Hi all,
First let me preface this by stating that I feel so so lucky to be able to even have this choice in the first place. As the title states, I’ve been accepted to both Yale and UChicago, and I’m having trouble trying to make a decision.
I was accepted to UChicago early action, so for about two months now I’ve been really invested in them and pretty sure it’s where I wanted to go. I love the intellectualism of the school, the traditions like Scav and Kuvia, the beautiful architecture, and the fact that I’d have access to the city of Chicago. I did have a few concerns, though; I’m from Florida, so the idea of Chicago winters scares me (lol- and yes I know it’s also very cold in Connecticut), and a lot of UChicago students say they barely have time for one to two extracurriculars with their immense workload. I’m really looking forward to college as an opportunity to branch out and do more things outside of academics (IB has killed me haha), and it just seems like Yale students are able to do a lot more clubs and stuff. Though the circus troupe at UChicago is super cool to me…
Now onto Yale! As I stated previously, it seems like Yalies are able to do a lot more and be more well-rounded (outside of academia) than UChicago students, which I like. I really love the residential college system and the whole idea of suites at Yale, but there I wouldn’t be guaranteed a single, whereas at UChicago I would. I know this isn’t a HUGE deal, but worth mentioning I suppose-it’s something I’m kind of “ugh” about but not really a make-or-break thing obviously. I’ve also been pre-admitted into the Directed Studies program, which seems like a really cool opportunity! But I’m kind of concerned about the vibe at Yale; I come from a low-income background and I’m scared it’s going to be super preppy with a lot of upper-class kids I can’t really relate to. And finally, I’m really scared of feeling stifled in New Haven. I come from a rural area and not having access to things drives me crazy, which is one of the reasons I was excited about UChicago.
Please feel free to correct me if anything I said is wrong, this is simply what I’ve been able to gather from online research! I’m going to be doing fly-ins for both schools in April to get a better feel for each, but I’d rather have done a good deal of my thinking now so that I don’t have to make a decision super quickly before May 1st. I welcome any and all input!
Thank you guys!
They’re both great.
I would put them on equal footing overall academically.
Here are some relative differences as I see them:
Chicago:
- Maybe a little bit stronger in the hard sciences and Econ
- The core
- More intellectual academic vibe; quite rigorous by rep
- A bit more balanced politically
- Truly urban environment: location in a great, huge city.
- Moving up in the world in terms of undergrad rep; grad/PhD global rep already equal to Yale.
Yale:
- Res college system
- Maybe a little bit stronger in the humanities
- More pre-professional academic vibe. It isn’t Penn, but it isn’t Swat or UChicago either.
- Class shopping period
- Much larger endowment
- Ivy cachet/connections
And… pizza. That’s the hardest decision here. 
Assuming there is not a large difference in terms of cost, make this decision solely based on fit preferences. If you do, you’ll make the right choice. Both are outstanding. Congrats.
Congrats! I’ll echo what @prezbucky stated but I’ll add that there is really no way for you to decide until you visit. Sounds like you have already thought about it a lot, but most of the questions you have about both will be answered at the fly in. You should get a good feel for each after that, and then it will be (hopefully) easier to make a decision.
https://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/?id=130794
https://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/?id=144050
% of students with Pell grants (probably lower half income/wealth):
14% Yale
11% Chicago
% of students without any financial aid grants (probably top 2-3% income/wealth):
48% Yale
36% Chicago
I.e. both are heavily skewed toward students from high income families.
True, but Yale more so, based on an NYTimes analysis of (anonymized) tax returns from student families.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/01/18/upshot/some-colleges-have-more-students-from-the-top-1-percent-than-the-bottom-60.html
Students from families in Top 1% (income 630K+):
18.7% Yale
10.0% Chicago
Students from families in Bottom 60% (income <65K):
16.3% Yale
24.5% Chicago
Median family income:
$192,600 Yale
$134,500 Chicago
@marlamrhs - First off, congratulations on your admissions to two fantastic schools! You sound like you’d be a good “fit” at both, so I’m happy the admissions folks at both U.Chicago and Yale recognized that.
