<p>University of Chicago has a pretty high admit rate as compared to equally elite schools. Do you think an Obama Presidency will increase the popularity of Univ ofChicago?</p>
<p>I hope not.</p>
<p>lol, probably not. The people who know that Obama taught here (or that Mrs. Obama was the first president of the University Community Service Center) might think that the connection is neat, but I don't think it would persuade people that they want to go here.</p>
<p>I still don't think the U of C is going to enter some kind of major national spotlight (unless they want to follow Bill Ayers on his way to work, as he lives in Hyde Park but he teaches over at UIC) based on what's happening in politics.</p>
<p>It will not, for several reasons:</p>
<ul>
<li> Obama was part of the law school, not the college.</li>
<li> Obama in his campaign has made no mention of his UofC connection</li>
<li> the press has been pretty silent on the topic too. The press discusses his connections to the city of Chicago and to Hyde Park far more than to Chicago.<br></li>
</ul>
<p>Considering that Chicago has been well represented in past presidential administrations with little apparent impact on admissions, there is no reason to expect a change now.</p>
<p>Sorry, all you folks that would like to brag more about your school. This is reality.</p>
<p>Obama and the U of C:</p>
<p>I disagree in part. Once he gets in office he is going to start pulling faculty and former affiliates from all over the school to lead the higher profile agencies, which I think will start to erode the notion that the U of C is not a serious player in Washington on the ground level of policy making. Of course, this is an elite dialogue about the power of ideas and where they originate from, but at the same time its the dialogue that most people at the U of C care about. Joe the Plumber may not take notice of who the Attorney General is or who leads the Presidential Council of Economic Advisors, but the Ivy types certainly watch closely. </p>
<p>The only way I could see JtP catching on to the UChicago connection is if Obama nominates Cass Sunstein to a vacancy on the Supreme Court, and conservatives cover their opposition to him out of principal by screaming rank favoritism. That, or Obama plays the card that his health care plan, or some other major policy proposal, is supported by the oh so conservative UChicago economics faculty. A final, scenario could be finding serious dirt on Michelle Obamas leadership roles with the hospital system, creating a healthgate of sorts.</p>
<p>
[quote]
...which I think will start to erode the notion that the U of C is not a serious player in Washington on the ground level of policy making.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>For better or worse from the WSJ:</p>
<p>
[quote]
Harvard is also a much less important intellectual hub than it once was. The University of Chicago, for one, has wielded much more influence in recent decades. It is no exaggeration to say that Chicago laid the intellectual foundation for the conservative ascendancy and nurtured the ideas that now drive the debate over economic policy, legal theory and foreign affairs. The key ideas of the so-called Reagan Revolution, including monetarism and deregulation, trace their origins back to the free-market theorizing of Chicago's economics department. (One striking measure of the department's clout: Of the 55 economists awarded the Nobel Prize since 1969, when economics was added to the roster, 10 have taught at Chicago and an additional 13 either trained at Chicago or had previously taught there. Harvard, by contrast, has had four faculty winners.)</p>
<p>One of those Chicago Nobel laureates, Ronald Coase, is acknowledged to be the godfather of law and economics, unquestionably the most influential branch of legal theory in the past quarter-century. (It applies economic reasoning to legal questions.) And while Harvard certainly has its superstars, when you look at the people who have taught at Chicago in the past 40 years or so--Milton Friedman, Richard Posner, Allan Bloom, Leo Strauss, Robert Lucas, Albert Wohlstetter, Richard Epstein, Leon Kass, Saul Bellow, Martha Nussbaum--it is pretty clear which school has been giving off more heat.
[/quote]
<p>Idad, </p>
<p>A three year old WSJ quote? What does that have to do with Obama and UofC?</p>
<p>Dream on. Even the Chicago Magazine article, if you bothered to read it, makes pretty clear that UofC wants to claim Obama more than Obama want to claim UofC. There does not seem to be any great love affair between UofC and Obama, at least from his POV.</p>
<p>You seem to have lost sight of the OP's question - will it impact applications. It won't. Obama is a Columbia and Harvard alum, not a UofC alum. They'll take the credit, rightly so.</p>
<p>I was responding to the quote cited in my post. </p>
<p>On the issue of Obama, there have been several articles about how he has drawn from The University, it will be interesting to see what happens if he is elected.</p>
<p>The college that probably was most formative was Occidental College where Obama earned his BA ('83).</p>
<p>Do you mean Columbia, where he earned his BA?</p>
<p>Correction, Obama went to Occidental for the first two years of college.</p>
<p>iDad:</p>
<p>I was thinking less in the grand theory sense of Friedman, Coase, and Strauss and their intellectual heirs, and more in the day-to-day sense of bureucratic activity (which Yalies have heavily dominated given the slew recent alums turned presidents). </p>
<p>For instance, as many intellectuals as there are floating around Washington talking the law and economics line, there is not a single justice on the SCOTUS who is prepared to seriously utilize it as their principal mode of reasoning. In contrast, a realist revival or something in that State Department in dealing with the Middle East, likely embodied by a bold Secretary or Ambassodor, would be a kind of on the ground victory for very Chicagoesque ideas. </p>
<p>I think the Obama connection mainly helps the law school though within the legal community, which implicitly helps the University at large in the same way that the GSB's stature really is a mark of excellence for the institution as a whole.</p>
<p>As it so happens, I have ties to Chicago, Columbia, and Harvard, so I think I can feign a certain neutrality here.</p>
<p>Chicago benefits most, followed, distantly, by Harvard. Columbia's benefit asymptotically approaches non-existence.</p>
<p>Why?</p>
<p>1) Obama punched a clock at Columbia without leaving a trace.</p>
<p>2) Obama's record at Harvard was, in fact, rather undistinguished in a way that's not particularly helpful to either Obama or Harvard. (Esp. given his HLR presidency)</p>
<p>3) He spent 12 years -- a quarter of his life -- at Chicago. By all accounts, his worldview was shaped by the experience. Someone here implied that there was no love lost between the man and the institution. Huh? </p>
<p>Let's review the facts: </p>
<p>1) The Law School was positively lovely about the whole faculty vs. lecturer dustup during the campaign.<br>
2) Most of the people from Obama's past who talked to the press were former students and colleagues from the UofC (zip from Columbia, almost zip from Harvard).<br>
3) His daughters attend the UofC Lab School.<br>
4) His wife has been senior administration there for over a decade. By all acccounts (and I have some insider dope here), Michelle loves the institution.<br>
5) They live in Hyde Park (which, in and of itself, means nothing, but still...)
