<p>I know an outstanding student who is interested in attending either the University of Chicago or Columbia University for college (major undecided). The person is really interested in a big city academic setting (hence the choices).</p>
<p>Please help me compare them in terms of academics (nobel prizes, national academy memberships, research budget, etc.), quality of students (national merit scholars, class ranking, SAT scores, etc.), student life, location and any other criteria you deem appropriate. </p>
<p>Anecdotes are welcome but I prefer objective data whenever possible. Also, admit rates are often more correlated with popularity than quality and should be left out of the discussion. Popularity aside, the schools seem to be more similar than different. Thanks for your help.</p>
<p>Makes popcorn and pulls up chair, I have nothing to add except that Mike Nichols(Chicago, brillant founder of Second City, improv and a whole lot of other smartie pants stuff) married Diane Sawyer(cool, elegant, capable of anything graduate from Columbia) My point? This match up is about right. I think Columbia comes out on top, but then so doesn't NYC. But not by much. The student should apply to both, and why not?</p>
<p>on paper, the schools are indeed strikingly similar. I think the general "feel" of Chicago is that it's more academic, and that even pre-professionals are incredibly interested in school, and that Columbia suits pre-professionals more.</p>
<p>(I have no idea where these reputations come from, by the way, because I would figure that Core would weed out students who ONLY want to be doctors and businessmen and couldn't be bothered with dead white guys... and then consider that Chicago's most famous department is econ, and many students go here undergrad and then go on to make gobloads of money, so I think these reputations might be somewhat confused).</p>
<p>I'm going to try to find some objective criteria-- but I feel that Chicago will probably beat out Columbia in things like national academy memberships and prestigious scholarships, and Columbia will beat out Chicago in grad school placement.</p>
<p>ramses 2 (cool name, btw), Diane Sawyer received her BA from Wellesley :). If she graduated from Columbia in some respect, I haven't found it. </p>
<p>To the OP: This is an interesting question to me, because I never thought of Columbia and UChicago as at all similar until just a few weeks ago when someone else asked a similar question, at which point I had to agree that they seemed very much alike--and yet, while I enthusiastically applied to Columbia and would have been excited to attend (I was waitlisted), you couldn't get me near UChicago with a ten foot pole. As far as SAT scores and class rank, they are basically the same SAT score (Columbia = 1340-1540, UChicago = 1350-1530), and Columbia's class rank is a bit better (92% in top 10%, UChicago = 79% in top ten). Honestly, I think that it is simply a matter of personal taste--the schools are on such equal academic footing that it seems silly to differentiate between the two with numbers. Your friend should visit both and then decide which ones to apply to, and worry later about the nitty gritty comparisons. At this point, though, it would be silly to eliminate one because of slightly lower academic achievement if it was otherwise a fit.</p>
<p>Just googled her Advantagious and you're absolutely correct. I have no idea why I thought she went to Columbia.</p>
<p>Strange, my son refused to consider Columbia but was all over Chicago. His friend, who had a near identical wishlist, is all about Columbia and has absolutely no interest in Chicago. They have same stats, same long term goals.</p>
<p>Thank you all for your responses thus far. It seems that people will apply to one but not the other despite the fact that they are so similar. I found the following rankings:</p>
<p>US News: Chicago and Columbia tied for 9th</p>
<p>Times World Rankings: Chicago #11, Columbia #12</p>
<p>Shin Tao World Research Rankings: Chicago #8, Columbia #7</p>
<p>I have always believed UChicago is one of the most underrated schools in the U.S. regarding academics. Research on the school shows it is one of the best schools of higher education in the U.S. However, I think most people would choose Columbia because it has a stronger name recognition and prestige in the U.S. and abroad.</p>
<p>Maybe UChicago need to market themselves more to highlight the strengths of their school.</p>
<p>well, they're both huge nerd schools, both extremely strong, both in fantastic cities. </p>
<p>if there was a distinction to be drawn, I would say UChicago is the nerd school to end nerd schools (after Rice & MIT). even though columbia students are nerdy like all top school students, UChicago students are SUPER nerds. </p>
<p>UChicago's got that drink-from-a-firehose academic thing going with the ultra-rigorous core and the quarter system. So if your friend is really more interested in the academic side, he should pick UChicago. </p>
<p>conversely, Columbia has the edge in the student life dept, because even though Chicago is a great city, nothing beats NYC. And besides, UChicago is in a real ****ty part of the city while Columbia is right in Manhattan.</p>
<p>So there you have it. Again, they are both extremely strong unis in fantastic locales. But those are the distinctions that can be drawn.</p>
<p>
[quote]
I have always believed UChicago is one of the most underrated schools in the U.S. regarding academics. Research on the school shows it is one of the best schools of higher education in the U.S. However, I think most people would choose Columbia because it has a stronger name recognition and prestige in the U.S. and abroad.</p>
<p>Maybe UChicago need to market themselves more to highlight the strengths of their school.
