I am looking for any advice about choosing between these three schools. I have been accepted to all three and all are financially feasible. I live about an hour away from Chicago, obviously pretty far from the other two. I will most likely be majoring in biology with the hopes of getting into an MD/PhD program after undergrad and becoming medical scientist.
Any opinions on differences between these schools would be much appreciated! I would especially like to hear about the differences in attention paid to undergraduates, study abroad, internship/job opportunities, and social atmosphere.
Thank you in advance.
Similarities between schools would also be helpful. Also, any comparison of living conditions/surrounding area.
Have you visited Princeton and Yale. Yale, like UChicago is in an urban environment; Princeton is in the suburbs of New Jersey. Setting aside academic differences (which are few) which kind of environment do you want for the next four years? If you can truthfully answer that question, it will help you narrow down your choices.
These are very different schools and, in some cases, attract quite different students, even though they may all be intelligent and accomplished. If you’re truly someone who enjoys (and prefers) the “life of the mind,” you’ll find that atmosphere—and more students who feel similarly—at Chicago. The social life is quite different there as well—I suggest you talk to current students at all three places, preferably unconnected with admissions, and try to get a sense of where you’d fit in best and be happiest. You should also consider location—although many people on the West Coast mistakenly think of Chicago as being on the East Coast, it’s in the Midwest and not at all close to New York, Boston, etc. Consider weather, too—Chicago’s is harsher. Research all this carefully and read descriptions in books like the Insider’s Guide to the Colleges and student reviews online. Yale and Princeton have more in common than either does with Chicago.
I can’t speak to Princeton, but Yale and Chicago are certainly both excellent choices (as is Princeton of course). There are specific departments that are better at one or the other, but you can’t go wrong either way in terms of academics and future opportunities.
The biggest difference I see is on the residential and social aspects of college life, where I think Yale has done a better job than Chicago at least historically. The residential college system has a big impact on the Yale student experience, and around 90% of Yale students live on campus. Chicago has been working on improving the residential and social side, but still only around 50% of Chicago undergraduates live on campus and I don’t think the house system at Chicago is comparable yet to the Yale residential colleges in terms of building community.
In large part as a result of this, Yale alums are significantly more favorable than Chicago alums in survey data on social and friendship development and would they choose to go there again (such as in The Alumni Factor ratings). Those ratings are obviously based on past experience and so may overstate the differences for current students.
There is also a significant difference in financial resources, with Yale’s endowment being around 3x larger than Chicago’s both on an absolute and per student basis.
On the other hand, I think Chicago is a more interesting city to spend four years in than New Haven.
Those are just some observations though . . . as others have said, I think visiting the campuses and talking with current students and alums is the best way to tell which is the better fit.
While this is true, Yale and Princeton are also very different from each other. Each has its own vibe. I agree, talk to some students at each who have nothing to do with the admissions scene and try to gauge from there.
Living in a suburb of Chicago surely you have a sense of whether you want the advantages of living close to home, seeing your family for most birthdays and holidays, or obtaining greater independence in a new part of the country. I find the competitive bicker to get into eating societies, an important social aspect at Princeton, to foster an elitism and homogeneity specifically prevented by the Yale residential college system. I agree with the others who say that Chicago attracts a different type of student than Yale or Princeton partly caused by the emphasis on a core curriculum. I remember hanging out with Chicago students on my Yale breaks and they would be cracking up talking about plays on words in the writings of Kant or Kierkegaard and this was not part of my experience at Yale.
@YaleGradandDad, you are so right about the eating societies versus the residential college system. But I am sure that some will think that is just our Yale bias showing
Just to provide a different perspective on the eating clubs, 5 of the eat-in clubs are simply sign-in clubs - no competitive process whatsoever, 6 use a system called bicker and additionally, there are other options available to students (residential colleges, a mixture of club and campus eating etc.). As a parent of two Princeton students as well as a Princeton alumna myself, one of the things I enjoy about the clubs is that there is a great social life available on campus to pretty much everyone. The clubs frequently have open events and since they are all on one street, students can often be found roaming up and down and sampling activities at different clubs. You don’t have to wait to be invited and you’re not excluded from that portion of campus social life (as is often found in colleges with frats/sororities). And of course, Princeton, like Yale and U Chicago, has numerous other social options - constant plays, musical events, speakers and athletic games. These are all wonderful schools, and you really can’t go wrong, but I would not necessarily make a decision on the supposed elitism of the eating clubs - it’s far from true nowadays, given the fairly open nature of the sign-in possibilities.
Thank you so much for all your thoughtful replies. I know that all three are fantastic institutions. I will be visiting all three schools this month (Princeton for the first time), so that will hopefully help me make my decision, but I would still appreciate any further thoughts and perspectives!
It’s a personal choice. Here I’ll try to help you. Please answer these three questions honestly:
Did you grow in the suburbs or the city?
Do you want to go to college in a place like home, or a place different than home?
Do you want to be an hour bus or car ride from home? Or, do you want to be an hour plane ride, and then an hour train ride away from home?
Princeton is a bucolic campus in New Jersey. Look at the campus map (http://m.princeton.edu/map/campus) and you’ll see that Princeton looks and feels different than Yale or UChicago. It’s not urban, it’s not in a big city, it’s suburban with lots of grass and trees and birds and quiet. Garage trucks don’t pick up trash at 6:00 in the morning outside your dorm room window at Princeton. They do at Yale. Fire trucks and ambulances and traffic clog the streets outside your dorm room windows in New Haven. Those things don’t happen with the same frequency at Princeton. Is that a plus or minus for you? Do you thrive on the energy of the city? Or, do you enjoy a quieter atmosphere? My son, who grew up in New York City, commented when walking Nassau Street for the first time “You can practically eat off the sidewalk here, it’s so clean here.” Ultimately, he choose Yale because he wanted an environment more like home, something he was used to. You may be the same or different, but no can really help you decide, as you need to pay attention to your gut when visiting the campuses.
@midatlmom - thanks for the Princeton perspective. I don’t know much about it, but we can all agree that they can’t go wrong whichever one they ultimately choose.
