Univ of Chicago

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Seriously. People on DCUM are really trying to convince us that a 1-2 hour flight to Chicago is somehow soooo much harder or sooooo much more isolated than, say, an 8 hour drive or a 1-2 hour flight to NYC or Boston + 3 hour drive into the wilderness. Delusional.

O'Hare to UChicago or vice versa is literally 1 hr and 30 to 40 minutes via public transport, so don't forget to add on over 3 hrs RT.

Yes, UChicago is isolating on the south side and in Chicago. It's weird how everyone hypes "Chicago" which means downtown and Cubs games. But UChicago is not downtown, it's actually 30 to 60 minutes south of downtown. It's akin to saying Rockville or Gaitherburg (MD) are "in DC".

And Chicago, the city of, is far more isolating to east and west coast kiddos because no acela and all their friends are in eastern seaboard schools. Are you really not grasping that friend groups at Penn, Villanova, Columbia, NYU, Brown, Harvard, Boston College, Hopkins, Georgetown have a far easier time of seeing each other than the kid from Hyde Park, Chicago visiting their friend at the same colleges? And do you really not grasp these rich kids on the east coast pop on flights to Miami and Europe at the drop of a dime?

AYFKM that Hyde Park is the equivalent to Gaithersburg?

Not even for a moment. An Uber will take you from U of C’s campus to downtown in 20/25 minutes. Maximum. It’s not even the ‘far’ south side of the city — Chicago goes down to the 130s or so and HP is in the 50s/60s. Plus, many students don’t leave campus all that often anyway — as is the case at many universities. To equate a college that gets dragged for being in an ‘inner city den of crime’ to the DC ‘burbs in any way shape or form is grasping at straws.

Ahhhhh so when you UofC boosters hype up all the downtown-River North-Lincoln Park-Wrigleyville excitement in the City of Chicago, and the city's amazing public transport, and wed it all to UChicago's attributes... what you really mean is do not use public transport (it not only takes a very long time, as a rich college kid you risk getting mugged and shot) and that downtown action is a $20 to 40 Uber each way? Got it.

Again, UofC students all get a pass that lets them use buses and the El for free. Mine used hers all the time (and routinely visited uncles in Andersonville). There’s also a weekend shuttle bus from campus to the South loop/lots of El lines. DC took Uber occasionally, usually one way and with a group of friends who split the cost. Dorms also arranged concert tickets, donut crawls, bike tours to get kids into/familiar with the city early on.

Oh and in her four years there, DC was never mugged or shot (or in a situation that made her fear she would be.) Nor were any of her friends mugged or shot. She did have a(n) improperly locked bike stolen from outside her apartment. Coulda happened anywhere.

[Anonymous]

Fake news. U-pass is not free. All students are nudged into a U-pass and charged a fee for it. And nobody tells you that you must never use it after dark and never use it alone and avoid X Y and Z buses, trains and stops. And then when you're robbed or murdered people will say I can't believe s/he was traveling on X Y Z at x y z hours, i.e. victim blame. And really, don't use it to go downtown (where else would you use it for?), use uber for $30 each way instead to shave off 1/2 the time and not risk death or mugging. But again, Chicago is TOTALLY safe.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:great school but expect uchicago bashers and the hypsm prestige defense squad to show up on this thread really soon...

Present and ready for duty!
HYPSM is the best and top tier of the elite of elite of academic institutions.
UChicago is a great place, if the fit is right.
Positives: academic, intellectual, has prestige but NOT HYPSM prestige
Negatives: frigid cold, crime-ridden, quarter system so if you get behind you are toast

Prestige-wise less than schools like Columbia, Penn, or Duke but above Northwestern and JHU.

Roughly tied with the lower ivies in terms of student caliber and popularity if you want an honest take. DS went to STA and most from his class who ended up at uchi were rejected from ivies or stanford.

