Why I turned down Chicago for a lower ranked college

– The brand power doesn’t seem to extend beyond academia and the internet. I think Forbes putting it at #16 for undergrads is far more accurate than #2 or #3 in US News. I’d bet US News ruffles feathers this summer and makes it #1, but that doesn’t make it so in real life.
– Nobody at the College could provide any proof of why the College was so great. I understand a lot of students go into academia but what about those that don’t? Every university does grad surveys showing salaries, signing bonuses, location, sector, employer … except Chicago, I guess. The only data I could source was shockingly disappointing.
– “We place extremely well in graduate school admissions.” Okay … what’s the T14 law school hit rate? What % of the class of 2017 was admitted into a US medical school?
– Officials and faculty were cryptic and arrogant. Everything is just like “trust us, this is an AMAZING school.” Sounds hella huckster-ish.
– Nobody would say with a straight face it’s fun. Well, if you’re not fun, provide proof the sacrifice is all worth it.
– Stop acting like you’re the only college in America that teaches kids how to “think.” It’s so deluded, obnoxious and insufferable. And if you can’t provide proof it actually helps kids whose parents are shelling out $75,000 per year, it’s just baseless marketing puff.
– If the College has made big changes since 2000 or 2010 (depending on who you ask) it doesn’t reverse what it was for 50 plus years. If so many alums are in academia, journalism or at think tanks, how does that help the majority of T20 prospies who don’t want to pursue those paths?
– The bigger college brands have decades long well-plowed paths into sectors T20 students are eager to pursue. Being a quirky grind doesn’t pay the bills (or student loans). Chicago is severely underrepresented in top sectors and has large gaps for the university to work on closing.

Oy, this is going to cause so much unnecessary drama.

UChicago is not a school for everyone. I am glad that you figured out it wasn’t the school for you before you enrolled rather than after.

Career Advancement does provide outcome data, though (https://careeradvancement.uchicago.edu/about/outcomes-data), which answers many of your more salient questions.

I’m making popcorn!

Ok, so you go to the trouble to create an account with a topical username to post this? It took my son to open one email, unsolicited from admissions, to get your T14 metric (87%). I’m sure the med school one was there too, but wasn’t applicable to us, so I didn’t commit it to memory.

Good luck to you, I hope you maturity and happiness.

The school tries to market itself as for everyone more than it is, in fact, actually for everyone. Good for you for figuring out this fit wasn’t good, and good luck wherever you decided to go!

Also, re outcomes, along with what @HydeSnark posted, if you search around on these boards, you’ll be able to get data on Chicago’s placement. The general word on the street is, now, Chicago does pretty well. Roughly comparable to non-tippy top ivies and Stanford.

The external rankings seem to reflect that - e.g. https://news.efinancialcareers.com/uk-en/199099/top-50-universities-getting-front-office-investment-banking-job

LOL!, It’s good that you turned down UChicago. Congratulations on whatever choice you made. Clearly you’d be happier elsewhere.

You obviously don’t get that for generations of UChicago students, it’s not a sacrifice at all. On the contrary, it’s academic bliss; it’s a masochistic labor of love. It hurts so good. “Hit me again with some Honors Calculus with a side order of Kant”. The “fun comes to die” stuff is a joke.

You are wired differently, probably more normally I might add. Glad you left the spot. Some other nerd is most grateful.

The link in first post above suspiciously shares no salary data. It’s just pretty pictures with glossy brand names thrown around and high percentages. Where’s the actual substance? It reads like a timeshare pamphlet.

Dad, thank you for so eloquently capturing the super inviting insufferable passive-aggressive vibe of the College. Well done. I’m just a dull rube who didn’t realize an ethos that cultivates sexual frustration, depression, anxiety, neurosis and dubious employment outlook after spending $300k is “pure bliss.” And sort of unsure why parents think they [still] have a handle on a campus that is hyper-aggressively trying to change? I chatted with dozens of, you know, current students (mostly girls) and bliss wasn’t thrown around much (not once).

Transparent peers at the College generally seemed to be questioning whether it was worth it. For many, grad and law school weren’t goals going in, but became pursuits when confronted with unsatisfactory job offers.

I like your spirit, @notUC2022 . Mind telling us what schools you’re attracted to? Some of us on this Chicago board are keen to make the case that U of C still IS a different sort of place, which is the very point you are making in negative form. It would be interesting to know what a guy or girl like you sees as the ideal school in light of your adverse take on the U of C.

You come across in your posts as a bitter applicant who was denied admission.

