As a Harvard graduate, I continue to marvel at how UChicago has sustained its momentum and now is ranked 3 in USNWR tied with Yale. Chicago Booth is tied at second with Stanford Business School and ahead of Wharton, University of Chicago Law School is tied at forth with Columbia Law School. Add to that Chicago’s undeniable global powerhouse academic reputation as one of America’s top 4-5 universities. Moreover, Chicago is one of the last (if not the only) last sane temples of higher learning not infected by fruit-loop radical left wing propaganda and political left wing repression. Even the fun comes to die reputation is receding. Most impressive that UChicago has done that with a much smaller endowment than other elite schools. So – Crimson kudos to the Maroons.
@Chrchill While I agree with your assessment, I have a slightly different perspective. IMHO I think U of Chicago always has been great. The only major difference from 30 to 40 years ago was then the College being treated as afterthought as compared to graduate divisions and the professional school. We had Compton, Fermi, Chandrasekhar, Cronin in the Physical Sciences and Friedman, Stigler and Becker in the Social Sciences. Indeed U of C has been well known for many years but the prestige was more confined to the academic and professional circles. . I think the key difference is that President Zimmer and Dean Boyer have been sparing no effort to promote the College in the last 10 years. So now the high school students are finally aware of how spectacular U of C is. I hope this will create a virtuous cycle of getting even more highly qualified but intellectual students to apply for the College and enriching the whole university “life of mind”. .
The sustained and ubiquitous rise in rankings at the all important College level and the graduate schools is the clear result of invaluable strategic marketing backed up by hard facts and understanding that having a top 3-5 ranked College is key to Uchicago’s present and future. Case in point. Penn has top three business and medical schools and a top ten law school. But it does not have the academic depth and breath to position it as a world leading institution and its college (except Wharton) is pretty weak .
@85bears46 and @Chrchill - I agree with both of your assessments, but I have a slightly more cynical view.
UChicago has always been an intellectual and academic powerhouse – a fact that has always been well known in academic and professional circles. All of its undergraduate courses used to be taught by professors and there was a comprehensive common core – like that of Columbia University – that all undergraduates were required to take.
In 2005, Chicago had a 40% admit rate. A confluence of things happened to reduce that rate dramatically over the past decade, but three in particular are most salient:
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In 2008, UChicago began to accept the Common Application (it had previously prided itself on its “Uncommon Application”). The admit rate dropped to 28%.
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In 2010, James Nondorf was hired as VP for Enrollment and Dean of Admissions.
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In 2010, UChicago hired enrollment marketing firm Royall & Company.
After hiring a new VP for Enrollment and engaging a marketing firm, UChicago’s admit rate dropped to 18% and has continued dropping ever since, having been in the single digits since 2013.
In the meantime, UChicago’s core has been watered down and now resembles most schools’ general education requirements and the university’s “where fun goes to die” image has gone by the wayside through the magic of better marketing. I fear that the “life of the mind” are not first and foremost in their marketing scheme.
This is an interesting perspective:
http://www.personalcollegeadmissions.com/getting-in/the-great-success-of-the-university-of-chicago
It is all relative. My daughter will be going there next year, and we are supremely happy and excited. The fact the UChicago is becoming a bit less like MIT and a bit more like the top ivy’s is great news for attracting top applicants. The UChicago of old was too isolated and in love with its own mythical idiosyncrasies. It was a deleterious self limiting strategy.
I speak from my narrow and potentially biased perspective. I went to Graduate School of Business, not the College. As long as the graduate divisions and professional school continues to churn out groundbreaking research, I really don’t think a watered down Core will affect the overall health of the university. Yes, the average College students may be a bit less self absorbed than 30 years ago. Yet the fundamental strength of U of C is still its research. If the entire U of C starts to turn more hedge fund chasing and Washington power corridor lingering, I would be genuinely concerned.
Neither the UChicago of old and nor its newer incarnation would have been a good fit for me, but DH got his PhD there (and loved it!) and D17 has applied, so…we’ll see.
FWIW, I never would have made the association between UChicago and MIT – except perhaps in the “fun going to die” aspect – Columbia, yes; Princeton, maybe; Reed, certainly…MIT, not so much.
One of my relatives got his PhD from MIT. From a very limited sample I think MIT students and faculty are more self assured and confident about their places in the academic world. In my days it seemed almost all the professors in economics and business schools had a big chip on their shoulders. And their attitude infected a lot of the students.
I think “meteoric” describes the College’s rise. It was a perfect mix of marketing, marketable product, and favorable demographic trends.
Yes. Very impressive to rise to rank #3.
You UChicago alums should be delighted that the College is now a “hot” momentum school. There will be more synergies with the graduate schools with innovative programs,
I would hate this meteoric rise if it is just a momentum from high school students chasing the latest USNWR ranking. Momentum can turn on a dime and I do not want to see U of C falling 10 spots 5 years from now. .
It is much more than that. It is across the board with the graduate schools and words university rankings ,
This was a big one for my D who is also starting this fall. I liked this as well.
Oh, I have some bad news for you…
The most annoying thing about that stupid letter is that people keep holding us up as some shining beacon of conservatism and an alt-right paradise. No one is going to stop you from saying that you don’t think racism exists anymore in your sosc class, but you will get most of the class arguing fervently against you.
And why do people complaining about “those darn SJWs” keep complaining about the lack of safe spaces for conservatives without seeing a hint of irony.
Who the heck wants an alt-right paradise? How about something right of Brown but left of Dartmouth.
Exactly – a place where ideas compete without intimidation or for that matter antisemitism under false veil of legitimate criticism of Israel …
That describes practically every school but Princeton and a select few liberal arts schools. Fear mongering about the left is some of the silliest things I’ve heard, especially given the non-imaginary threats that have been getting elected into office lately.
@Chrchill are you being sarcastic? That exact situation happened at UChicago. I was not happy about it, but the situation was far more complicated than can be summed up with “fruit-loop radical left wing propaganda”
https://www.chicagomaroon.com/2016/04/15/college-council-passes-resolution-recommending-divestment/
This in particular pissed me off.
I think you guys do not have a particular good grasp of what the political climate at UChicago is like.
Thanks for emigrate ing us. I was not aware of this. Still it think the situation at UChicago seems far better than the University of California campuses, Brown, Yale and LAC.