Reality check: social scene at UChicago

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:UChicago today is a very different institution than 15 years ago. I don't think the old "where fun goes to die" and "awkward nerd" stereotype still applies.

They've aggressively targeted kids from prestigious private schools, oftentimes taking 15-20+ kids annually from places like Andover/Exeter/Choate/Horace Mann, etc. This has resulted in a far more socially polished and culturally elite student body than they've historically had. These are the sorts of kids that dominated the Ivies in the 80's/90's and that the Ivies now shun for "equity" reasons.

NP I completely agree with this. From our feeder private (the kind this board hates: 30%+ to T10 outside of DMV), the savvy, well groomed, full pay B+/A- kids are headed to U Chicago, the brilliant but awkward 3.95 kids (no one gets all As at our school), a fair amount scholarship kids and first gens are headed to HYP. If I have to bet, the 2nd group will graduate and eventually work as researchers, academia, community leaders/in non profits or similar while the first group graduate to work on Wall Street/ go into consulting. The 2nd group are smart and driven too, but they know how to network, not spend too much time studying and still make good grades (though not top grades). Based on who I see admitted, U Chicago may get higher donations per alumni donor from this new crop of admits at least from our n=1 small private school. I can totally see the HYP first-gen kids come back to teach at our school whereas the U Chicago kids will come back to buy our school for their private equity firms.

These are a lot of assumptions to draw based on the small dataset of kids from one high school. This pattern is different at my kids’ school, where the ivy kids are mostly very polished and preprofessional and often very athletic.

Same here. Top private.

Polished, super smart: Princeton, Dartmouth and Yale

Top non-polished, frankly often kids of immigrants: Harvard and Stanford

Second level kids of both types who want high academics and/or prestige: Chicago

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Vanderbilt tends to self-select for a lot of "smart, but social" kids who play down their intelligence and care about campus popularity. However, this has changed sooooo much at Vanderbilt, and it's no longer the southern party playpen it was in the early 2000s. The student body at Vandy is more similar to the Ivies/UChicago than in previous eras, because it has aggressively courted super-high scorers (35+ ACT, 1560+ SAT) with the goal of boosting their reputation.

UChicago has also transformed because they've gone after the social elites at top private day and boarding schools. Look at the matriculation data at any top private school, and you'll see 30+ UChicago vs maybe 10 at HYPS over a 5 year span. Choate has 63 UChicago matriculants over the past 5 years.

They're probably more similar than you think, but Vandy has the school spirit edge because of their D1 sports programs.

Vanderbilt's student body is not similar to Ivies. 395 students submitted an SAT score, of which only 99 have an SAT 1560 or above.

Vanderbilt
1,635 freshman
99 have SAT 1560 or above
6% of freshman class

Harvard
1,641 freshman
446 have SAT 1560 or above
27% of freshman class

Yale
1,633 freshman
289 have SAT 1560 or above
17% of freshman class

Princeton
1,404 freshman
212 have SAT 1560 or above
15% of freshman class

Cna someone helps me understand the math or the reporting discrepanies? If what are quaoted above are accurate, that only 15% of Princeton's freshman class scored 1560+, then whay was there top 75th percentile score reported as 1580? As same Yale and Harvard. Vanderbilt's reported 75% percentile score is 1560 but PP said only 6% has that score.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Vanderbilt tends to self-select for a lot of "smart, but social" kids who play down their intelligence and care about campus popularity. However, this has changed sooooo much at Vanderbilt, and it's no longer the southern party playpen it was in the early 2000s. The student body at Vandy is more similar to the Ivies/UChicago than in previous eras, because it has aggressively courted super-high scorers (35+ ACT, 1560+ SAT) with the goal of boosting their reputation.

UChicago has also transformed because they've gone after the social elites at top private day and boarding schools. Look at the matriculation data at any top private school, and you'll see 30+ UChicago vs maybe 10 at HYPS over a 5 year span. Choate has 63 UChicago matriculants over the past 5 years.

They're probably more similar than you think, but Vandy has the school spirit edge because of their D1 sports programs.

Vanderbilt's student body is not similar to Ivies. 395 students submitted an SAT score, of which only 99 have an SAT 1560 or above.