As a first year Yale student who also considered U. Chicago seriously, I am obviously biased in favor of Yale, but you sound as though you are leaning towards Chicago, which might make you happier if you prefer the city of Chicago to New Haven and its proximity to both Boston and NYC. Personally, I felt that the Chicago campus was kind of isolated, in a “bubble” of sorts, and I preferred the access I’d have to New Haven and many community service opportunities I’ve had there. You also mentioned in your post that you want a balance between academics and extracurriculars, and while I don’t know how that works at U. Chicago, I can tell you with complete honesty that everyone at Yale not only takes their academic work seriously but also engage in multiple extracurricular activities. I think Yale AOs look for these kinds of students, and as a result, the campus is filled with students who are passionate about both things which makes everyone super interesting. No one brags about their pre-college or college accomplishments. Almost everyone I’ve met at Yale is incredibly nice, helpful and supportive. The majority of students receive financial aid and the student body is very diverse. The large endowment makes it possible for students to receive not only generous financial aid, but also support/grants/scholarships for summer programs that people like me wouldn’t be able to afford otherwise. Access to full professors is easy because of both the DS Program and abundant seminars. Finally, the residential college system is amazing. With freshman advisors, Dean, major advisors, and House Heads all easily accessible and readily available, it isn’t possible to get “lost” or “fall through the cracks” as a first year student. In short, my friends and I love living in New Haven and going to school here. Both U. of Chicago and Yale are wonderful, challenging places to attend college. I wish you the best of luck. Either school will be very lucky to have you join their communities!
First of all, congratulations!
My D is at UChicago now, and my nephew graduated from Yale a few years ago. My D didn’t apply to Yale because when she considering applying, Yale’s politics seemed to have a taken a turn for the worse with how they handled the Halloween costume incident. Hopefully it is better now.
UChicago is definitely quite a bit of work, there is no getting around that. In contrast, my nephew’s comment about Yale was: “It’s hard to get an A, but harder to get a C”.
Nevertheless, D is active in two time-consuming activities outside of class right now, and still has time to go out most weekends. She manages it fine while doing well in 4 courses per quarter (3 or 4 are allowed per quarter). I think that is pretty much the norm as well according to what she has said about her friends.
OP: Shame on you. If you had applied to & gotten accepted to Princeton University, we all wouldn’t be dealing with this dilemma now.
I cannot help get you out of this mess, although I love the issue (especially when it is between Yale Law School versus Chicago Law with a full tuition scholarship, but you are not there yet ).
Seems as though you do not realize the benefit of living in a suite = current & lifelong friendships.
One approach might be based on your intended area of major study. And whether one of these schools is better at the undergraduate level & one at the graduate level.
Of course, the easy answer would be just to pick the higher ranked school–but US News saw you coming.
@prezbucky is among the most valued posters on this website & have done an outstanding summary, in my opinion.
How brave are you ? Consider wearing a Make America Great Again hat during your Yale visit, Do not remove it during the campus tour or during your cafeteria visit. Then wear a Northwestern University t-shirt & Yale hat during your Chicago visit. After which your decision should be a bit easier.
Good luck. The world, except for Princeton admits, and maybe Harvard too, are envious.
P.S. Forget the NU t-shirt during your Chicago visit. Have a Chicago Football t-shirt printed & tell everyone that you are a football recruit when visiting Chicago.
Again, best of luck to you.
Echo what @zoebrittany has already said about socio-economics and how welcoming Yale is…
My son reports that there certainly are wealthy students but he hasn’t had anyone thus far make as issue of it nor has he been made to feel uncomfortable for being on FA.
And most students are involved in many activities of which there are an abundance to choose from 
Good luck!
Thank you everyone for all of your insight! I especially feel a lot better about Yale, with so many people saying it’s such a friendly place
@prezbucky Thank you for the breakdown! Pizza is definitely very important Luckily, I’d be getting a great financial aid package at both schools, so it’d be down to fit alone. The pre-professional vibe at Yale is, I think, my major hangup, so after I visit both and see for myself what they’re like I think my decision will be a lot easier!
