<p>I'm a current student here, and I feel I should preface this whole spiel by saying that I love, love, love this school.</p>
<p>This year, 10,000 students applied to Chicago. Yay. However, if one were to look at ANOTHER urban school, that is ALSO co-ranked number 9 on the USNWR, that ALSO offers a CORE based on GREAT BOOKS, (this school is Columbia), one would see that Columbia received 20,000 applications.</p>
<p>On paper, the schools are extroadinarily alike. So alike, in fact, that I can't imagine why every student (minus the engineers, I guess) who applied to Columbia didn't also apply to Chicago. If you want urban, if you want core, if you want the balance of grad/undergrad..... where else are you going to go?</p>
<p>Anyway, I opened up this question on the College Search boards. You can read my thoughts/ others' thoughts:</p>
<p>The only conclusion that fits for me so far is that enough students apply to Columbia for the wrong reasons, i.e. they're taken away by NYC and they need an Ivy League school, that they don't realize that they'll have to come to terms with Kant, Marx, and Freud along the way. </p>
<p>Some students apply to Columbia because they want an Ivy or want to stay around the East Coast. Those are not the same factors I used when choosing a college, and they are not good factors for the majority of people. By stating that they are "wrong," though, you are condescending to the people who have thoughtful, legitimate reasons for wanting an Ivy or the East Coast. Besides considering engineers, you also need to consider the diverse atmospheres at each school. Chicago is more known that Columbia for the dorky student body, uniquely intellectual atmosphere, and intense academics. The mix of that, the theoretical academic focus, and the midwest location alienate a certain segment of applying high school seniors. There are certainly students who apply to Columbia for reasons that seem unimportant to most intellectuals and U of C students, but you need to consider reasonable alternatives and individual opinion and circumstance before making possibly unfair generalizations.</p>
<p>But don't listen to me. I just got back from Bar Night.</p>
<p>Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think Columbia indulges in grade-inflation which tends to be a significant factor (other than the factors mentioned above) students take into account when considering colleges.</p>
<p>Thanks, corranged, between your drunkenness and my feverishness we might actually have an answer. I guess I'm just amazed that students salivate over Columbia and don't over U of C, and I'm also amazed that Columbia might have a different atmosphere than U of C-- on paper, our similarities are uncannily alike.</p>
<p>But if Columbia students apply for the city and the prestige, and they don't apply to Chicago, do they like the Core still?</p>
<p>At the same time, though, Columbia turned me off. Why? Well.... it was just kind of there, and kind of normal at that. (I haven't visited the school in 2-3 years, so I'm willing to admit that I'm wrong). The admissions officer at the info session emphasized the school's selectiveness and the fact that it was in New York City. As a side note, he mentioned that the other other school with Core was the University of Chicago.</p>
<p>(I wanted to jump up and say, "WHAT ABOUT REED, ST. JOHN'S, AND OTHER SCHOOLS THAT DO CORE?!")</p>
<p>Chicago admissions does kind of bathe in its own quirkiness, which is amazing, but then produces people (like me, I guess) who do this holier-than-thou thing than makes some students uncomfortable when it really shouldn't.</p>
<p>Chicago misses out on Engineering application. I did hear that in about 5 years, UChicago might have an engineering school. Thats something to keep your eye on.</p>