W&M v. UChicago

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Chicago ✅
1

<p>Already posted on W&M board, but I'd like some other opinions, because the Chicago board is generally Chicago leaning, W&M board W&M leaning naturally. I'd like to see the different arguments.</p>

<p>Sorry to annoy everyone with yet another one of these, but I'm having a really tough time deciding. Chicago's been my dream school, but I don't know if it's worth it, as I'm instate for William and Mary and was admitted as a Monroe Scholar. But Chicago gave me a $10,000 merit scholarship, which helps financially and indicates that they are perhaps as interested in me as I am in them. The more I look at them, the more similar they seem and the more confused I get. Help!!!</p>

2

<p>My son chose UChicago over W&M two years ago. He was OOS for W&M. I think he felt that since the costs were not that far apart, he preferred UChicago’s higher ranking. However, he didn’t finalize his decision until after visiting both. He wanted to make sure uChicago had true diversity. Visit both schools if you can. Money is very important and if you plan on graduate school, that’s where you will make your mark in terms of future earning and it would be important not to be buredned by undergraduate debt.</p>

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<p>How, exactly, do they seem so similar? They are similar sizes, and both attract strong students, but</p>

<p>– William & Mary is effectively a large LAC with some professional schools nearby. PhD programs are very limited. That is about the opposite of Chicago.</p>

<p>– Chicago is a world-class center of biomedical, physics, math, economics research. W&M isn’t.</p>

<p>– W&M is in Williamsburg VA. A portion of its campus has been “restored” to its 18th Century look, in keeping with the rest of Williamsburg. The University of Chicago is in Chicago, a great, international city that does not resemble a Disney theme park in any way.</p>

<p>– W&M is the second-oldest university in the nation. It was chartered by, um, King William and Queen Mary. Chicago, among elite universities, is still one of the newest (along with Stanford). It was founded by John D. Rockefeller. Nevertheless, practically from the day it opened Chicago has been considered part of the elite ranks of American universities, and was one of five universities that convened the meeting to establish the Association of American Universities, the umbrella group for research universities.</p>

<p>– W&M is much more regional than Chicago.</p>

<p>– It is impossible to imagine anything at Chicago like the fiasco that happened with W&M firing its president because he had angered right-wing alumni. That was just two years ago, not a generation, or even a college cohort.</p>

<p>None of that is to say that W&M isn’t a very good college where you could get a great education at a more affordable price than Chicago. But calling them really similar seems off. They are very substantially different. A reasonable person could prefer either, or could decide that the differences didn’t matter – but that position would take some explaining.</p>