Vanderbilt
1,635 freshman
99 have SAT 1560 or above
6% of freshman class

Harvard
1,641 freshman
446 have SAT 1560 or above
27% of freshman class

Yale
1,633 freshman
289 have SAT 1560 or above
17% of freshman class

Princeton
1,404 freshman
212 have SAT 1560 or above
15% of freshman class

There’s no effective difference between a 1500 and 1560

In our community, I tend to hear this from parents 6-12 months and 4+ tries after they talked about paying thousands to hire tutor to help their kids break 1530.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:UChicago today is a very different institution than 15 years ago. I don't think the old "where fun goes to die" and "awkward nerd" stereotype still applies.

They've aggressively targeted kids from prestigious private schools, oftentimes taking 15-20+ kids annually from places like Andover/Exeter/Choate/Horace Mann, etc. This has resulted in a far more socially polished and culturally elite student body than they've historically had. These are the sorts of kids that dominated the Ivies in the 80's/90's and that the Ivies now shun for "equity" reasons.

NP I completely agree with this. From our feeder private (the kind this board hates: 30%+ to T10 outside of DMV), the savvy, well groomed, full pay B+/A- kids are headed to U Chicago, the brilliant but awkward 3.95 kids (no one gets all As at our school), a fair amount scholarship kids and first gens are headed to HYP. If I have to bet, the 2nd group will graduate and eventually work as researchers, academia, community leaders/in non profits or similar while the first group graduate to work on Wall Street/ go into consulting. The 2nd group are smart and driven too, but they know how to network, not spend too much time studying and still make good grades (though not top grades). Based on who I see admitted, U Chicago may get higher donations per alumni donor from this new crop of admits at least from our n=1 small private school. I can totally see the HYP first-gen kids come back to teach at our school whereas the U Chicago kids will come back to buy our school for their private equity firms.

These are a lot of assumptions to draw based on the small dataset of kids from one high school. This pattern is different at my kids’ school, where the ivy kids are mostly very polished and preprofessional and often very athletic.

Same here. Top private.

Polished, super smart: Princeton, Dartmouth and Yale

Top non-polished, frankly often kids of immigrants: Harvard and Stanford

Second level kids of both types who want high academics and/or prestige: Chicago

I don't understand the word polished. What does that even mean here?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:UChicago today is a very different institution than 15 years ago. I don't think the old "where fun goes to die" and "awkward nerd" stereotype still applies.

They've aggressively targeted kids from prestigious private schools, oftentimes taking 15-20+ kids annually from places like Andover/Exeter/Choate/Horace Mann, etc. This has resulted in a far more socially polished and culturally elite student body than they've historically had. These are the sorts of kids that dominated the Ivies in the 80's/90's and that the Ivies now shun for "equity" reasons.

NP I completely agree with this. From our feeder private (the kind this board hates: 30%+ to T10 outside of DMV), the savvy, well groomed, full pay B+/A- kids are headed to U Chicago, the brilliant but awkward 3.95 kids (no one gets all As at our school), a fair amount scholarship kids and first gens are headed to HYP. If I have to bet, the 2nd group will graduate and eventually work as researchers, academia, community leaders/in non profits or similar while the first group graduate to work on Wall Street/ go into consulting. The 2nd group are smart and driven too, but they know how to network, not spend too much time studying and still make good grades (though not top grades). Based on who I see admitted, U Chicago may get higher donations per alumni donor from this new crop of admits at least from our n=1 small private school. I can totally see the HYP first-gen kids come back to teach at our school whereas the U Chicago kids will come back to buy our school for their private equity firms.

These are a lot of assumptions to draw based on the small dataset of kids from one high school. This pattern is different at my kids’ school, where the ivy kids are mostly very polished and preprofessional and often very athletic.

Same here. Top private.

Polished, super smart: Princeton, Dartmouth and Yale

Top non-polished, frankly often kids of immigrants: Harvard and Stanford

Second level kids of both types who want high academics and/or prestige: Chicago

I don't understand the word polished. What does that even mean here?

Good looking, smart, witty, well dressed, well spoken. kids who have "it". Doesn't necessarily track by race. One of the most polished kids in our private in recent years was Indian, another was East Asian.


But 25 AP boy from a recent post? No, he was the opposite of polished.

[Anonymous]

Our private is not a feeder to UChicago. About one or two per year go there. Quirky, interested in a niche topic, not in top grade band.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:UChicago today is a very different institution than 15 years ago. I don't think the old "where fun goes to die" and "awkward nerd" stereotype still applies.

They've aggressively targeted kids from prestigious private schools, oftentimes taking 15-20+ kids annually from places like Andover/Exeter/Choate/Horace Mann, etc. This has resulted in a far more socially polished and culturally elite student body than they've historically had. These are the sorts of kids that dominated the Ivies in the 80's/90's and that the Ivies now shun for "equity" reasons.

