UofChicago better than Penn, Brown, Columbia, Dartmouth, Cornell?

College Search & Selection
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<p>I agree with you on a lot of your points.
Between Amherst and Chicago, you couldn’t have two MORE different schools. Besides being fine institutions, the two share very little similarities. Uchicago has a rigorous core curriculum, while Amherst is open and coreless. Uchicago is in a compact urban environment while Amherst is in a small town with a rural feel and with a large expansive campus. They are both pretty artsy, though Amherst’s academics are probably less rigorous than UChicago’s.
There are going to be more research choices at Uchicago simply because it is in the nature of the research university. </p>

<p>congrats.</p>

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<p>kameronsmith, you state: “The academics are definitely ivy-caliber, but there aren’t as many “other” opportunities that you might get from an Ivy brand name. (Ex. internships, etc.)”</p>

<p>Frankly, and sorry to be severe, but this is a complete garbage statement. By every measure of student opportunity following college, Chicago do just as well as their “lower” ivy brethren, and, in some cases, just as well as HYP. By Rhodes Scholarships, Marshall scholarships, finance jobs, teach for america, placement in doctoral programs, internships at top places like NIH or Goldman… pretty much everything… Chicago is right there with all their immediate peers. </p>

<p>Exactly what “internships” does the “Ivy brand name” give you that wouldn’t be equally as available to Chicago students? Obviously, for any competitive internship, you need to do well in college, disregarding where you go. At the same time, you need to substantiate your statement more - because from how I see it, going to say, Cornell or Dartmouth IS NOT going to automatically give you access to opportunities that Chicago students can’t attain. </p>

<p>In short, Chicago is underrated by people who aren’t as aware of the college marketplace, and respected appropriately by those who do.</p>

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<p>Cue7: Perhaps I should have been clearer: Chicago definitely <em>does</em> have strong post-grad opportunities. In fact, it’s grad school admit rates are some of the best in the nation (right behind HYPS).</p>

<p>Well, I do think there are some East coast internships which you are more likely to get as an Ivy student, particularly in finance or politics. But Chicago also has great opportunities. In short, I agree that Chicago offers a great education and good prestige.</p>

<p>

Ah, but there’s the crux of the problem. People know about pretty much every Ivy, but tend to discount Chicago simply because it is less well-known. Plus, the name doesn’t help; people see the “University of” and discount it. This isn’t so much of an issue when it comes to grad school (they know about the good schools), but some employers are less likely to be impressed.</p>

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<p>

For every person impressed by a Harvard or Brown degree, you’ll one that is hostile because the place turned their kid down. </p>

<p>Truth is you don’t get jobs because you’re an alum of anywhere. You get a job because of what you yourself have done, and the potential you can demonstrate. </p>

<p>Chicago (the city) is a great financial center in its own right, and one of the more diverse cities in the country with regard to business - everything from pharma to high tech (Abbott to Motorola), so a “local” kid can get a great education and have some great internship prospects right in the area. </p>

<p>Regarding knowing every ivy, got some bad news for you: Outside the Northeast, fewer people know Brown than UofC. More people know Dartmouth for Animal House than for its academics. Penn? A state school, is it not? Cornell? Where is that?</p>

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<p>The Northeast is the power center of the world.</p>

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<p>This whole focus on prestige in this list of schools is – just silly. Focus on which is the best place for you. The institutions have different cultures, different feels. You will do better where you fit better.</p>

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<p>kameronsmith - I don’t really know what east coast internships you’re talking about. More specifically, I don’t know how kids from the “lower” ivies get an edge over Chicago grads simply because of the ivy label. </p>

<p>When I made my assertion about Chicago being underrated, I meant mainly by high schoolers, whereas pretty much all employers/ admissions comms for internships, etc., had a solid understanding of the U of C, and gave it appropriate standing. </p>

<p>Also, I think your assertions can be turned around a bit. When I was applying for internships on the east coast, the Chicago rep for rigor and intensity actually gave me a boost over most of the “lower” ivies. At my different internships in New England, some of the employers mocked Brown’s “joke” atmosphere, or talked about all they knew of Penn was Wharton. </p>

