<p>this is obviously a great school for econ and the school has many well known people in the faculty including nobel laureates. The school has a very academically stimulating environment. But what is it about the university that makes it better than berkeley, stanford, london school of econ or u penn etc..</p>
<p>Umm…it isn’t better than the schools you list.</p>
<p>It’s not “better.” It just is. Ranking schools is not a hard science; you either like the vibe somewhere or you don’t.</p>
<p>Do you mean, what might make Chicago a better choice for some students who are considering some of those other schools? What is it about Chicago that stands out?</p>
<p>Like any of about 20 other peer schools, Chicago brings together excellent faculty and excellent students in some of the best academic facilities in the world. More so than some of those other schools, Chicago’s undergraduate mission focus is almost exclusively on discovering & transmitting knowledge in the arts & sciences. It has no undergraduate pre-professional programs (business, communications, etc.) It has no D1 sports teams. In admissions, it does not pay too much attention to crafting a class of just so many soccer goalies and bassoonists. It looks for students who will be fully engaged and creative in pursuing “the life of the mind”.</p>
<p>Chicago’s College graduates more future PhDs in the arts & sciences, per capita, than any other liberal arts university in America (two technical schools, MIT and CalTech, do produce more a&s + engineering doctorates per capita). Chicago probably has educated more university professors and university presidents than any other school (for its size, anyway). It operates the largest university press in America. When construction and renovations are complete, it will have the largest research library collection accessible from a single campus in North America.</p>
<p>The undergraduate “Common Core” curriculum has been tested and refined for many decades. It is a well thought out, well integrated program that focuses attention on big enduring problems as expressed by great thinkers in great books. Text books are seldom used in humanities and social science courses; almost all materials are primary source. Average class sizes are among the smallest anywhere (<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/708190-avg-class-size-4.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/708190-avg-class-size-4.html</a>). More Nobel Prize winners have been affiliated with Chicago than any other American university but Columbia (historically a much larger school). At Chicago, leading faculty often do teach undergraduates; when they excel as teachers they are recognized accordingly ([Quantrell</a> Awards for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching | The University of Chicago](<a href=“http://www.uchicago.edu/about/accolades/quantrell.shtml]Quantrell”>http://www.uchicago.edu/about/accolades/quantrell.shtml) - this list includes some of Chicago’s most distinguished scholars.) Classes typically are oriented toward discussion and experiments, with abundant feedback from professors in class and in comments on the many writing assignments and essay exam answers.</p>
<p>None of this makes Chicago “better” for all good students than any of about 20 or more other schools. It does add up to an exceptionally good learning environment, one that combines the strengths of a small liberal arts college, the resources of a world-class research university, and a fairly intense intellectual atmosphere.</p>