Yale vs. UChicago

<p>I just finished going to colleges' revisit days, and I've narrowed my list to just Yale and the University of Chicago. I'm having a very hard time deciding between the two. I'm going to major in math with a minor/double major in either computer science or physics. For me, the main draws to UChicago are: Fermilab, the legendary math program, and the city of Chicago; at Yale, they are: the unlimited opportunities afforded by buckets of money, the residential college system, and the attention given to undergraduates. I liked the students at both schools. Chicago students seemed to be a little more academically focused (which I like), but I met more people there who were studying physics, comp sci, and math, so it might have been just coincidence. The atmosphere at Yale seemed a little better, more fun.
Has anyone had to make this same choice, or have stories of people who have? What would persuade me to choose one school over the other? As I visited both schools and still can't choose one, I'm not sure how to proceed. Any advice? While I'll be getting my bachelor's in pure math, I'll go for a graduate degree in applied math, and I hear Chicago is focused intently upon pure math. Can anyone corroborate this? I know Chicago has one of the best graduate math programs in the world, but is their undergraduate program any better than Yale's, and, if so, in what way?</p>

<p>I can’t speak to the differences between math at U of C and Yale, but there’s a big difference between these two schools that you don’t mention, one that may be important to you as someone with highly focused academic interests. That’s the U of C’s required interdisciplinary core – over 1/3 of your coursework over four years, I believe. For some students, that’s a plus, for others, it’s not. Yale has a set of distributional requirements that aren’t too hard to fulfill, but it has no highly structured core curriculum.</p>

<p>Personally, I just accepted Yale today. My two other options were UChicago and Princeton.</p>

<p>I revisited Chicago on my own about 10 days ago then did Preview at Princeton and BDD at Yale. It just came down to the fact that I was most in love with Yale – the people, the campus, the traditions. I felt like I was trying to talk myself into Chicago for rational reasons, but wan’t really feeling it. The vibrancy of the Yale Campus and great balance between academics and ECs really impressed me. Students at Yale definitely seemed the most enthusiastic about their experience.</p>

<p>Anyhow, I’ll soon find out …</p>

<p>jclancy, I think you have read the differences – the really fairly minor differences – between the two colleges very well. You are not going to have a bad experience either place, and they are much more similar than they are different. Yale IS more fun, and the Chicago house system – which actually predates Yale’s residential college system – does not work nearly so well to create close friendships. (Chicago’s fake Gothic buildings also predate Yale’s, and also aren’t quite as nice.) The city of Chicago is a zillion times more interesting than New Haven.</p>

<p>Math and physics are much more mainstream at Chicago than they are at Yale. Chicago is generally thought to outrank Yale in both disciplines, but not by so much as to really make a difference to any undergraduate. That alone isn’t a basis to choose Chicago. Last year, however, Yale graduated a grand total of 40 primary math or physics majors of every variety (including applied math, engineering physics). Chicago graduated 88 primary math and physics majors, and had 410 students (out of 3,500 eligible) declared in those majors. By itself, that’s a meaningful difference in critical mass. Plus, because all of the social sciences at Chicago are quite math-y, there are a lot more people at Chicago taking math courses, and especially post-calculus math courses, than at Yale. </p>

<p>Yale’s vibe is more undergraduate focused than Chicago’s. But I don’t think you would find Chicago math or physics students complaining about their faculty access at all. They are both really tight departments, with tons of informal interaction among faculty, grad students, and undergrads, and lots of research opportunities. Of course, that is probably true at Yale, too, where the departments are even smaller. But the fact that the Yale English and Economics departments are a little friendlier than Chicago’s doesn’t mean much for math majors (unless you flip over to the Dark Side: Econ).</p>

<p>Chicago’s Core is not quite as “highly structured” as wjb implies. More than half of it is really similar to Yale’s distributional requirements, although there are some differences that might affect you. For instance, the language requirement equates to a full year, not one semester, although it’s relatively easy to place out of it. Yale’s distributional requirements require 11 courses to satisfy, which is basically 2-1/2 semesters there. Chicago’s Core could take up to 18 courses – 5 quarters – to fulfill, except that hardly anyone fails to place out of some of the requirements, and STEM types generally meet the six-course math and lab science requirements without ever thinking about them.</p>

<p>What the special core classes are really like is doing Directed Studies at Yale, but with lots more STEM types in your classes. That IS still a major difference between the two colleges, since you might very well not want to do Directed Studies at Yale, despite its popularity, and Yale doesn’t make you do it. </p>

<p>The Math Department at Chicago offers an applied math track, not a separate major. I am told that a few people do take it every year, and there is also a Statistics Department and a few statistics majors. In general, however, based on the people I have met (i.e., my kids’ friends), you are right that most of the math majors gravitate towards pure math, not applied math. (I once heard a math major describe applied math as “public policy for math majors,” “public policy” being code for “what you do if you can’t cut it as an actual econ or polisci major”.) Remember, however, that there is also a “specialization in economics” track in the math major, and if you counted THEM as doing applied math – which is kinda sorta true, although less than you might imagine – maybe 20-25% of the majors would be doing applied math.</p>