The schools that are bashed the most on CC

College Search & Selection
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<p>Dean of Admissions Ted O'Neill's commencement address made fun of exactly this point, that because the school improved by 36%, 36% of us were no longer welcome.</p>

<p>It's quite true, in its own sad, unfortunate ways, that now that we share a perch with Columbia and Dartmouth, different students are looking at us and looking at us more favorably than they did my year, when we shared a spot with JHU and Cornell. Prestige begets prestige, and it's all rather silly.</p>

<p>If you would like, I can do an on-the-spot critique of Chicago. In truth, it's a very hard school to bash (the closest I've seen to a real spewing of hatred were posters going "EW! NERDS! CORE! EW!" which, I think we can all agree, is not a real critique).</p>

<p>Maybe some things to consider about the school that aren't so flattering:</p>

<p>1) Your "urban sense" needs to be on. Always. (This is my response to the "Is Hyde Park safe?" question)</p>

<p>2) Students are quite involved with their academics and work; as a result, most students don't invest as much energy into extracurriculars as I think they do at other schools. Certainly it's great if you're into schoolwork, not so great if you're uberinto five bazillion things and hope to continue all of them.</p>

<p>3) Chicago weather tends to be unhappy. NU gets this too. If you visit the school and there's hardly a cloud in the sky, God wants you to attend Chicago (or Northwestern, or DePaul, or Loyola), because we don't get clear skies around here.</p>

<p>4) Campus politics are anti-PC and pro-tolerance to everyone. Libertarianism is popular. I would personally like to see some more dirty hippies.</p>

<p>5) Remember that kid? That kid? That kid? That one, the one you always wondering how in the world he functioned, the one who was somehow able to spew random tangents about NOTHING AND EVERYTHING AND OH MY GOSH? He goes here. Not everybody is like him, for sure, but he goes here.</p>

<p>6) This is the University of Chicago, and even though I do think we're an intellectual paradise, there are still kids who don't come to class, don't do readings, and annoy me and my peers with their overall flippance. This is college, after all.</p>

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<p>I can say with relative ease that I would commit suicide if I went to UChi.</p>

23

<p>
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Wash U is clearly bashed on here too.

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</p>

<p>Clearly, given you do much of the bashing.</p>

<p>I think Penn gets way too much bashing from the Columbia kids in particular, which is really kinda sad on the latter's part.</p>

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<p>i just joined the forum, but i've been reading it for a long time so i can say the ivies and uchicago are clearly overrated. but especially for uchicago, having read most of the uchicago v. nwu posts, chicago people seem to love to self-claim to be very "intellectual" while bashing on nwu. so its more of self-overrated.</p>

<p>i think its a form of insecurity; because ive lived in chicago all my life i can definitely say most kids here clearly don't want to go to uchicago where the "fun goes to die," while they dream of nwu as the perfect school. at any rate, i think bashing is definitely a form of insecurity or anger for those who get rejected/waitlisted from that school. it's definitely the case for competitive schools like penn, nwu, duke, and wustl.</p>

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<p>Actually, NUGrad5555, from what I've found, UChicago is very underrated on these boards.</p>

26

<p>Oh, Chicagokiddo, you definitely haven't met me yet :-)</p>

<p>Granted, Chicago's not the school for everybody, and it turns many potential applicants and future students off for the reason you mentioned, but I am not alone in putting it as my dream school. The vast majority of the students who go here want to go here; the students who go here only because they think it's a good school and it's the "best" one they get into end up miserable.</p>

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<p>I'm fairly sure Vandy isn't over rated...</p>

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<p>This is from someone named Strawboy.

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This year's yield is mad low. Obviously the wait list is open. I rejected Duke for another school that fits me better. And from the looks of it, so did a lot of other people.

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<p>The school is Dartmouth.. a great school.. but apparently this poster still feels this need to put Duke down. It's a shame.. since Dartmouth is an awesome school!</p>

<p>This person seems to like bashing Duke.. or he just likes to waste his time, :p</p>

29

<p>Cornell,UPENN,Brown get bashed a lot. In fact, they were the three most nominated in this forum's "worst ivy-league school" thread.</p>

30

<p>
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It's quite true, in its own sad, unfortunate ways, that now that we share a perch with Columbia and Dartmouth, different students are looking at us and looking at us more favorably than they did my year

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<p>it's funny he should say that it's sad considering the reason they now share that perch is because administrators from HIS DEPARTMENT sat down with USNEWS editors to figure out how to REPORT DATA DIFFERENTLY so that they could HAVE THAT RANKING.</p>

<p>washu is bashed by a lot of people because of its waitlisting policies, which in disguising becomes the only school not to report waitlist numbers in its common app.</p>

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<p>People definitely bash Wash U a ton. And it's not really bashing, but people always go on about Duke being "southern" in a negative way when they've clearly never been...because if they had they wouldn't say that as an insult or at all.</p>

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<p>CoolaTroopa, to be fair, saying that another school "fits [him] better" doesn't exactly constitute "bashing" Duke. I don't know what this year's yield was (I didn't apply) and can't comment on his assessment of it, but that quote is actually pretty inoffensive by CC standards.</p>

