University of Chicago

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Earlier in the thread it was predicted the crazy anti U of C would show up.

Who hurt you so?

You do realize there are multiple posters commenting on very different stuff? Why do you feel so butthurt when we voice our opinions on U of C?

Of course - but the particular dolt who always shows up with the silly ROI argument has been exposed on this website and others for its rants. An agenda well beyond chiming in.

I'm not the ROI poster, and I don't care who that person is. It's a valid concern when you're doing your college search. U of Chi may be good for academia but it's just not the stellar pre-professional pipeline that many kids are looking (as some parents have peddled) nor does it offer an equivalent level of prestige the ivies, MIT, or Stanford are offering if you are the kind of person looking to boast around your coworkers and neighbors. This is just the caveat emptor and I'm sure just about every school has one. Nobody (maybe except UVA boosters on DCUM) reacted as strongly as U of Chi grads/parents when we bring in those opinions. Chicago is strong on its own and I'm sure it'll do just fine. This level of sensitivity just shows a lot of insecurity on your end.

The problem with the ROI poster is that the stats were self-reported nonsense. Many critiques are justified. That one was not but the poster with the agenda keeps it up.

But the Georgetown ROI report with data from the US Department of Education's College Scorecard also puts Chicago right below most of its peer institutions (with aid included). The two aren't that far off.

[Anonymous]

I would say it differently. In terms of revealed preferences. there are some top kids who are drawn to U Chicago. I am ecstatic that my DC was admitted to U Chicago ED1. I am HYP legacy, and when I had that discussion with my DC, he was firm that he was not interested in my school, and that U Chicago is the perfect fit. I was made aware of the school two years ago by another HYP parent at our school, who sent both his sons to U Chicago. There is a subset of kids who love the fact that U Chicago has top intellectual rigor across the board, and professors are often very quirky and witty. Mine took Summer College there and had a blast, but problem sets were very, very hard. On another note -the U Chicago supplemental essays reflect the spirit of the school - very weird, very intellectual, very fun to write... if you are a certain type of kid. So if you enjoyed writing those, you are probably a good fit for the school.

A previous poster mentioned it's not the preprofessional pipeline of Harvard - true!!! And that is what is so great about the school; college is more just a race to the first job in BigLaw, Big Finance or Big Consulting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Terrific school hurt by its crummy location. Chicago is a massive city and the campus is deep in its south side, which is war torn and dangerous except for the campus and a Whole Foods. It takes an hour to get downtown on public transportation and it's not a safe trek to put it mildly. It's cold and grey most of their Oct-June school year. Living in Chicago is a dream come true for Midwest-raised kids but to international, Sunbelt, East and West coast kids it's just 'meh'.

Leaving the Big Ten conference 60 years ago was probably a mistake they wish they could take back. Look how sports have helped Stanford, Duke, Northwestern and Notre Dame. Big Ten membership brings in $60 million cash to each college, plus the name rec, the alum engagement, on and on.

Northwestern's location on the Northside of Chicago (right outside city limits IIRC) is actually ideal IMO. Access to the big city, and actually closer to the more exciting neighborhoods and sights than UChicago, ironically, but also has its own cute little college town.

My DC DC loved Chicago and thought Evanston was boring and very suburban (“Bethesda”). She and classmates routinely went downtown (or to other neighborhoods) and never had any problem wrt safety. Used all forms of public transit as well as Uber. Different people have different tastes and different perceptions re safety. FWIW, last time I saw neighborhood-level stats (2018 data), Hyde Park had a significantly lower violent crime rate than Lincoln Park. And Hyde Park is closer to the Loop and Mag Mile than Evanston is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would say it differently. In terms of revealed preferences. there are some top kids who are drawn to U Chicago. I am ecstatic that my DC was admitted to U Chicago ED1. I am HYP legacy, and when I had that discussion with my DC, he was firm that he was not interested in my school, and that U Chicago is the perfect fit. I was made aware of the school two years ago by another HYP parent at our school, who sent both his sons to U Chicago. There is a subset of kids who love the fact that U Chicago has top intellectual rigor across the board, and professors are often very quirky and witty. Mine took Summer College there and had a blast, but problem sets were very, very hard. On another note -the U Chicago supplemental essays reflect the spirit of the school - very weird, very intellectual, very fun to write... if you are a certain type of kid. So if you enjoyed writing those, you are probably a good fit for the school.

A previous poster mentioned it's not the preprofessional pipeline of Harvard - true!!! And that is what is so great about the school; college is more just a race to the first job in BigLaw, Big Finance or Big Consulting.