[/quote]
Underrated? Seriously? I don't think anyone will deny that it has one of the very strongest undergrad programs in the world, as well as extremely strong grad schools. And of course, its reputation in economics is matched only by Harvard's and maybe the LSE worldwide.</p>
<p>Ledzep, you and I know, but many members of the public are unaware of UChicago. Those members include many parents of future college applicants. I never knew of UChicago until about three years ago, and research revealed its superlatives. It's only after research I discovered the school.</p>
<p>The common person on the street isn't going to recognize UChicago. Hell, I know a guy who went to UIUC for undergrad and he never heard of UChicago. When I mentioned it, he thought I was talking about UIC. Not fair, because it is one of the best universities in the world, but the truth is the average person probably never heard of the school.</p>
<p>I am sure you are telling the truth, GatorEng23, but that really surprises me...I would think that anyone who went to school here in Illinois would have heard of the University of Chicago....did you say "U of C"? Because that could relatively easily misheard as UIC (I'm trying to come up with an excuse for this person's ignorance!). </p>
<p>Of course, the sad truth is, if you are not going to a HYPMS or a big sports school, the average person probably won't have heard of it...people (smart people) in my school have barely heard of Dartmouth, for goodness sakes. It can be hard to take (I say, "I'm going to Wellesley", they say "Oh." If I said Notre Dame or Northwestern, it would be "Oh, great!!!". But Wellesley (or any of the other LAC's)--you might as well be going to school on Mars.)), but that's just the reality. Those who should know, do know.</p>
<p>Just to clarify about the neighborhood-- Hyde Park locally is quite gorgeous. Undergrads and professors live in the neighborhood, and you can find stunning architecture and tree-lined streets. It's the surrounding neighborhoods of the South Side that one has to be wary of.... students generally don't go there, because there aren't any attractions down there anyway. I would liken Hyde Park to Yale's New Haven or Penn's West Philadelphia. </p>
<p>Columbia will give you much more of a city feel right on campus, though, that's for sure. Chicago's got more grass, more quads, more fields.</p>
<p>Advantagious, good advice. My friend will be visiting both campuses but is trying to learn as much as possible because she may apply early decision/action.</p>
<p>Amykins, thanks for the stats. Even though it's only one factor, it's great for putting things in perspective. It's also amazing to see just how closely matched the schools are.</p>
<p>It seems they both have highly regarded professional schools as well based on US News rankings (should that become a future career goal for my friend):</p>
<p>Law - Columbia #5, Chicago #6
Business - Columbia #9, Chicago #5
Medicine - Columbia #10, Chicago #15</p>
<p>I also thank you all for keeping this thread friendly!</p>
<p>Columbia has a better campus, if you like neo-classical. But, according to Princeton Review, Chicago is the best overall experience. IMO, it was rated so highly only because the kids who go there <em>know</em> it's their dream school--Chicago fits a specific niche in the college market.</p>
<p>I was in the fortunate situation to end up choosing between Chicago and Columbia. When I told people at Chicago this, they said I was "part of the 8%" whatever that means. </p>
<p>The schools are quite similar, prestigious institutions in the middle of major metropolitan area when undergraduates are separated from graduate students (for the most part). </p>
<p>I was big into the mathematics and sciences, so I thought Columbia's Core would be too much humanities for me to handle, so I elected to apply to the engineering school, where there is a heavier skew toward the sciences, more-so than Chicago Core. </p>
<p>I ended up picking Columbia over comparative schools like Rice, Chicago and Cornell, because I felt I could deal with the people better at Columbia than the omnipresent uber42nerd vibe that I had felt. </p>
<p>I think by placing myself within an individual school (SEAS) as opposed to a conglomerate at Chicago, I'll get more of a focuses curriculum. Chicago had a lot of things I did love, including the economic philosophy, the history, the architecture, but in the end, I think Columbia will have more of what I want academically. </p>
<p>Chicago has a saying "That's fine in Practice, but how does it work in Theory?" This is usually said in terms of discussions about their lack of an engineering program. When I visited, however, I talked to a senior who said that he expects Chicago to have an Engineering program within the next 5 years.</p>
<p>
[quote]
I am sure you are telling the truth, GatorEng23, but that really surprises me...I would think that anyone who went to school here in Illinois would have heard of the University of Chicago....did you say "U of C"? Because that could relatively easily misheard as UIC (I'm trying to come up with an excuse for this person's ignorance!).
[/quote]
</p>
<p>It really surprised me too! But I made sure I was talking about University of Chicago and he just had no idea. And this was a smart guy too, he finished EE at UIUC and is now a grad student in biomedical engineering at Duke. But it's okay, I had him wikipedia UChicago, so he knows now. :)</p>