<p>Congratulations on your decision, GustavKlimt. Both are fine schools, but UChicago really is a unique place, both in spirit and practice. I’ve mentioned this in the past, but there is something about Chicago which cannot be easily measured or ranked using conventional metrics.</p>
<p>Chicago is imbued by a dedication to inquiry and study and respect for ideas that clearly sets it apart from its peers. What you learn in the next four years will change you. It will change the way you look at people, your family, institutions and the world around you. After you graduate, perhaps you will miss the place (as hard as it will have been on you) and realize that your eyes have been opened in ways unexpected. </p>
<p>It is not a place for everyone. It may be the hardest years of your life. But in return, you will, I hope, gain a perspective on this world that will stay with you, and continue enriching you, regardless of your ultimate profession.</p>
<p>I am sorry but where do get this stuff from!? Haha. Are you suggestng the OP would not be challenged and learn anything at Stanford? C’mon, stop selling this Koolaid as if only at UC are kids being intellectually challenged in the classroom. Don’t get me wrong, it is undoubtedly One of Many great schools. </p>
<p>Yes-Most folks would consider the OP crazy, especially since Stanford would be cheaper but hey he/she is going with their gut feeling and that should not be overlooked. </p>
<p>Good luck with your decision–you’ll come to regret it in January-April. Haha</p>
<p>trollnyc, you certainly are aptly named and you also seem to have a certain axe to grind re: UChicago. I will leave it to you to work out whatever problems you have with Hyde Park.</p>
<p>re: Stanford, I have many friends who’ve gone to Stanford and they’ve been bright and hard working students. Does that mean that Stanford cultivates a similar approach to scholarship as Chicago? Not by a long shot. They are very different places and very different schools. </p>
<p>UChicago is a VERY intense, almost single-minded institution. The pursuit of ideas and theory has a central role in how Chicago defines itself. Have you ever heard of a “Stanford school of ______”? Probably not. But I am sure that you have heard of the Chicago school of Economics, the Chicago school of Sociology, the Committee on Social Thought, the Chicago school of Law and Economics, etc. </p>
<p>Why is this? Simply put, UChicago is a place dedicated to ideas. It is a place that encourages you to have discourse with these ideas, to respect the cultivation of these ideas, to receive joy, jouissance, from the play of ideas. This is what defines UChicago, in ideal, if not always in practice. </p>
<p>Like I said, Stanford is an amazing school. It’s just a very different place from UChicago with a very different set of educational imperatives. I hope that you will find it as fulfilling as I did.</p>
<p>No, but I’ve heard of Google, Yahoo, HP, etc. Seems to me that Stanford is doing something right…</p>
<p>I have no axe to grind with UC, just with this ridiculous notion that it is the only school where students go to learn, blah, blah, blah, that they learn for “sake of learning”, etc. I don’t know the source of this holier than thou attitude but it is a little obnoxious.</p>
<p>I can appreciate your attitude re: the obnoxiousness, trollnyc. That said, I think that the examples you’ve given; Google, Yahoo, etc., pretty much proves my point. Yes, Stanford is a freaking amazing school. Their engineering program, their business and law programs are out of this world. But, and I really want to emphasize this, this is so very different from the “community of scholars” that Chicago cultivates. Sure, Chicago has its share of professionals and techies, but the ideal of the school is really a world apart from Stanford, in good ways and bad.</p>
<p>Nah, but Chicago is known to be a school where kids go for rigorous academics, to learn for the sake of learning, to grow intellectually. Someone who fits in and thrives at Chicago will do better than your average Stanford student. To the OP, congrats - you’ve made a decision under uncertainty using a good process - all the best.</p>
<p>Trollnyc, as someone who had every chance to attend Stanford let me tell you that the seriousness of intellectual inquiry, among most undergraduates, at Stanford, is as superficial as Ms. Pelosi’s botoxed visage. It is a bloody joke. If Yahoo and Google are what passes for serious intellectual inquiry on your part, then no wonder you have a hard time stomaching Chicago. Stanford has pockets of great strength, engineering and physical sciences in particular. Students in these fields are at least serious as to their training, even if most are precisely bound to that education as “training” template. There are schools adept at producing trained “professionals”, such as Stanford, and there are schools, not many, which actually force their students to think hard as to what are the aims and means of education, such as Chicago. You find that obnoxious. Well, of course you do.</p>