can ask you the same question, then!? Who are you to make a statement about UIC’s reputation in Asia? How would you know anything about it there? Have you asked everyone in Asia and have conclusive evidence? Like you, I can make a blanket argument…</p>
<p>Also, I don’t think anyone would give much credibility to that THES ranking…UMAss at 19 is quite funny! C’mon, no one can take that think seriously.</p>
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<p>Heh.</p>
<p>This is less related to UChicago and more related to general frustration with the public’s ignorance of very fine colleges…</p>
<p>…I hate explaining, a million times over, that the University of Pennsylvania is not a public university. My sister goes there, and every time people ask where she attends college, their reaction is something along the lines of “Wasn’t she valedictorian? I thought she was really smart.” I honestly don’t even bother to clarify anymore.</p>
<p>Also, about elite LACS…there was a Williams representative at my school two years ago, and literally six people (school of 3500 students) appeared at the informational session. Besides me, none of them even knew what a liberal arts college was. 
I was actually embarrassed on my school’s behalf and wanted to apologize to the representative. (And maybe that’s offensive, but I’m being honest.)</p>
<p>So OP, don’t worry - you are not alone. In fact, I recently met a woman who did not know what Yale was; evidently, she thought of Duke, Harvard, and Vanderbilt as the country’s absolute best colleges.</p>
<p>“…guess I can ask you the same question, then!? Who are you to make a statement about UIC’s reputation in Asia?”</p>
<p>Ho mah gawd. trollnyc is my absolute favorite person on the face of the earth. I lollllercoptered so hard at that. lololololololololol</p>
<p>UIC 
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<p>I award trollnyc +250 bonus points and ■■■■■ of the year. Seriously.</p>
<p>I live and work in New York City, and every single time I’ve told someone that my son goes to the U of Chicago, the reaction has been very positive, along the “gee, he must be smart” line. So at least around here, a lot of people (at least, among lawyers like me, many with kids around my son’s age) are very familiar with it.</p>
<p>I don’t think it was nearly as well-known in this area back when I was applying to college in the 1970’s; the only reason I knew about it then is that my older sister went there. </p>
<p>And I distinctly remember being taken down a peg myself the summer after I finished high school when I told a great-uncle of mine that I was going to Yale, and he had never heard of it. The only U.S. college he knew about (he was from Germany originally and lived in France) was Harvard.</p>