This is an overtly romanticized, idealized vision of the school. It's an absolutely miserable place with an insanely inflated self-image. "Intellectual and quirky" more often than not reads as "snooty, elitist and insufferable" instead.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would say it differently. In terms of revealed preferences. there are some top kids who are drawn to U Chicago. I am ecstatic that my DC was admitted to U Chicago ED1. I am HYP legacy, and when I had that discussion with my DC, he was firm that he was not interested in my school, and that U Chicago is the perfect fit. I was made aware of the school two years ago by another HYP parent at our school, who sent both his sons to U Chicago. There is a subset of kids who love the fact that U Chicago has top intellectual rigor across the board, and professors are often very quirky and witty. Mine took Summer College there and had a blast, but problem sets were very, very hard. On another note -the U Chicago supplemental essays reflect the spirit of the school - very weird, very intellectual, very fun to write... if you are a certain type of kid. So if you enjoyed writing those, you are probably a good fit for the school.

A previous poster mentioned it's not the preprofessional pipeline of Harvard - true!!! And that is what is so great about the school; college is more just a race to the first job in BigLaw, Big Finance or Big Consulting.

This is an overtly romanticized, idealized vision of the school. It's an absolutely miserable place with an insanely inflated self-image. "Intellectual and quirky" more often than not reads as "snooty, elitist and insufferable" instead.

What's your experience with the school? I'm an alumnus and it felt accurate to me. There's snooty people there, and I felt that a lot at first as someone from a very different kind of background, that wasn't the overall feel of the place, to me. It's not a perfect school by any means, but "absolutely miserable" was very much not my experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would say it differently. In terms of revealed preferences. there are some top kids who are drawn to U Chicago. I am ecstatic that my DC was admitted to U Chicago ED1. I am HYP legacy, and when I had that discussion with my DC, he was firm that he was not interested in my school, and that U Chicago is the perfect fit. I was made aware of the school two years ago by another HYP parent at our school, who sent both his sons to U Chicago. There is a subset of kids who love the fact that U Chicago has top intellectual rigor across the board, and professors are often very quirky and witty. Mine took Summer College there and had a blast, but problem sets were very, very hard. On another note -the U Chicago supplemental essays reflect the spirit of the school - very weird, very intellectual, very fun to write... if you are a certain type of kid. So if you enjoyed writing those, you are probably a good fit for the school.

A previous poster mentioned it's not the preprofessional pipeline of Harvard - true!!! And that is what is so great about the school; college is more just a race to the first job in BigLaw, Big Finance or Big Consulting.

This is an overtly romanticized, idealized vision of the school. It's an absolutely miserable place with an insanely inflated self-image. "Intellectual and quirky" more often than not reads as "snooty, elitist and insufferable" instead.

Not top PP, but another with a kid accepted ED. Regardless of what the true nature of the school is, top PP's kid was drawn to it for similar reasons as my kid, so these kids are self-selecting. That implies that there should be something different about the makeup of the class vs. another school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would say it differently. In terms of revealed preferences. there are some top kids who are drawn to U Chicago. I am ecstatic that my DC was admitted to U Chicago ED1. I am HYP legacy, and when I had that discussion with my DC, he was firm that he was not interested in my school, and that U Chicago is the perfect fit. I was made aware of the school two years ago by another HYP parent at our school, who sent both his sons to U Chicago. There is a subset of kids who love the fact that U Chicago has top intellectual rigor across the board, and professors are often very quirky and witty. Mine took Summer College there and had a blast, but problem sets were very, very hard. On another note -the U Chicago supplemental essays reflect the spirit of the school - very weird, very intellectual, very fun to write... if you are a certain type of kid. So if you enjoyed writing those, you are probably a good fit for the school.

A previous poster mentioned it's not the preprofessional pipeline of Harvard - true!!! And that is what is so great about the school; college is more just a race to the first job in BigLaw, Big Finance or Big Consulting.

This is an overtly romanticized, idealized vision of the school. It's an absolutely miserable place with an insanely inflated self-image. "Intellectual and quirky" more often than not reads as "snooty, elitist and insufferable" instead.

What's your experience with the school? I'm an alumnus and it felt accurate to me. There's snooty people there, and I felt that a lot at first as someone from a very different kind of background, that wasn't the overall feel of the place, to me. It's not a perfect school by any means, but "absolutely miserable" was very much not my experience.