NP I completely agree with this. From our feeder private (the kind this board hates: 30%+ to T10 outside of DMV), the savvy, well groomed, full pay B+/A- kids are headed to U Chicago, the brilliant but awkward 3.95 kids (no one gets all As at our school), a fair amount scholarship kids and first gens are headed to HYP. If I have to bet, the 2nd group will graduate and eventually work as researchers, academia, community leaders/in non profits or similar while the first group graduate to work on Wall Street/ go into consulting. The 2nd group are smart and driven too, but they know how to network, not spend too much time studying and still make good grades (though not top grades). Based on who I see admitted, U Chicago may get higher donations per alumni donor from this new crop of admits at least from our n=1 small private school. I can totally see the HYP first-gen kids come back to teach at our school whereas the U Chicago kids will come back to buy our school for their private equity firms.

These are a lot of assumptions to draw based on the small dataset of kids from one high school. This pattern is different at my kids’ school, where the ivy kids are mostly very polished and preprofessional and often very athletic.

Same here. Top private.

Polished, super smart: Princeton, Dartmouth and Yale

Top non-polished, frankly often kids of immigrants: Harvard and Stanford

Second level kids of both types who want high academics and/or prestige: Chicago

Omg this is our non-DMV private (40-50% to T25 or so).

Polished, Wall Street-bound, finance or consulting: Princeton, Duke (moving up on everyone's list), Williams, Dartmouth, Yale, Vanderbilt, Penn, Northwestern

Non-polished, very book smart, yes, often children of immigrants: HSM, Columbia, JHU

Second-level: Chicago, Cornell, Georgetown, Rice, WashU

[Anonymous]

Why everyone has to highlight immigrant?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Vanderbilt tends to self-select for a lot of "smart, but social" kids who play down their intelligence and care about campus popularity. However, this has changed sooooo much at Vanderbilt, and it's no longer the southern party playpen it was in the early 2000s. The student body at Vandy is more similar to the Ivies/UChicago than in previous eras, because it has aggressively courted super-high scorers (35+ ACT, 1560+ SAT) with the goal of boosting their reputation.

UChicago has also transformed because they've gone after the social elites at top private day and boarding schools. Look at the matriculation data at any top private school, and you'll see 30+ UChicago vs maybe 10 at HYPS over a 5 year span. Choate has 63 UChicago matriculants over the past 5 years.

They're probably more similar than you think, but Vandy has the school spirit edge because of their D1 sports programs.

Vanderbilt's student body is not similar to Ivies. 395 students submitted an SAT score, of which only 99 have an SAT 1560 or above.

Vanderbilt
1,635 freshman
99 have SAT 1560 or above
6% of freshman class

Harvard
1,641 freshman
446 have SAT 1560 or above
27% of freshman class

Yale
1,633 freshman
289 have SAT 1560 or above
17% of freshman class

Princeton
1,404 freshman
212 have SAT 1560 or above
15% of freshman class

Where are you getting this data?

[Anonymous]

Our private:
Hooked: HYPS, Duke, Vandy, Brown, Columbia, Dartmouth. Typically donors or highly connected. Sometimes athletes or FGLI. Merely being a legacy without significantly more doesn't help.

Unhooked: M, Penn, Cornell, Northwestern. Strivers.

CC is very good at steering.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our private:
Hooked: HYPS, Duke, Vandy, Brown, Columbia, Dartmouth. Typically donors or highly connected. Sometimes athletes or FGLI. Merely being a legacy without significantly more doesn't help.

Unhooked: M, Penn, Cornell, Northwestern. Strivers.

CC is very good at steering.

What does this have to do with anything?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:UChicago today is a very different institution than 15 years ago. I don't think the old "where fun goes to die" and "awkward nerd" stereotype still applies.

They've aggressively targeted kids from prestigious private schools, oftentimes taking 15-20+ kids annually from places like Andover/Exeter/Choate/Horace Mann, etc. This has resulted in a far more socially polished and culturally elite student body than they've historically had. These are the sorts of kids that dominated the Ivies in the 80's/90's and that the Ivies now shun for "equity" reasons.