<p>As an aside, I also feel that Penn is underrated by those who do not know the college marketplace well. Perhaps the “Univ of” name hurts these schools, but again, I don’t think it has any impact whatsoever on exit opportunities for scholarships, internships, etc.</p>

<p>You still need to substantiate your posts. The vague notion that the lower ivies do better in placing their students in “east coast internships,” seems pretty nebulous to me. If anything, given Chicago’s immense strength in certain subjects, this may work the other way around. Plenty of my classmates got amazing internships at NIH, IMF, working on various think tanks, etc. purely because Chicago is so well respected, and so connected to various key power bases (politics in DC, finance in nyc).</p>

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<p>Amen. .</p>

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<p>newsmasdad

</p>

<p>This is probably the lamest argument to defend or try to make "your"point. Not knowing about Brown’s and Dartmouth 's academics and prestige speaks more about the individual’s ignorance than anything else. No one here will probably care about what people like that “think” or “know”.</p>

<p>Those people are the same that think that U of Chicago is part of the U of Illinois system. Please…</p>

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<p>I am from Chicago and live right by the University of Chicago campus. Reaching downtown Chicago from the campus is a breeze. Hyde Park, the neighborhood of U of C, is diverse and the home of Barack Obama. In regard to quirkiness, the U of C students are some of the best! They will engage in debates in anything from Freud to Frisbee.</p>

<p>Once you get past having a mascot named “Maroon”, University of Chicago is great.</p>

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<p>

really? turning down Columbia just like that? </p>

<p>your problem is that you need to stop using Students Review for college advice. you have referenced it several times. almost everything on that website is complete BS. anybody can write comments on there, from 2-year olds to people who were rejected from a school and want to bash it. </p>

<p>most people would say that Columbia and Chicago are very, very similar schools. the decision between the two is not supposed to be as straightforward as you are making it. both are in urban settings, both have a core curriculum, both have intellectual students, neither really has the sports/school spirit atmosphere… i don’t see what you are looking for in UC that you just don’t see in Columbia.</p>

<p>i’m not saying Columbia is necessarily the right fit for you over UofC, but when you are dismissing such an amazing and highly-regarded institution that flippantly, you probably need to slow down and take a look at what you’re really doing. </p>

<p>

seriously? you’re going to post a stereotype about Columbia, and ignore the fact that the EXACT same stereotype you are attaching to Columbia is held even more strongly by most people regarding Chicago? </p>

<p>last time i checked, Columbia is not the school known as being “The place where fun goes to die”, and “Where the only thing going down is your GPA.” obviously, you went to U of C and found that these things were not true. so instead of propagating generalizations, why not give the OP an unbiased chance to do the same with Columbia ?</p>

<p>OP, i recommend that you visit the Columbia board on CC, look around, ask some questions, and get some opinions from people who actually attend Columbia. there are a lot of good posters on Columbia’s forum, and i think they will be upfront and truthful about anything you have to ask them.</p>

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<p>@ blu_g8orade: My interviewer for Columbia actually said the same thing about the university’s coldness and aloofness as well as the independence and lack of spirit in the student body, so I don’t think Cue7’s statement should be thrown out of the window just yet as being completely inaccurate. Sure, it’s only my interviewer’s personal viewpoint and should be taken with a grain of salt, but this was coming from somebody who did enjoy his time at Columbia immensely.</p>

<p>Also, from what I can tell, Columbia seems to be much more pre-professional than UChicago.</p>

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<p>

there you go. you could probably find at least one Chicago interviewer/alum who would describe their school as having an element of coldness or aloofness as well. </p>

<p>and essentially, Cue7’s statement can be thrown out the window because we are comparing Columbia to the University of Chicago… a school which, again, has more stereotypes floating around than most schools about being dreary or dull. </p>

<p>i wouldn’t be arguing about school spirit or liveliness of the student body if Cue7 was comparing Columbia to Penn State.</p>

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<p>I’m inclined to believe that the students enrolled at UChicago are genuinely intellectually curious, and that grades aren’t too great of a concern for most members of the student body.</p>

