University of Chicago

[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 seems very accurate to me too. OP, there is someone on this board who really had it in for U Chicago, just take negative posts with a grain of salt. I was this kind of kid and had a great experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Why is it silly? Some schools including Chicago are really good at branding and gaming the rankings. Doesn’t mean Chicago is not a good school. Although it is most likely overhyped

[Anonymous]

Because it is without factual basis. Chicago has been well respected across the board for decades.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Because it is without factual basis. Chicago has been well respected across the board for decades.

As a whole yes, but the college is always an afterthought for the administration compared to its more illustrious grad school departments and professional schools, similar to Johns Hopkins. I have lots of respect for the school as a whole, but certain college grads, old and new, just seem to be torn between constant, self-aggrandizing bravado and a pitiful inferiority complex as the school shoots up in rankings but fails to catch up in terms of public prestige.

[Anonymous]

Meh. There is some truth to what you say but that some grads are insecure is hardly unique to Chicago.

[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.

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

I highly doubt if Chicago kids are seen as "more intellectual" than kids from those schools. It's definitely more quirky but that alone does make the students smarter. There is really nothing unique about the intellectualism you'll find at Chicago compared to its peer schools nowadays; Chicago just really likes to shove it in your face to prove that they are just as smart, if not smarter than the kids at Harvard and loves to compare themselves to HYP when it is in fact probably a whole tier below. They know it so they intentionally avoid bringing up Columbia, Penn, or even Duke in their conversations. Having gone to one of the ivies myself, the kids are nothing if not a superior balance of being "book-smart" and "street-smart."

[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.

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

I went to Harvard College and was surprised by how few of my classmates were intellectually-oriented. Ambition and self-confidence were defining attributes of the class rather than brains and curiosity. That said, obviously, if you were intellectual (and it didn’t matter to you what most of your cohort cared about), it was great — so many resources, accessible faculty doing interesting work, lots of grad students. I think Chicago is (has been?) attractive to kids who want their peers to share their academic values.

[Anonymous]

This whole conversation reminds me of how the UChicago admissions office was desperately telling prospective students to use the hashtag #MaroonIsTheNewCrimson. The entire school is built on this kind of energy.

[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.

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

I went to Harvard College and was surprised by how few of my classmates were intellectually-oriented. Ambition and self-confidence were defining attributes of the class rather than brains and curiosity. That said, obviously, if you were intellectual (and it didn’t matter to you what most of your cohort cared about), it was great — so many resources, accessible faculty doing interesting work, lots of grad students. I think Chicago is (has been?) attractive to kids who want their peers to share their academic values.

And yet more kids proportionally end up in consulting and finance than from H, so maybe UChicago is just as careerist, if not more so, than all the other T20 schools?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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

First year? Usually $85k base + $10k signing bonus + ~ $60k 1st yr bonus

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

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

I went to Harvard College and was surprised by how few of my classmates were intellectually-oriented. Ambition and self-confidence were defining attributes of the class rather than brains and curiosity. That said, obviously, if you were intellectual (and it didn’t matter to you what most of your cohort cared about), it was great — so many resources, accessible faculty doing interesting work, lots of grad students. I think Chicago is (has been?) attractive to kids who want their peers to share their academic values.

And yet more kids proportionally end up in consulting and finance than from H, so maybe UChicago is just as careerist, if not more so, than all the other T20 schools?

I didn’t say careerist (nor would I assume careerism is measured by % that go into consulting/finance). This is more of a “what do I want out of college?” question for most kids. “I want to be surrounded by people who want to stay up late talking about ideas” is, for example, different from “I want to be among the future elite.” And, yeah, there are both types at all these schools, but in different proportions. That’s before we get to the economics of the situation which is that lots of kids/families have college debt and need a lucrative job pay it off or pay it back. More than a few of my ambitious/self-confident Harvard classmates had the safety net of wealthy families and/or connections (and we all had much lower tuition), so could pursue passion projects after graduation (e.g. arts careers, starting a magazine).

I don’t think Chicago is uniquely intellectual or necessarily the best place for an intellectual kid, but I agree with the first poster quoted here that its intellectual culture attracts a certain type of very bright/high-performing kid who is turned off by the (undergrad) culture of HYPSWharton.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Why is it silly? Some schools including Chicago are really good at branding and gaming the rankings. Doesn’t mean Chicago is not a good school. Although it is most likely overhyped

That article from a few years back is still true. The school aggressively markets to ystudents they would never accept. 1260 SAT & 990 PSAT for example. By aggressive I mean multiple mailings, emails and in case of the 1260, a phone call along to encourage the application. DC goes to a predominantly white very average school with local college educated parents. No hooks among most of them but Chicago has been here marketing hard. Some families fell for it and applied. All rejected last year and I expect the same for this year. It's disingenuous and yes, they game their selectivity in a dishonest way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This whole conversation reminds me of how the UChicago admissions office was desperately telling prospective students to use the hashtag #MaroonIsTheNewCrimson. The entire school is built on this kind of energy.

It really isn't. I can count the number of comments like that I heard in four years there on one hand.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Why is it silly? Some schools including Chicago are really good at branding and gaming the rankings. Doesn’t mean Chicago is not a good school. Although it is most likely overhyped

That article from a few years back is still true. The school aggressively markets to ystudents they would never accept. 1260 SAT & 990 PSAT for example. By aggressive I mean multiple mailings, emails and in case of the 1260, a phone call along to encourage the application. DC goes to a predominantly white very average school with local college educated parents. No hooks among most of them but Chicago has been here marketing hard. Some families fell for it and applied. All rejected last year and I expect the same for this year. It's disingenuous and yes, they game their selectivity in a dishonest way.

Selectivity isn’t a ranking component.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Why is it silly? Some schools including Chicago are really good at branding and gaming the rankings. Doesn’t mean Chicago is not a good school. Although it is most likely overhyped

That article from a few years back is still true. The school aggressively markets to ystudents they would never accept. 1260 SAT & 990 PSAT for example. By aggressive I mean multiple mailings, emails and in case of the 1260, a phone call along to encourage the application. DC goes to a predominantly white very average school with local college educated parents. No hooks among most of them but Chicago has been here marketing hard. Some families fell for it and applied. All rejected last year and I expect the same for this year. It's disingenuous and yes, they game their selectivity in a dishonest way.

I got an SAT score of 1260, got accepted to UofC and attended for undergrad. That was in the 90s, so maybe SAT scores skewed lower in those days. But 1260 SAT score is not unheard of!