Hello,
I was recently accepted at all these schools, and I was wondering what the general impression of which school someone would pick. I’m leaning towards Uchicago and columbia, because of the core curriculum and intellectual spirit, as well as the prestige (not going to lie) but I’m torn then. I am leaning towards majoring in the humanities, such as public policy, government, literature, economics, etc. I have a few questions, and please don’t take any offense to them, I’m just trying to build a collective opinion.
Is there a reason why Brown and Duke would be chosen over Columbia and Uchicago if I like the core curriculum best?
How is the social life like at chicago and columbia?
Chicago is rising up in ranking (us news) but columbia is decreasing in acceptance rate (5.8 percent '2021), which do you think is the generally most “prestigious school”? I’m so sorry if this is not an acceptable question to ask.
Does the factor of being an “ivy” matter or does chicago permeate those standards?
What are the different adj to describe each “student”?
My daughter’s a junior at UChicago and my son was accepted to Columbia last week. I can try to answer some of your questions. I don’t know a thing about Brown or Duke.
My daughter is enjoying her time at UChicago, with of course, some good things and some bad things. Her major is in the social sciences, so there isn’t as much pressure as there is for the pre-professional and hard science majors. She says that her friends who are in the “harder” majors (including economics) work a lot harder than she does.
Social life is what you make it. UChicago forces kids to go off campus on Saturday nights because there is no cafeteria service, so she got a great taste (literally) of the city of Chicago. There aren’t campus-wide parties, but is plenty of action in the more social dorms. Don’t know about the social life at Columbia.
The core is more flexible than Columbia, which she wanted. She was able to take humanities and social science classes that aligned with her interests. My son likes the fact that everyone takes the same courses.
Columbia probably has a better social sciences reputation. UChicago is known for science such as physics, and for economics.
The “ivy” cachet is still there, especially for east-coasters. When you get to the midwest, UChicago has a strong rep, but it’s simply not as well known back east.
I think you could describe both types of students as “work hard, play hard”. My niece went to Barnard about 10 years ago, and that’s how she described the University.
My impression is that UChicago is on a roll. College ranked third. Uchicago Law School just overtook Columbia.
Booth Business School ranked third , whereas Columbia is low top ten. In many academic subjects UChicago is a major thought leaders: Economics, math, statistics, English (top in the country), near eastern studies, history, archeology, physics and astronomy. Columbia is stronger in political science and international affairs. But clearly UChicago has a major upward momentum and Columbia seems to be slipping a bit. Also, the average man on the street in the East coast may not know UChicago that well. But those who matter (employers, grad schools, government etc) know UChicago extremely well and it has a strong elite intellectual and hard working reputation. The ivy cachet per se is not material. (See Stanford, MIT). Either way, you are very lucky and cannot go wrong. Uchicago is very prestigious in Europe. It overtakes Columbia in most of the global university rankings.
One more point. The Manhattan market is flooded with Columbia grads. Uchicago has an air of rarity here. That actually makes it more exotic and attractive.
I could point you to numerous posts on CC where current and former Duke students are blasting the university for how awful it was to attend. Just strike Duke from your list.
As for Brown, I can’t think of any reason for choosing it over Chicago or Columbia.
Both Columbia and Chicago are very prestigious. One advantage of attending an Ivy is the alumni groups you will have access to. For example, on LinkedIn, there is an Ivy League Alumni group of more than 10,000 people, and guess what – U Chicago grads aren’t welcome. There are many similar Ivy groups all over the place. Your access to alumni at Columbia will extend beyond Columbia and to the entire Ivy League of alumni.
Aside from that, there is the city. Do you have a strong preference for either Chicago or New York City?
It is my impression that U Chicago has a more isolated campus, while Columbia is very much integrated into the heart New York City. Do you have a preference for one or the other situation?
Congratulations on having these wonderful choices!
Honestly, I would rate them equally. I would say that respectfully, any degree of slippage for Columbia will have minimal impact on a students’ time here. I can only really give you input on Columbia, so here you go.
I wouldn’t say Columbia is in the heart of NY, but it’s in Manhattan and you can go pretty much anywhere, anytime. Core at Columbia is pretty inflexible but I feel that I learned from it. I very much enjoyed LitHum and CC certainly left some lasting impressions. Music Hum fostered my interest in western music; I took my friends for their birthday to a concert w/ a grammy winning composer at Carnegie with student tickets. The science core of Columbia is pretty flexible and I actually think FroSci is a decent course for people who are strictly into humanities.
I know little of Brown besides the fact that their library apparently closes at midnight, while Butler is probably still (unfortunately) packed right now. You also have a lot more flexibility at Brown and it’s obviously more laid back, so if you seek that atmosphere, you’ll be fine. You could probably get similar classes to the Core there, but it wouldn’t be a Core, if that makes sense. Duke - know even less.
I do think Columbia has a slightly more ~pragmatic~ viewpoint. There’s a lot of protesting, preprofessionalism etc. etc. I wouldn’t characterize it as a school that’s an isolated bastion of intellectualism; a lot of debate and thought is grounded around current issues and social contexts.
Socially: It exists. You can always find a party or two every weekend. Our spring concert is always pretty crazy. You can stay out of the party scene though, and still be happy, with friends. I would say I drink once every month or so. There’s a lot of going out into the city, trying new restaurants (of course this is dependent on your financial means/parental support), exploring different places/concerts with friends.
It wouldn’t be a U Chicago thread if someone didn’t mention the catch phrases that U Chicago has been know for “University of Chicago, where fun goes to die” and - students that attend UChicago are pursuing “The Life of the Mind”.
My understanding is that Chicago is more intellectual, more serious and more work to keep a decent GPA than the others.
I would say that Brown and Columbia are more prestigious, then UChicago and lastly Duke. Duke has a very big stat school/party vibe if that is something you are looking for. I would say Duke is less intellectual
@NYCGirl33 Seriously … Brown is a lesser ivy , unknown outside the US. Uchicago and Columbia are peeers and world leading universities with Chicago having the fourth Law School and third Business School and columbia having all three graduate schools in top ten. UChicago is ranked third and columbia fifth for college. They are both Nobel prize leaders. Brown is not in the same universe. Absurd.
@ivygrasper101 Columbia acceptance rate is decreasing because NY is a very attractive place to be and is especially cool for international students. By that standard, Columbia would be more prestigious than Princeton.
@Chrchill I kind of agree with you on the Chicago vs Brown point, but it just goes to show how strong the Ivy league brand is. There are many people who would put Brown over Chicago just because Brown is a Ivy and Chicago isn’t, especially college applicants and their prestige-focused parents.
Update: I’ve taken Brown and Duke off my list of considerations. It is between Chicago and Columbia now. Leaning towards Chicago, but Columbia still lingers throughout my thoughts. So I will be visiting both this month!
Columbia and Chicago are both superb. Make this decision based on your gut feeling. Socially, you will find Columbia more flashy, urban sophisticates and rich internationals etc. Also, Uchicago now is providing a very supportive undergraduate experience. At Columbia, you have to be more of a self starter. Academicallty, these two are absolute peers. Would you rather be in NY or Chicago?
As a parent who has children who went to 3 different ivies, I can tell you that Brown
is one of the best college experiences out of the eight.
But, the beauty of Brown is that they don’t tend to admit students who are obsessed with prestige and rankings.
The conversation on this post is so juvenile. The posters really have no idea what they are talking about and seem to think that what usnews decides to rank a college is terribly important.
Remember, Brown, Dartmouth and Princeton are focused on undergraduates. Brown and Dartmouth are small colleges. They are not full of grad students and professional schools. They are going to rank lower than large universities.