@zoebrittany It’s interesting that you say UChicago felt like a bubble! That’s kind of an exact feeling I’m trying to avoid haha, as I live in a rural area and it drives me nuts how insular it is. It’s definitely something I’ll consider when I visit!
@Publisher Lol so apparently applying to any top schools makes you obsessed with rankings now? Also, about the suite thing, of course that’s the point of it- that’s why I said I liked it haha. I’d just prefer a single room within my suite, which I would assume a lot of people would too over sharing a room. But I’m not sure what you’re trying to say with the last bit?
@marlamrhs: They are both ranked #3 by US News. I think that you missed the intended joke.
Nevertheless, if going by rankings & two schools are tied, as in this situation, I have a foolproof tie breaker system.
If tied at rankings, select the school with the higher first year retention rate, if also tied, then go to the one with the higher 75% SAT scores, if still tied, repeat process.
OP: My point in injecting humor in this decision, is that you have two outstanding options & have failed to present enough information to warrant a recommendation to one over the other. Such information might be about your intended major, graduate school & career goals.
Plus, I am curious as to how friendly Yale will be to one sporting a Make America Great Again hat & t-shirt combo.
Oh, so the best of both worlds – the suite and mates that come with it, but your own private room within the suite.
While I would put housing comfort below academic fit, you do have to sleep and have a place to hang out in, a private study haven, etc… so housing is important too.
If you are having trouble deciding even after visiting them – and your gut will probably tell you, but just in case you’re still stuck on the fence – create a spreadsheet with two columns (UChicago and Yale) and several rows (the things you deem important). Give a numerical value to each school for each of those preferences. The school with the higher score wins. Beats flipping a coin, probably.
While I caught a hint of mirthful sarcasm, I liked @Publisher 's idea about wearing the MAGA hat around Yale and the NU shirt at UChicago. This is a good way to judge how accepting of controversial things each campus is.
But the MAGA hat probably will be more outrageous to most Yalies than the NU shirt would be at UChicago. So to make that test more fair, I think you’d do either of two things:
- Scrap the MAGA hat at Yale and replace it with a Harvard shirt, or
- Wear a shirt at UChicago that rips on Milton Friedman.
haha
I am truly envious of anyone who can create such an accurate phrase as “mirthful sarcasm”.
@marlamrhs - to respond to your questions and concerns regarding availability of single rooms, I can tell you that I have friends who as first year students have single rooms in suites, and that there are residential colleges where after your first year of college, all rooms are singles within suites. If that is really important to you - and there are a lot of good reasons why it might be - then you might consider reaching out to someone at Yale to discuss it.
@Publisher Ahh, I apologize then! I definitely misread that haha.
I’m leaning towards international studies right now and I really love language learning. I’m 95% sure I want to go to grad school, and as to a career, I’m looking at either the foreign service or working with an international nonprofit. I know Yale has the Jackson Institute for Global Affairs, which is definitely a plus for this kind of stuff, but it seems pretty competitive to get in.
@zoebrittany Thank you for your advice! Honestly, it’s more of a little thing than anything, definitely not a deal-breaker. It’d just be really nice if I happened to get one 
You may have already, but, if not, check this out:
https://collegeadmissions.uchicago.edu/academics/joint-degree/international-relations
Apparently UChicago’s IR program is a dual BA/MA (or BS/MA) degree. So you’d kill two birds with one stone.
As for Yale, it too is very strong in IR.
I can speak to the difference (or similarity) between the weather of Chicago and CT. I live in CT and my son is a 2nd year at UChicago. Winters are quite similar between the two locations But last year was a bit of an anomaly where Chicago hardly had any snow and was relatively mild, and CT probably had 3 times as much snow as did Chicago. But for most Winters, I would expect the weather to be quite similar with Chicago maybe being a bit colder than CT.
Also, I’m pretty sure Chicago no longer has an undergraduate IR major. I think the IR major is now called Global Studies and is an interdisciplinary major.
Btw, my son loves UChicago. He finds the academic rigorous and social and extra curricular life very satisfying. He also loves the city of Chicago.