Sorry, I should have been more clear, the PP's view that you called "idealized" felt accurate to me.

[Anonymous]

I wonder what percentage of Chicago seniors end up going to consulting + finance? Is it lower than the ivys or the same? If it is the same, then stop with all this intellectual bs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Terrific school hurt by its crummy location. Chicago is a massive city and the campus is deep in its south side, which is war torn and dangerous except for the campus and a Whole Foods. It takes an hour to get downtown on public transportation and it's not a safe trek to put it mildly. It's cold and grey most of their Oct-June school year. Living in Chicago is a dream come true for Midwest-raised kids but to international, Sunbelt, East and West coast kids it's just 'meh'.

Leaving the Big Ten conference 60 years ago was probably a mistake they wish they could take back. Look how sports have helped Stanford, Duke, Northwestern and Notre Dame. Big Ten membership brings in $60 million cash to each college, plus the name rec, the alum engagement, on and on.

Northwestern's location on the Northside of Chicago (right outside city limits IIRC) is actually ideal IMO. Access to the big city, and actually closer to the more exciting neighborhoods and sights than UChicago, ironically, but also has its own cute little college town.

My DC DC loved Chicago and thought Evanston was boring and very suburban (“Bethesda”). She and classmates routinely went downtown (or to other neighborhoods) and never had any problem wrt safety. Used all forms of public transit as well as Uber. Different people have different tastes and different perceptions re safety. FWIW, last time I saw neighborhood-level stats (2018 data), Hyde Park had a significantly lower violent crime rate than Lincoln Park. And Hyde Park is closer to the Loop and Mag Mile than Evanston is.

As someone who spent over 10 years in Chicago, this is a strange claim. Cite a source on that. If you're just look at the bottom line numbers, of course Lincoln Park would appear more dangerous as it has over 3x the population and it's 3x the sq/mi. Per capita? No chance Hyde Park is safer. It's also seriously misleading because campus is in both Hyde Park and Woodlawn.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wonder what percentage of Chicago seniors end up going to consulting + finance? Is it lower than the ivys or the same? If it is the same, then stop with all this intellectual bs.

https://collegeadmissions.uchicago.edu/files/documents/class-2017-outcomes.pdf

It's actually HIGHER. ~45% of UChicago grads end up in consulting or finance. Here are Harvard's numbers for reference: https://ocs.fas.harvard.edu/reports. ~23% end up in consulting or finance.

The whole intellectual schtick is the most pretentious load of self-aggrandizing marketing bullcrap, but to their credit, hordes of people buy into it, so, shrugs.

[Anonymous]

Anything can be spun and put into the "consulting" and "finance" buckets. There's a big difference between graduating and making $65k in "finance" in Indianapolis vs. $160k in investment banking at GS in Manhattan.

[Anonymous]

Pretty impressive how UChicago managed to shoot through the rankings in the last 20 years. It used to be a no name school except for Economics. I doubt anything has changed except for the public perception.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Anything can be spun and put into the "consulting" and "finance" buckets. There's a big difference between graduating and making $65k in "finance" in Indianapolis vs. $160k in investment banking at GS in Manhattan.

GS analysts make more than 160k. I didn’t realize UChicago grads aspire to finance jobs in Indianapolis. Why not just go to Indiana University then and save a few bucks

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would say it differently. In terms of revealed preferences. there are some top kids who are drawn to U Chicago. I am ecstatic that my DC was admitted to U Chicago ED1. I am HYP legacy, and when I had that discussion with my DC, he was firm that he was not interested in my school, and that U Chicago is the perfect fit. I was made aware of the school two years ago by another HYP parent at our school, who sent both his sons to U Chicago. There is a subset of kids who love the fact that U Chicago has top intellectual rigor across the board, and professors are often very quirky and witty. Mine took Summer College there and had a blast, but problem sets were very, very hard. On another note -the U Chicago supplemental essays reflect the spirit of the school - very weird, very intellectual, very fun to write... if you are a certain type of kid. So if you enjoyed writing those, you are probably a good fit for the school.

A previous poster mentioned it's not the preprofessional pipeline of Harvard - true!!! And that is what is so great about the school; college is more just a race to the first job in BigLaw, Big Finance or Big Consulting.

Is Yale, Harvard, Columbia not intellectual enough for your kid. Give me a break!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Pretty impressive how UChicago managed to shoot through the rankings in the last 20 years. It used to be a no name school except for Economics. I doubt anything has changed except for the public perception.

That’s just silly.