33

<p>I do think that people tend to look down on the LACs, even on CC. So many of the broad discussions totally ignore LACs, and many people seem unwilling to acknowledge that the top LACs are at least as good as many of the top 20 Universities. Sure, it goes the other way too, but I don't see it as much as this way. Of course, compared to the world at large, CC has an incredible love affair with LACs, but that's not saying much. </p>

<p>UChicago gets bashed plenty on CC...the NU/UChicago discussions are highly contentious, and from an unconnected third party observer, I see much of the bitterness coming from the NU side, which, no offense, is obvious from the OP of this thread. Maybe that's because of the chip on the shoulder that Northwesterner's have because UChicago is highly praised for being "intellectual" on these boards, but it is a bitterness that I don't really understand. Living here in Chicagoland (for only 3 more months, though!!), I would say that Northwestern has a great rep and that while people will be as impressed with those who go/went to UChicago, they will probably think that that person is weird and would have an overall more favorable opinion of the Northwesterner. UChicago gets respect on the boards for academics, but you would be hard-pressed to claim that it doesn't get plenty of negative attention for the social aspect. JMO.</p>

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<p>I love how everyone is ignoring what I said, because it's easily the most true.</p>

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<p>NUGrad - I feel you are a classic case of someone with a very abrasive opinion but without a total grasp of reality. Don't advertise that two elite schools such as Chicago and Duke are "very overrated" without checking out how good the schools actually are. Also, I've never seen Penn being bashed but posters such as yourself continue to say things like "Duke is better known for lacrosse scandals than academics."</p>

<p>I guess your personal experience as a NU undergrad has given your perspective more importance than collegeboard/ETS, WSJ, THES, and the National Merit Scholarship competition – which all show that many top students (from cc or elsewhere) choose to go to Duke and Chicago with good reason.</p>

<p>Side by side comparisons of colleges, including Chicago, Penn, Duke - and some others you didn't mention, such as Columbia and Dartmouth.</p>

<p>Average SAT scores:</p>

<p>Duke 1380 - 1540
Chicago 1320 - 1530
Columbia 1330 - 1520
Dartmouth 1350 - 1550
Penn 1330 – 1520</p>

<p>I don’t see how Chicago and Duke are overrated at all, they fall at the top or middle of the pack.</p>

<p>WSJ Feeder Rankings:
Duke - ranked 6th
Dartmouth - ranked 7th
Columbia - ranked 11th
Chicago - ranked 14th
Penn - ranked 16th
Note that 2/3 of the Universities on the survey are Ivy League grad schools.</p>

<p>Again, why exactly is Duke and Chicago overrated? Both perform very well.</p>

<p>National Merit Scholars in Class of 2010:
Duke - 120
Penn - 100
Columbia - 70
Dartmouth - 60
Chicago - 40</p>

<p>Hey wait, Duke has a bunch of those – why is it overrated again? Chicago doesn’t do that well, but still is comeptetive.</p>

<p>THES Rankings: Scored on global corporate recruitment review, faculty score, and resources:</p>

<p>Duke: ranked 14th
Columbia: ranked 19th
Penn: ranked 28th
Chicago: 17th
Dartmouth: unranked (too LACy I guess)</p>

<p>Ok, so the biggest newspaper in London thinks Duke is pretty good, same with Chicago, why do you think they are overrated?</p>

<p>So Chicago and Duke are up to par with several mid-tier Ivies – all while being located in the Midwest and South respectively. Chicago and Duke usually get underrated if anything - Duke because its in the South and Lax/Bball gets so many headlines, and Chicago gets the rap as a nerd school. </p>

<p>NUGrad, care to back up your assertions?</p>

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<p>I think most people are missing the point here. So much of what you will or will not encomplish in life is up to you...not necessarily what undergrad school you went to or its reputation. After your first job or terminal degree nobody will even care where you went to college. I've interviewed some great people from the elites but have also seen my share of "duds." An ivy education is no guarantee...in the end it's about self-determination and you'll be surprised how many kids coming out of the State U. got it. Many of you will be working for them some day. Bash all you want but in the end it's a fools game.</p>

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<p>^^^^^^^^^^ /thread over</p>

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<p>Concerning UChicago/USNWR rankings:</p>

<p>"it's funny he should say that it's sad considering the reason they now share that perch is because administrators from HIS DEPARTMENT sat down with USNEWS editors to figure out how to REPORT DATA DIFFERENTLY so that they could HAVE THAT RANKING."</p>

<p>Any evidence of this conversation taking place?</p>

<p>I'm more than willing to think that the USNWR is part garbage. This nebulous "peer assessment" ranking is weighted quite heavily, and it's not clear how voluntary response surveys from college administrators really mean anything about the quality of a school. If anything, I'm sure there's a lot of "I scratch your back, you scratch mine," going on. And I'm also convinced that US News is out to sell... hence why the #1 University tends to change from year to year. If Chicago's up this year, I'm not surprised if it takes a dip again, just to create more conversation and analysis for people like us.</p>

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<p>People definitely bash NYU alot, especially Stern. It's a pity because its a great school along with the rest of the bashed up schools (like cornell, penn etc etc) and I guess people just feel negatively towards them because they were rejected by these schools or try to make up for the fact that these schools are better than the school they are attending.</p>

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<p>
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Any evidence of this conversation taking place?

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<p>concerning uchicago administrators sitting down with the USNEWS editors to discuss how they can improve their ranking... check the Chicago Tribune circa august 2006</p>