"DS went to STA and most from his class who ended up at uchi were rejected from ivies or stanford"
Bingo!
Then those parents/students of UChicago kids will profess and promote that UChicago is equivalent to HYPSM which it is clearly not.

[Anonymous]

Unlikely. The trust is that very, very few get in RD. So those that get in have already made a choice and applied ED.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:great school but expect uchicago bashers and the hypsm prestige defense squad to show up on this thread really soon...

Present and ready for duty!
HYPSM is the best and top tier of the elite of elite of academic institutions.
UChicago is a great place, if the fit is right.
Positives: academic, intellectual, has prestige but NOT HYPSM prestige
Negatives: frigid cold, crime-ridden, quarter system so if you get behind you are toast

Prestige-wise less than schools like Columbia, Penn, or Duke but above Northwestern and JHU.

Roughly tied with the lower ivies in terms of student caliber and popularity if you want an honest take. DS went to STA and most from his class who ended up at uchi were rejected from ivies or stanford.

...and Duke and Notre dame. I’m sure uchicago wins cross admit battles with Wash U since St. Louis is an even more miserable flyover city than Chicago.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:great school but expect uchicago bashers and the hypsm prestige defense squad to show up on this thread really soon...

Present and ready for duty!
HYPSM is the best and top tier of the elite of elite of academic institutions.
UChicago is a great place, if the fit is right.
Positives: academic, intellectual, has prestige but NOT HYPSM prestige
Negatives: frigid cold, crime-ridden, quarter system so if you get behind you are toast

Prestige-wise less than schools like Columbia, Penn, or Duke but above Northwestern and JHU.

Roughly tied with the lower ivies in terms of student caliber and popularity if you want an honest take. DS went to STA and most from his class who ended up at uchi were rejected from ivies or stanford.

...and Duke and Notre dame. I’m sure uchicago wins cross admit battles with Wash U since St. Louis is an even more miserable flyover city than Chicago.

Notre Dame? No one gives a f* about ND except tryhard Catholics.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:great school but expect uchicago bashers and the hypsm prestige defense squad to show up on this thread really soon...

Present and ready for duty!
HYPSM is the best and top tier of the elite of elite of academic institutions.
UChicago is a great place, if the fit is right.
Positives: academic, intellectual, has prestige but NOT HYPSM prestige
Negatives: frigid cold, crime-ridden, quarter system so if you get behind you are toast

Prestige-wise less than schools like Columbia, Penn, or Duke but above Northwestern and JHU.

Roughly tied with the lower ivies in terms of student caliber and popularity if you want an honest take. DS went to STA and most from his class who ended up at uchi were rejected from ivies or stanford.

...and Duke and Notre dame. I’m sure uchicago wins cross admit battles with Wash U since St. Louis is an even more miserable flyover city than Chicago.

The only schools chicago wins cross admits are northwestern and jhu in the T10 and comfortably WashU, Vandy in the T15.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:great school but expect uchicago bashers and the hypsm prestige defense squad to show up on this thread really soon...

Present and ready for duty!
HYPSM is the best and top tier of the elite of elite of academic institutions.
UChicago is a great place, if the fit is right.
Positives: academic, intellectual, has prestige but NOT HYPSM prestige
Negatives: frigid cold, crime-ridden, quarter system so if you get behind you are toast

Prestige-wise less than schools like Columbia, Penn, or Duke but above Northwestern and JHU.

Roughly tied with the lower ivies in terms of student caliber and popularity if you want an honest take. DS went to STA and most from his class who ended up at uchi were rejected from ivies or stanford.

...and Duke and Notre dame. I’m sure uchicago wins cross admit battles with Wash U since St. Louis is an even more miserable flyover city than Chicago.

Notre Dame? No one gives a f* about ND except tryhard Catholics.

+1. It's another one of those overrated schools because of athletics, like Duke.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:great school but expect uchicago bashers and the hypsm prestige defense squad to show up on this thread really soon...