Ok team, lets put some perspective together. I have personal loyalty toward many universities, including Princeton, Cornell, Duke, Harvard, Michigan, Columbia, Wash U, Georgetown, UCLA Penn, Northwestern, among others. Those are all schools I attended or were attended by a close family member, kid, spouse, etc. Not one of us even considered going to Chicago, or even applied, Wasn’t for us, any of us. Maybe not for the poster. But I have close friends who have told me that attending Chicago literally changed their life, opened their eyes to levels of intellectual inquiry that they had not imagined, and are huge supporters. And job hunting from Chicago is a different experience. The students do well but they are less likely to have a direct tie between major and job, if they are not headed to grad school. It may not be for a particular student, but it is certainly a great university with terrific professors and, for some, an outstanding experience. If you don’t want to go, that is fine, but it is unfair to paint it as a fraud.

@notUC2022 - no need to say more, and it looks like you’re headed elsewhere anyways. Hopefully you’ve found a place that can fit your interests and has the outcomes you want. Good luck.

I went to Graduate School of Business in the 1980’s. That was before the age of Internet. Even then our MBA program had stellar reputation. Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs had CEO in the 1980’s and 1990’s that were GSB grad. So U of C reputation did extend beyond academia even in pre-Internet days.

Yes, U of C is an acquired taste. If you don’t like it and decide to enroll in another school, this is a pareto-optimal choice. It is far better for you to go to another school and be happy there than to come here and be miserable for 4 years. Good luck.

@85bears46 If there truly are so many wealthy UC alums dominating high finance and corporate America, why haven’t they mailed cheques to their alma mater? Looking at the endowment list on wikipedia, Chicago has fallen to 17th, adding only $2B to their purse from 2010-2017, a period of time when the economy and Wall Street has been red hot. Yet since 2010, Penn has added $7B, Notre Dame and Princeton $4B each, MIT $6B, Northwestern $4.5B, Stanford and Yale $11B each. Something seems a wee bit off about what is claimed and the reality on the ground.

@notUC2022 - those other schools you list are pretty good too, especially on the money front…

I mean come on you just cited a list that shows Princeton and Stanford do better at generating wealth… that’s a no brainer, right?

Pretty snarky post. But people do turn down UC for lower ranked schools. My kid turned it down for a lower ranked school because she had a beyond-bad accepted student visit. It was her 1st choice going in after a previous visit before applying, but people in every category — fellow accepted students, current students, current grad students, and administrators she and I interacted with that weekend acted in ways that made her a lot less interested in attending. They kinda stepped in it. Historically she was their type — deeply intellectual, interested in a major they are strong in, from the Midwest so weather didn’t bother her, super high test scores, wanted to be with the smartest people she could find, thought the core sounded interesting. But kids getting into Chicago are going to have a lot of good choices. She was theirs to lose — and they did so.

UChicago is one of the most rigorous schools in the country and its academic reputation is almost second-to-none. Outcomes are a bad way to judge the quality of a school, for multiple reasons. That said, UChicago’s outcomes are fine and generally reflect the choices of its grads.

If you are into reputation, UChicago’s grad and PhD quality are strong too, and the school is generally in or around the top 10 in international rankings.

Because outcomes are such a poor metric, the Forbes ranking isn’t worth the paper or pixels. Putting UChicago at #16 is a joke, but maybe what you would expect when the academic quality of the school is not considered in the ranking

If all you care about in a school is the job it will get you, UChicago would have crushed you. You made the right choice in not attending.

@HydeSnark I came across that last year, but again, suspiciously shallow on deets. I also couldn’t get anyone at the College to cough up details. It’s lovely “100% of Trott grads received offers” but why are specifics suspiciously absent? Ditto UC’s Dept. of Economics (which I was told harbors bulk of finance gunners). When a college is a high finance feeder they articulate, in detail, the offers their kids are earning. Even public universities do this, just google: Career Destinations Report UVA McIntire to see first-year grads haul in $75k median base, $9k signing, $22k bonus. And they also offer a detailed view of locations, companies and with what department.

Is sending 72 a year out of 1,750 to T14 law schools considered good?

Medical school percentage is also sketchy. AAMC data says only 183 out of 1,750 UC students applied. Colleges can and do inflate their hit % by refusing to endorse would-be applicants. Is 7-8% of each class at a top-caliber undergrad earning acceptance to US medical schools good?

asks for $79,000 per year

tells you shut up and don’t worry about employment outcomes

Lets see, yes its very good if only 90 want to go. Ditto for med school. Maybe you just think these are the only two career fields one should consider?

@notUC2022 seriously I do feel for you, but its time to move on…your second choice/lower ranked school will still prepare you for Harvard or Stanford…maybe, probably not according to this.

“Why you can’t catch up”

https://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/03/education/edlife/why-you-cant-catch-up.html

Well, I am glad OP decides not to enroll here because he thinks U of C is such a fraud in his mind. And as a high school senior he thinks he already knows better about a finance career than a MBA. Good luck to you to wherever you go in a few months. .