<p>“when you are dismissing such an amazing and highly-regarded institution that flippantly”</p>

<p>UChicago is an amazing and highly-regarded institution as well. Far more so, it can be argued.</p>

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<p>In all seriousness, if we are going to rank schools, the best way is to look at its reputation in terms of depts strengths overall (and i dont mean by teaching staff or student teacher ratios…i mean strictly by Go-To experts in their fields, who have tons of new research (and important) all the time).</p>

<p>In that case UChicago=Columbia>Cornell=UPenn>Brown>dartmouth.
One might argue that U Chicago=HYPS, which is debatable, though I think it is a fair argument.<br>
Also, Berkeley is top notch too (=hypsMIT,Caltech). Of course I always find it hilarious when I see university rankings say berkeley is like between 20-35 in the world, yet for some damn reason department rankings always show often berkeley as 1-2, and in the rare cases, as low as 5th place.</p>

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<p>@ blu_g8orade</p>

<p>woah there. i have definitely done my research beyond students review. even though i do think that website has some truth to it. i’ve visited both campuses. and in fact, i find more similiarities between brown and chicago students than chicago and columbia students. besides the core, the student body is much less pre-professional and more quirky/intellectual.</p>

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<p>blu-g8orade - Pardon, I should qualify my previous post to avoid confusion. Chicago is certainly an intense place - one where a whole lot of studying goes during the school year. It is not, however, characterized by aloof, cold students. I would think of a characteristic Chicago student as the sorta nerdy, industrious, friendly, and passionate (about some academic subject) person. He/she would be the sorta guy who happily could (and does) spend hours talking about kinda esoteric stuff.</p>

<p>Being a school “where fun comes to die” (an undeserved rep for the current Chicago atmosphere, btw), does not necessarily equate to having a cold, aloof, and distant feel on campus. It may mean students spend more time studying than partying, but if the students are happy and passionate about what they’re studying, enjoy living in their dorms, and kinda soak up the experience as much as possible, this does not make the campus a cold and aloof place. Please note, you can have a school where people are really really into what they study, but by no means does this make the school an aloof place. These students can be eager and willing to meet other students, find out what the other kids are interested in, and socialize happily - just not necessarily around a keg. </p>

<p>Columbia, on the other hand, seems to have more of a disinterested student body. Of course, you can find committed Columbians and aloof Chicagoans. Generally though, from what I’ve seen, Columbia students talk about their undergrad experience in a kind of detached manner. If a Columbia grad can dispell this generalization, I’d love to hear it. From what I know though, Columbia students often describe how Columbia is this “cold” place. This may be hard to understand, but as academic and intellectual as Chicago can be, I would never really decribe it as cold, or the students as aloof from one another. Chicago students always seem eager to meet other Chicago students, and their is a kind of warmth about the school. </p>

<p>It’s funny because structurally and in terms of academic prominence, Columbia and Chicago are very, very similar. The vibe from each school from what I know, however, are very different.</p>

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<p>Wow…I found this argument crazy for discounting columbia so flippantly as well. I agree with the other poster-U of C and Columbia have a lot in common…of the people I know, there were a lot who applied to both and liked them for the intellectual/liberals arts core, etc. Also, while I think U of C is a good school, I don’t think it is “head and shoulders” above any ivy or any other top school. perhaps there are more people who are more passionate about it, but it’s not like every top student wants to go there!</p>

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<p>Anon - they are both great schools and similar structurally, but I think the campus vibe is actually quite different at both these places. I dunno if it’s flippant to not attend one school for an equivalent one if you just have a much better feeling about the equivalent school.</p>

<p>I’m sure, on the other side of things, a poster would dismiss Chicago quickly just because of a fixation with NYC or whatever. If a student’s gut feeling about a school isn’t good, and the equivalent school seems much more appealing, what’s wrong with going with that?</p>

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<p>there’s nothing wrong with getting a different gut feeling and following it, of course. OP just seemed to be discounting it on prestige rankings, not really on gut.</p>