<p>Well, considering that UChicago has traditionally been top 5 for Rhodes scholar production and has almost always been ranked in the top 10 in the US News rankings and world rankings (even when it did have a 40% acceptance rate, which was literally 10 years ago), I think it’s pretty clear here that rhg3rd is just trying to rile people up.</p>
<p>Only in the CC world of 15-25 year olds does a university’s reputation depend on acceptance rate. Most peole in high places don’t keep track of such meaningless statistics. Chicago has always been considered one of the best universities in the nation. It was one of the 12 founding members of the AAU, it has produced as many Nobel Laureates as any university in the world, it has top ranked departments in virtually every field of study, every reputational ranking of note has them among the top 10 American universities and it has one of the 10 largest endowments in the nation. In all ways that matter, Chicago is one of the best universities in the world, regardless of acceptance rate. It should also be noted that a mere 25 years ago, schools like Columbia, Cornell, Penn and Northwestern had acceptance rates in the 40% range.</p>
<p>Ok I see I made a lot of errors in my wording haha, but lets say that it was a matter between University of Chicago and Harvard…What would you guys say then?</p>
<p>Get into both, then get back to us for an opinion.</p>
<p>Most people in high places don’t keep track of such meaningless statistics.</p>
<p>I agree. That’s why I wrote that I doubt employers would even know various schools’ acceptance rates.</p>
<p>even if the hiring manager graduated from School X, chances are the more recent acceptance rates are very different from when the mgr attended.</p>
<p>Lower acceptance rate has a positive correlation with prestige, but the relationship is far from perfect. Baruch has an acceptance rate of 20%, and the College of the Ozarks accepts a lower percent than some Ivies. UIUC or Purdue engineering takes 70-80% of applicants. </p>
<p>That said, I think everyone is spot-on when they say that MIT is more prestigious than Chicago. Or that grad school matters much more than undergrad except for a few very select companies (MBB, GS, and the very best management consulting companies/ibanks).</p>
<p>Deep Springs has an admit rate on par with Harvard, yet no one knows what or where it is.</p>
<p>I think we’re getting away from the main point here; MIT has a stronger undergraduate student population than UChicago but at the graduate level, depending on the field of study, they are peers.</p>