6) He's surrounded by erstwhile UofC colleagues. </p>
<p>Sorry, the man and the institution are thick as thieves.</p>
<p>As for impact on University popularity...well, profile and popularity are directly correlated. Expect the UofC to maximize the publicity value of this connection, more or less within parameters of reasonable taste. Expect the Obamas to tacitly cooperate.</p>
<p>Also, expect U of C to be first-in-line for the Obama presidential library.</p>
<p>To be honest, I think most regular people associate Obama with Harvard. I've been debating and discussing the election for months, and while his time at Harvard popped up every now and then, I never heard about Chicago or Columbia. In fact, I'd say this thread was the first time I heard about them in connection to Obama.</p>
<p>Sorry if this isn't what you want to hear - I'm just being honest. >_<</p>
<p>I think it's largely just a consequence of Harvard being more popular from the get-go - <em>sort</em> of like a self-fulfilling prophecy. But for students who research their schools and probe into their potential schools' alumni, Obama may lead them to Chicago. :)</p>
<p>Yes, most people associate him with Harvard. On the other hand, "most" people have only heard of Harvard. The question, as I understand it, was not "which instititution of higher learning will be most widely associated by the general public with the name Barack Obama?" The question was, "Will UChicago see an increase in popularity as a result of its Obama connection?" </p>
<p>Harvard will benefit some, but, as you pointed out, already occupies such a stratosphere of recognition that the Obama association is unlikely to provide much in the way of additional recognition. This is doubly true given the fact that Obama's three years at Harvard do not seem to have been terribly formative. (I live in Cambridge, MA, by the way, and Obama's presence was/is hardly a blip on the proverbial radar screen here.)</p>
<p>The University of Chicago starts at a lower level of "brand" recognition. Obama's involvement with the institution at every level -- professional and even familial -- is much deeper. And Hyde Park, of all places, is about to become the Hyannis of this new administration. Ergo, Chicago's "rate of change" is greater than Harvard's. That's my point. </p>
<p>I suppose one could argue that the equation "reputation=popularity" oversimplifies matters a bit. As oversimplifications go, however, I'd say it's pretty close to the reality of things. How else to explain Harvard?</p>
<p>Ok, I'm done.</p>
<p>The print edition of the Chicago Maroon carried a wonderful series of interviews with former students, law school faculty, and other Names You Must Know (if you're a geek about Chicago) like John Boyer and Dennis Hutchinson. I don't see a link to it online.</p>
<p>I think tortoise has a fair point-- first, Michelle Obama has done wonderful things for this school (most notably she founded the University Community Service Center)-- and many of Obama's homeslices are (or were) U of C people, like Cass Sunstein and Austan Goolsbee (sp?)</p>
<p>I've also read that people from all over the country and the world are swarming Hyde Park to get a sense of where Obama likes to eat, where he gets his hair done, where his doctor's office is, etc.</p>
<p>It's neat to think that the president-elect liked to play hoops at Henry Crown. Again, I don't think it's going to add all that much value to the school in the long run. Did people celebrate Georgetown more after Clinton was elected?</p>
<p>These may be the articles you describe:</p>
<p>Obama</a>, former law professor, wins presidency - The Chicago Maroon</p>
<p>The</a> Professor and the President - The Chicago Maroon</p>
<p>tortoise wrote - "Obama's record at Harvard was, in fact, rather undistinguished in a way that's not particularly helpful to either Obama or Harvard. (Esp. given his HLR presidency)"</p>
<p>They could do something like, "From first African American President of the Harvard Law Review, to first African American President of the United States, Obama began defying color barriers at Harvard. </p>
<p>But like tort said, that does little for Harvard. It's not like ugrad applicants need any more reasons to apply there. Same goes for UChicago, in my opinion.</p>
<p>There's a bit of irony here, because when folks mention Chicago's visibility, at least here, they're really referring to the College, I think.</p>
<p>With regard to Obama, however, his actions will have some impact on the law school and GSB (since he's doing a bit of recruiting out of there) and perhaps economics in general at Chicago.</p>
<p>And the irony is that these are the parts of UofC that already have high visibility, so the "Obama" impact will be minimal. </p>
<p>Impact on the College? Zilch. Impact on the UofC as a whole? Small, only a bit of halo effect from Law and GSB.</p>
<p>It might help in prestige points with Aunt Millie.</p>
<p>My "Aunt Millie" thinks I go to the University of Illinois and she wouldn't be that impressed with all the Nobel Prize winners. Now that she can associate the school with Obama, she's all of a sudden wild about her little niece and her little niece's school.</p>