UChicago vs Other Schools

<p>Chicago has a top law school and great pre-law preparation (even without a formal pre-law degree).</p>

<p>"A" top law school? jpps? correction: THE top law school.
I'm deciding b/w UofC, Northwestern and Oberlin. (mostly the first two, ill only consider the third if after a visit, i decide that I CANNOT live at a big school.
what I love about UofC is that everyone there seems to be on teh same page. Administrators, students, and faculty all seem to agree on what the purpose of them being there is. Everyone seems respectful and understanding of other people. I never see a lot of cliques. NU seemed cliquey, with the frat system, the big theatre program (sorry, i have a thing against theatre, mostly because at my school theyre so tragically hip, snobbish and seclusive.. i guess i assume the same for college). Also, the urban campus thing seems awesome, reminds me of my high school, only of course more embedded and expansive.
The only thing that scares me is the core program. (Having to take biology at the college level will not be easy for me)
If anybody has any insight into the core program, the contrast with NU, and so on.</p>

<p>FYI, NYU law is at least as good as Chicago law and has been this way for the past decade..</p>

<p>In response to TheCity: My daughter is a freshman at UChicago. She is not science or math oriented at all. While she's not been thrilled to have to take both at a college level, she completed Calclulus with good enough grades and has found any number of courses that meet the natural and physical science requirements that are somewhat interesting, and relatively easy. Don't be scared away by the core. Also, most top-notch universities have some sort of math and science requirements. While they are not as limiting as UChicago's core, they are still requirements. By all accounts, students who are into the humanities or other non-science oriented concentrations get through the UChicago science and math core relatively easily. In some ways, it's sometimes harder for the science and math students -- at least those of whom aren't used to doing as much reading as the humanities and social science core requires -- who have a more difficult time. Good luck. You have great choices.</p>

<p>i know that u.chicago's got one of the best econ programs around... but do you know how the overall university compares to Georgetown?
i can't make a decision. it's pretty much just location-- i loved georgetown when i visited. and since i live in PA it'd be easier just to go there, but i dont want to write chicago off, especially becuse it has such an amazing faculty.
help!</p>

<p>Much better than Georgetown in almost every respect.</p>

<p>I've never seen the campus, but the D.C. area isn't exactly one of the nicest.</p>

<p>My understanding is that UChicago is considered among the top schools in a number of fields in addition to economics, including political science, sociology, physics, chemistry, mathematics, philosophy, many areas of history, linguistics, and anthropology. My guess is that it has more breadth and depth of faculty in more subject areas than Georgetown, except, for example, International Relations, where Georgetown has a school devoted to that area.</p>

<p>what do u mean the D.C. area isn't one of the nicest, jpps1!?!? The Southern and Eastern parts of D.C. may not be so nice, but Northwest D.C. (where almost everything, incl Georgetown, is located) is a very nice place to be. Georgetown, especially, is in one of the better areas.</p>

<p>I work for the National Park Service in D.C. on the weekends and where I am there are a few scary people around, but there are also plenty of police around too to offset that.</p>

<p>DC is one of the nicest cities in America, and Georgetown is amazing! What are you talking about???</p>

<p>WOW, sometimes I forget people on this board talk without knowing.</p>

<p>I really did not think it was a nice city when I visited. It had no character to it, there were far too many really bad areas and too many bums.</p>

<p>I'm a bit perplexed though...I have not been able to find any ranking of the UChicago UNDERGRADUATE econ program...whatever you find only talks about their business school and their GRADUATE econ program...that is the highly ranked one; however, I didn't come across anything about undergraduate and I'm also worried about recruitment...is UChicago well-known amongst the financial giants??</p>

<p>"however, I didn't come across anything about undergraduate and I'm also worried about recruitment..." </p>

<p>You're worried about recruitment? Any i-banking firm has Chicago in their top 5 feeder schools, undergrad. I wouldn't worry; those sites are hard to find but I've been directed to them in the past.</p>

<p>And about undergrad econ--everyone here, including Chicago-haters like slipper1234, will tell you that Chicago undergrad econ is near or at the top. It's a well-known fact. </p>

<p>Graduate with a decent GPA (3.3+), and you shouldn't have too much trouble being recruited.</p>

<p>Is Chicago really that deflated?...or is it coming from people that are not used to a challenge...I don't know my school was really competitive...one of the top public schools in NJ and I was in the top 10% all AP Classes with a 1530 on my SAT's...Everyone tells me that it's so hard but I don't really know if I should buy into the hype ...</p>

<p>No, Chicago is deflated. I've heard average GPA is around 3.3, 3.4...</p>

<p>And very few people graduate with 3.8+, especially in the more difficult majors.</p>

<p>Jpps, I did an internship in DC. There are some bad areas, but there are many beautiful areas. If you hang out near the capital, in Dupont, Foggy Bottom, Georgetown, Adams Morgan, etc its awesome.</p>

<p>I just wasn't a fan...the nice areas are just too "staged," if you know what I mean. A little unnatural. But that's what capital cities are like; Ottawa is the same way.</p>

<p>I received my Chicago acceptance Friday. On Saturday, I received my Vanderbilt and NYU letters: I threw them in the garbage without opening them up.</p>

<p>I plan to study economics to get ready for the finance world.</p>

<p>is economics considered one of the harder majors at UChicago?</p>

<p>It's probably in the middle--also depends how much math you decide to take with it.</p>

<p>i see...I have a lot of AP Credit so I'm going to use as much as I can.</p>