What do people consider the most prestigious college in the Midwest?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/01/18/upshot/some-colleges-have-more-students-from-the-top-1-percent-than-the-bottom-60.html

“Ivy plus” colleges include the eight colleges of the Ivy League in addition to Stanford, the University of Chicago, Duke and M.I.T.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Who's defining prestige here? If we're talking the elite 1%ers, Chicago. If we're talking the general public, Michigan or Notre Dame.

Wrong. 1 in 4 Chicago kids is poor. Notre Dame has highest % of rich kids and the fewest % of poor. Michigan has the most rich kids overall, as it's 3 to 4x size of these Midwest private peers.

% of top one percenter students (HHI $630K+):
Notre Dame 15.4%
Northwestern University 14.1
University of Chicago 10.0
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor 9.3

% of bottom 65 percentile students (HHI <$65K):
University of Chicago 24.5%
Northwestern University 16.8
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor 16.5
Notre Dame 10.0

I was coming to this thread to pitch for NU, but way to go Chicago. That’s awesome.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Notre Dame actually has plenty of liberals among its ranks:

https://ndsmcobserver.com/2016/11/nd-votes-mock-election/

Why is this surprising? Catholics have a tradition of being committed to social justice and liberal thinking.

+1 I have never understood why some think Catholicism is synonymous with conservatism.

Ummm, because while they do engage in social justice, they also typically espouse conservative positions like being anti-divorce, anti-contraception, and anti-gay marriage? They also have a vested interest in maintaining an exceedingly hierarchical institution, which is a pretty classically conservative notion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/01/18/upshot/some-colleges-have-more-students-from-the-top-1-percent-than-the-bottom-60.html

“Ivy plus” colleges include the eight colleges of the Ivy League in addition to Stanford, the University of Chicago, Duke and M.I.T.

What?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That’s an attribute of elite colleges these days.

Oops — this was meant as a response to the post about the relatively high percentage of first gen students at UChicago.[/quote
I don’t disagree, but PP seems to think that Chicago is more attended by the rich and the highly educated than ND and NU. The stats say the opposite: Chicago has fewer highly wealthy students than NU and ND, it has more first generation college students, and more students who come from low income families.

The most elite colleges do this--extensive outreach to first generation students and also offering need-blind admissions with grant-only FA for families with qualifying incomes. This is true at Chicago, HYP, Stanford, Swarthmore, Amherst, Williams, Pomona, MIT, and generally other colleges with very large endowments. Notre Dame and Northwestern are NOT on this list.

25% of the campus being poor first-generation kids is not a prestigious asset. Prestige = brand recognition + status + connections + high-soaring dating pool. So not only is Chicago's name and brand rec low, they also have a lot of poor, unconnected kids. Noble? Sure. Prestigious? Nope.

Most prestigious in Midwest is Notre Dame.

There is something about your attitude that really bugs me. These kids may be poor and unconnected, but they are brilliant and talented on their own merits and bring more than enough prestige to the table to compensate for their lack of funding and social capital.

[Anonymous]

Why do we need 16 pages on this? It's obvious U. of Chicago. https://www.collegeraptor.com/find-colleges/articles/2018-university-rankings/top-25-best-colleges-midwest-2018-rankings/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why do we need 16 pages on this? It's obvious U. of Chicago. https://www.collegeraptor.com/find-colleges/articles/2018-university-rankings/top-25-best-colleges-midwest-2018-rankings/

That’s right. If College Raptor says so, it must be. Glad we cleared that up!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why do we need 16 pages on this? It's obvious U. of Chicago. https://www.collegeraptor.com/find-colleges/articles/2018-university-rankings/top-25-best-colleges-midwest-2018-rankings/

That’s right. If College Raptor says so, it must be. Glad we cleared that up!

LOL. Wheaton College ranked higher than Case Western? No mention of Purdue? Principia (Ive seriously never heard of that school) makes the cut but no Lawrence, Knox, Beloit, etc.? What a joke.

[Anonymous]

I grew up in San Francisco and I’d have to say Notre Dame is tops. Michigan for engineering.

[Anonymous]

Chicago is for grad school not undergrad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Chicago is for grad school not undergrad.

May have been true in the 1980s/1990s, but not today. I had a great experience as a Harvard undergrad, but my kid is having an even better one as a UChicago undergrad!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I grew up in San Francisco and I’d have to say Notre Dame is tops. Michigan for engineering.

Well, I grew up in LA, went to a well regarded prep school there, and Chicago was always considered more elite than ND. People who chose ND or Michigan were smart, but honestly cared more about the football scene more than the academics.

[Anonymous]

I just don't understand all of these posts about what most people consider prestigious - spoiler alert there are lots of places. It really depends on the person and what they want in an undergrad experience - size, environment, majors, professors etc. My child attends one of the schools that has been mentioned several times as prestigious and she loves it but it may not be for everyone. There are people who leave her school and do amazing things and then there are many who leave and just live normal lives. By the same token, there are students at other schools that people are saying they don't consider prestigious who will leave those schools and do awesome stuff. In the end, it's what the student does with their degree. Stop being so worried about what people on this board consider prestigious and give your student a chance to figure out what they want in an undergraduate experience. There is no formula that will guarantee success for your kid, sorry helicopter parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Chicago is for grad school not undergrad.

May have been true in the 1980s/1990s, but not today. I had a great experience as a Harvard undergrad, but my kid is having an even better one as a UChicago undergrad!

You didn't go to Harvard -- I get a Rutgers vibe from you. And yes, we know your kid is at Chicago, as you post about it literally 18 hours a day across every college forum on the Internet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Chicago is for grad school not undergrad.

May have been true in the 1980s/1990s, but not today. I had a great experience as a Harvard undergrad, but my kid is having an even better one as a UChicago undergrad!

You didn't go to Harvard -- I get a Rutgers vibe from you. And yes, we know your kid is at Chicago, as you post about it literally 18 hours a day across every college forum on the Internet.

I did, in fact, go to Harvard. Got a grad degree from Princeton though (maybe the GPS in your tinfoil hat needs adjustment — that might explain your Rutgers error). You might also consider the possibility that a variety of different posters write about their kids’ experiences at UChicago on different websites at different times of day. Unlike you, I’m not policing various college-related fora 18/7. This is the only one I post on. And I know I’m not the only UChicago parent posting here.