<p>A few students at my school have been waitlisted to U of C and other universities such as Dartmouth, Cornell, Duke, etc. When I ask them what they would do if they got into U of C and their other waitlisted colleges( none of those colleges exceeding HYP although I think we're on par maybe because I've fallen in love with Chicago), they quickly go with the latter. They claim that their decision is influenced on Ivy status or prestige, which is possibly true because other schools are more well known( at least in my experience.) However, why would someone take prestige over a seemingly better education? Perhaps because they're taking into account graduate schools and connections within their undergraduate experience at their university? Doesn't Chicago fair just as well? All of this baffles me! Any opinions?</p>
<p>Haha. My friends all thought that the University of Chicago was a state school and wondered why I would be attending a public institution in Illinois. Oh boy, were they in for a shocker when they found out it’s the eighth best university in the States.</p>
<p>Yeah, I’m already used to the strange looks I get when I tell people I’m heading to UChicago, especially when I couple it with a list of the schools I turned down for it…I prefer it that way though.</p>
<p>I live in Illinois, and whenever I mention University of Chicago, everyone thinks I am talking about University of Illinois at Chicago. haha it’s always awkward to try and explain that UChicago is actually a different school…
And I think some people concentrate way too much on prestige when choosing a college. Schools like Harvard and the ivies aren’t necessarily better than schools like UChicago. IMO, the most important part of choosing a college is picking where you will fit in best and be happiest.</p>
<p>Doesn’t Chicago have the best faculty out of all universities in the nation for most of its majors?</p>
<p>imperfect315 - read James Karabel’s “The Chosen: The Hidden History of Admission and Exclusion at Harvard, Yale, and Princeton.” It provides a great (albeit long) summation of what allures students to colleges. </p>
<p>Short answer: for the vast majority of top students, top-flight academics is oftentimes not the sole reason for selecting a college. In fact, Karabel argues that it’s always good for a college to have a “happy bottom quarter” of the class - or students that, while not gifted academically, have wealth, status, come from powerful families, legacies, are great at sports, etc. Keeping a healthy contingent of powerful and connected - if academically mediocre - students actually HELPS in the recruitment of top students. </p>
<p>Even shorter answer: top students want status as well as a top-flight education. The top students then tend to go with whatever school can confer the most status. It’s just human nature. </p>
<p>Chicago as of yet does not confer enough of the status to allure most of its very top recruits. So what is the university doing? Making changes to better connote status - i.e. appearing more exclusive through a lower acceptance rate, making sure to stay high in the rankings, etc.</p>