<p>I was very fortunate to get accepted into these two great universities. In the off-chance that I get off the waitlists at Princeton at Wharton, then everything changes, but for now, it's between UofC and Brown. My major would be economics, math, or possibly chem. I ultimately want to be a trader, HF manager or do something with quantitative finance. Here's my view:</p>
<p>Academics: Edge to UChicago in my majors, but I get the feeling that a core at UChciago (as opposed to an open curriculum @ Brown) may be restricting. </p>
<p>Career Placement: HF's and trading are big in Chicago, from what I understand, so UChicago would be a good fit I think? </p>
<p>Setting: UofC has a great campus in my opinion, and the city of Chicago is awesome in my opinion, though I felt "more at home" for some reason when I visited Brown last summer, but can't necessarily articulate why. </p>
<p>Overall Prestige/Wow Factor: roughly the same (though I suspect UofC is more respected in the business community....correct me if I'm wrong on this). </p>
<p>Any other thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks! </p>
<p>If you are not enthusiastic about the Core concept, then Chicago may not be right for you. Core courses will take up a significant part of your undergraduate course work. You can get excellent math and econ courses at either school. Core v. Open Curriculum is what really distinguishes them, academically.</p>
<p>^I agree. Chicago will be more intensely intellectual, more math-y. Brown will be more creative. How is that for stereotyping! Both will be cold. For a business future, U of C probably has a better rep, but you will have more fun at Brown. But they are both outstanding schools. You really can’t go wrong. </p>
<p>A lot of UChicago’s core classes sound interesting in my opinion, but I get the feeling that it might be restrictive in terms of exploring other options for majors or taking classes involving hard skills. Does anybody know for sure? Plus, I’ll admit that I’m quite conservative politically, so would Brown be a bad fit in that regard? </p>
<p>First of all they are both great schools so you can’t go wrong. If you feel more comfortable at Brown, then that should be where you go. I think gut feeling should be part of the equation all other things being equal.<br>
The core curriculum can be great for some and very restrictive for others. My S went to a school with a huge core and it was a great experience for him to get such a well rounded education. My D went to college with specific areas of interest she wanted to pursue and felt that the core would only hold her back and she went to a college without a big core. Do whatever you feel is the best for your education and interests.<br>
And I’m sure you’ll be fine at Brown. You can find conservatives at any school and most students will be open to everyone’s opinion as long as you are willing to listen to others as well.</p>
<p>The core at U of C is designed to educate the students to become a well rounded person. There is a wide variety of choices, I don’t understand why there are still students want more freedom? I could not imagine that in the business world social science, history or humanity are not useful. I have been a business man all my life, I have been using broad knowledge learned from college all the time, in addition to Accounting, Economics and Marketing. </p>
<p>If Economics is in your horizon, I’d go with U of C.</p>
<p>The Core is meant to be broadening. It compels you to explore options. And it really is different from a set of distribution requirements. The Core courses tend to be interdisciplinary; they often are developed by (and sometimes taught by) more than one professor.</p>
<p>In many of the Core and other intro/intermediate courses, especially in science/math courses, you get a choice (one that in some cases depends on placement tests) between more or less rigorous (/ math intensive) alternatives. </p>
<p>One thing I Ioved about Chicago was the breadth of political viewpoints and the mutual respect and tolerance for differences (as long as you could back up your opinion with evidence and reason.) My friends ranged from Trotskyists to conservative Christians. That was decades ago, but I bet it hasn’t changed too much in that respect. If possible, go visit both schools again if you did not do so when classes were in session. </p>
<p>bump any other thoughts? I’d gotta admit I’m leaning more toward UofC. I got this $5k scholarship and will get an extra $1k from national merit scholarship money for UChicago. Therefore, UofC will cost about $55k as opposed to $60k for Brown. </p>
<p>I actually don’t really know anybody who is a Brown student, so would any Brown undergrads like to comment? </p>
<p>I have a junior friend at UChicago, and he says that he generally gets A/A- in his core/elective classes and B/B+/B- in his econ major classes and that his overall GPA is about 3.6. At UChicago (and other university, are gen ed/electives usually much easier than major classes? </p>
<p>You will likely find a couple of Brown undergrads or recent grads in the Brown forum. I understand your dilemma as those were also the top choices for my daughter. It is funny that you felt at home at Brown as my daughter always said it gave her a warm homey gut reaction too. Maybe edge to Chicago for academics your area, but Econ is the most popular major at Brown and math is strong, especially applied math is supposed to be one of the top programs in the country. As far as the open curriculum, you can use or abuse it at will. It does give room to go off on tangents or to be mad skilled or just ease up when you need to.</p>
<p>Some people get higher grades in their major because they are engineering types etc, and don’t have skills or interest in other required areas. Some gen ed classes don’t try to be hard. Who knows, but it is good to hear that your friend isn’t struggling in the core.</p>
<p>Random: It may be easier for you to get summer internships for trading firms in Chi. Brown has conservatives, some run the Brown Spectator, (but most are like most college students–liberal, maybe or maybe not political. Of course there are a good amount activist types. “Quite conservative” may mean you are on the fringe or may not enjoy being part of the mostly liberal student body. You’d have to gauge that. Maybe you should email the Brown Republicans?
<a href=“http://students.brown.edu/Brown_College_Republicans/”>http://students.brown.edu/Brown_College_Republicans/</a></p>