NP I completely agree with this. From our feeder private (the kind this board hates: 30%+ to T10 outside of DMV), the savvy, well groomed, full pay B+/A- kids are headed to U Chicago, the brilliant but awkward 3.95 kids (no one gets all As at our school), a fair amount scholarship kids and first gens are headed to HYP. If I have to bet, the 2nd group will graduate and eventually work as researchers, academia, community leaders/in non profits or similar while the first group graduate to work on Wall Street/ go into consulting. The 2nd group are smart and driven too, but they know how to network, not spend too much time studying and still make good grades (though not top grades). Based on who I see admitted, U Chicago may get higher donations per alumni donor from this new crop of admits at least from our n=1 small private school. I can totally see the HYP first-gen kids come back to teach at our school whereas the U Chicago kids will come back to buy our school for their private equity firms.

These are a lot of assumptions to draw based on the small dataset of kids from one high school. This pattern is different at my kids’ school, where the ivy kids are mostly very polished and preprofessional and often very athletic.

Same here. Top private.

Polished, super smart: Princeton, Dartmouth and Yale

Top non-polished, frankly often kids of immigrants: Harvard and Stanford

Second level kids of both types who want high academics and/or prestige: Chicago

Omg this is our non-DMV private (40-50% to T25 or so).

Polished, Wall Street-bound, finance or consulting: Princeton, Duke (moving up on everyone's list), Williams, Dartmouth, Yale, Vanderbilt, Penn, Northwestern

Non-polished, very book smart, yes, often children of immigrants: HSM, Columbia, JHU

Second-level: Chicago, Cornell, Georgetown, Rice, WashU

These are such weird posts. OP is asking about the social scene at Chicago, not for the private school moms to have some circlejerk about where the “polished” vs “immigrant” kids go to college.

Before you call me a public school striver mom, my kids went to private school.

[Anonymous]

At our private (50% to T20) the kids who go to Chicago are often the very smart kids who are unconnected, want to major in Econ or something humanities related, and know how to play their cards right.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our private:
Hooked: HYPS, Duke, Vandy, Brown, Columbia, Dartmouth. Typically donors or highly connected. Sometimes athletes or FGLI. Merely being a legacy without significantly more doesn't help.

Unhooked: M, Penn, Cornell, Northwestern. Strivers.

CC is very good at steering.

What does this have to do with anything?

In response to the racist comments above. How do they know who are immigrants' kids? Just because they are Indian?
The first group may look more "polished" simply because they are from wealth, or an athlete (Nike kid).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:UChicago today is a very different institution than 15 years ago. I don't think the old "where fun goes to die" and "awkward nerd" stereotype still applies.

They've aggressively targeted kids from prestigious private schools, oftentimes taking 15-20+ kids annually from places like Andover/Exeter/Choate/Horace Mann, etc. This has resulted in a far more socially polished and culturally elite student body than they've historically had. These are the sorts of kids that dominated the Ivies in the 80's/90's and that the Ivies now shun for "equity" reasons.

NP I completely agree with this. From our feeder private (the kind this board hates: 30%+ to T10 outside of DMV), the savvy, well groomed, full pay B+/A- kids are headed to U Chicago, the brilliant but awkward 3.95 kids (no one gets all As at our school), a fair amount scholarship kids and first gens are headed to HYP. If I have to bet, the 2nd group will graduate and eventually work as researchers, academia, community leaders/in non profits or similar while the first group graduate to work on Wall Street/ go into consulting. The 2nd group are smart and driven too, but they know how to network, not spend too much time studying and still make good grades (though not top grades). Based on who I see admitted, U Chicago may get higher donations per alumni donor from this new crop of admits at least from our n=1 small private school. I can totally see the HYP first-gen kids come back to teach at our school whereas the U Chicago kids will come back to buy our school for their private equity firms.

These are a lot of assumptions to draw based on the small dataset of kids from one high school. This pattern is different at my kids’ school, where the ivy kids are mostly very polished and preprofessional and often very athletic.

Same here. Top private.

Polished, super smart: Princeton, Dartmouth and Yale

Top non-polished, frankly often kids of immigrants: Harvard and Stanford

Second level kids of both types who want high academics and/or prestige: Chicago

Omg this is our non-DMV private (40-50% to T25 or so).

Polished, Wall Street-bound, finance or consulting: Princeton, Duke (moving up on everyone's list), Williams, Dartmouth, Yale, Vanderbilt, Penn, Northwestern

Non-polished, very book smart, yes, often children of immigrants: HSM, Columbia, JHU

Second-level: Chicago, Cornell, Georgetown, Rice, WashU

Why do you think Duke is moving up on everyone's list?