<p>Which schools do you consider to be Chicago's rivals?</p>
<p>In what sense?</p>
<p>A lot of people compare Chicago with Northwestern, but I think thats because theyre so close to each other.</p>
<p>Yep, Northwestern. . .</p>
<p>As we say here in Hyde Park, "It's better here than Evanston!"</p>
<p>I do think it funy that they are compared, as they are so different; one school has its strengths in pre-professional programs while the other is theoretical.</p>
<p>Maybe Duke? haha..At least when i was choosing between Uchicago and Duke..=)</p>
<p>definitely Northwestern- though I still don't know what we compete in.</p>
<p>For local (midwest) applicants Northwestern, WashU and UMichigan are usually the places that UChicago is loosing some cross-admits because of perceived "no social life and all work" image and usually better financial aid / scholarships at those schools. Even UIUC gets some in-state people who were admitted to UChicago but choose to go to UIUC to save money and have a life.</p>
<p>Nationally all ivies, Stanford, MIT, Duke and JHU are typically "other places" UChicago competes against. It typically (not always) looses to most of those in cross-admits (except JHU). Exception cases are "hard-core UChicago fans" and people who are set on Economics as their major (by the way some of those later "downgrade" from Economics to Polisci or some other major because the math requirements are very high here).</p>
<p>just how high?</p>
<p>"just how high?"</p>
<p>I don't think math requrement is that high for econ major. Check those 13 econ "core" courses out, 3 math, 1 stat, right? what forces some people end up with other majors is the econ degree GPA requirement, I think. I remember Peacemaker said his son got a math degree with ~3.0 GPA and failed to get an econ dual major because the GPA is not good enough for econ. However, her son landed a wonderful financial job which I think is about the same as those in wall street. So, you can't go wrong with UChicago, in terms of not only academics, but job placement.</p>
<p>Talking about rivals, we need to know what kind of comparision we are going to do - location,academics (what field?), job placment, graduate school placement, or just food/sports/dorm things?</p>
<p>I suspect the OP was thinking prestige. </p>
<p>As others have pointed out, the question of "rivals" is waaaaay too complex to answer with a list. It depends: athletics? academics? prestige? (then, among whom?) Undergrad or grad? What department? etc. etc.</p>
<p>These things vary a great deal, and are highly subjective.</p>
<p>I would disagree with Northwestern as a major rival. At least among current students, it's not even really compared. It's such a different place. Chicago situates itself oddly in terms of peers. For admissions, it's peer group seems to be most closely aligned with WashU/Northwestern/Duke (the stats are deceiving since at least one of those manipulates admissions to inflate "selectivity"). But on academics and prestige (among the academic community) it seems pretty firmly in the Ivy/Stanford/MIT peer group as an institution. It's an odd situation.</p>
<p>In terms of admissions:
* Upper ivies (HYP), MIT, Stanford are all more difficult to get into than UChicago and almost always win cross-admits.
* Lower ivies and Duke are more difficult to get into and usually win cross-admits.
* Northwestern, JHU, WashU, Emory, Georgetown are as difficult to get into but don't win many cross-admits (well, Northwestern does)</p>
<p>In terms of prestige:
* Prestige within academic community UC beats everybody except upper ivies, MIT and may be Stanford and Cornell (ties with all of those).</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Prestige among employers - varies depending on the industry, overall somewhere along lower ivies, JHU</p></li>
<li><p>Prestige on the street - virtually unknown even to relatively educated people (e.g. college graduates)</p></li>
</ul>
<p>That is an interesting observation. With its 36% acceptance rate and 39% yield one would expect it to be included with one group, but its academic reputation and reputation of its students typically places it with schools with very low double digit or single digit admissions. For example, Chicago is a member of the "Ivy Deans" group that meets to discuss issues facing their colleges. This group is composed of the 8 Ivies, Stanford, MIT, and Chicago. Here is an article concerning one of their meetings: <a href="http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/archives/2003/04/11/news/7901.shtml%5B/url%5D">http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/archives/2003/04/11/news/7901.shtml</a></p>
<p>Is this another of those "prestige" discussions, this time thinly veiled?</p>
<p>I hope not.</p>
<p>Yep I agree with DTan. good post</p>
<p>U of C has an interesting reputation. I use that word rather than position or prestige. Whether warranted or not, it is looked upon with almost reverential respect and admiration. It almost stands alone in this respect and has little to do with the types of prestige usual discussed in these forums.</p>
<p>As Robert Pippen, the faculty representative on the presidential search committee noted:</p>
<p>"As we traveled... we would ask for what the view form the outside was of The University, and we would hear... The University is the purist of universities, dedicated to research, creation of new knowledge, and education more than any other, that it is a kind of intellectual hothouse, that the value of ideas and the life of the mind mean more here than anywhere else. We heard this so often that I was tempted to ask, 'So what is you do?'"</p>
<p>Great post DTan-</p>
<p>
This is actually shockingly true - when I told a junior at MIT (who is a Chicago native) that I was considering U Chicago, he asked why I would go to a state school over MIT. I expected such obliviousness in my little suburban hometown, but not at a top school!</p>
<p>Secondly, a current undergrad I know at U of C (ohio_mom's S actually) is adamant that the typical chicago student has little enough respect for the Ivies essentially for reasons of academic impurity - biased admissions, grade inflation, etc. (the Tech schools, he concedes, are comparable in academic rigor but of course very different in focus) </p>
<p>The bottom line is that Chicago's name fails as a universal trump card, but for pure academic quality in all its lovably eccentric glory, there are few other places to be.</p>