Present and ready for duty!
HYPSM is the best and top tier of the elite of elite of academic institutions.
UChicago is a great place, if the fit is right.
Positives: academic, intellectual, has prestige but NOT HYPSM prestige
Negatives: frigid cold, crime-ridden, quarter system so if you get behind you are toast

Prestige-wise less than schools like Columbia, Penn, or Duke but above Northwestern and JHU.

Roughly tied with the lower ivies in terms of student caliber and popularity if you want an honest take. DS went to STA and most from his class who ended up at uchi were rejected from ivies or stanford.

...and Duke and Notre dame. I’m sure uchicago wins cross admit battles with Wash U since St. Louis is an even more miserable flyover city than Chicago.

The only schools chicago wins cross admits are northwestern and jhu in the T10 and comfortably WashU, Vandy in the T15.

Citation?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Fake news. U-pass is not free. All students are nudged into a U-pass and charged a fee for it. And nobody tells you that you must never use it after dark and never use it alone and avoid X Y and Z buses, trains and stops. And then when you're robbed or murdered people will say I can't believe s/he was traveling on X Y Z at x y z hours, i.e. victim blame. And really, don't use it to go downtown (where else would you use it for?), use uber for $30 each way instead to shave off 1/2 the time and not risk death or mugging. But again, Chicago is TOTALLY safe.

I didn’t say the U-Pass was free, I said all UofC students get one and it makes riding the bus and the EL free. Again, my (affluent but cheap) daughter used hers regularly and wasn’t robbed or murdered while doing so. Nor were any of her friends.

“People will say” is such a Trumpy construction. The faux ventriloquism shtick you’ve got going on here isn’t really responsive to what is actually being said (in this discussion or at UChicago) or done. It’s not hypocrisy (or disingenuousness) when different people say different things. Different kids have different comfort levels* with public transit or cities, kids often travel together (whether by bus or uber), Chicago is large and has lots of different neighborhoods with different attractors. Some destinations are farther than others. And when you’re going out with friends, travel time itself is social time.

If you have a kid that would be overwhelmed by or scared of living in a large diverse city, your kid is unlikely to want to go to UChicago, so this is a non-issue for you. So stop fear-mongering about stuff you obviously know f*ck-all about.

*and kids’ comfort levels may differ from their parents’

[Anonymous]

Parent of first-year from Southern California, and we are currently in Hyde Park as it's the college's Family Weekend.

Our DC is liking it but yes the workload is a lot. She started out with four classes but dropped one to spend more time on the others.

She is a very strong critical thinker and the fit is great. They really push the idea of robust public discourse/debate etc, and that attracts kids like her who want to talk about issues from all angles.

Re safety, we are from an area where we don't always lock our doors and my kids jog at night, so initially I was worried that my kid would unwittingly take stupid risks. But the school does a good job at both having good security, and in teaching kids about how to be safe.

Her dorm is on the south side of campus and one look at her Citizen app makes you realize that there is crazy stuff happening off-campus just south and west of her all the time. It's not the thing that would have me dissuade someone from going to this school; it's just about learning how to be safe in an urban setting. Also, we have said we'll pay for all Ubers/Lyfts etc. as we don't want her deciding to walk places just to save a buck.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fake news. U-pass is not free. All students are nudged into a U-pass and charged a fee for it. And nobody tells you that you must never use it after dark and never use it alone and avoid X Y and Z buses, trains and stops. And then when you're robbed or murdered people will say I can't believe s/he was traveling on X Y Z at x y z hours, i.e. victim blame. And really, don't use it to go downtown (where else would you use it for?), use uber for $30 each way instead to shave off 1/2 the time and not risk death or mugging. But again, Chicago is TOTALLY safe.

I didn’t say the U-Pass was free, I said all UofC students get one and it makes riding the bus and the EL free. Again, my (affluent but cheap) daughter used hers regularly and wasn’t robbed or murdered while doing so. Nor were any of her friends.

“People will say” is such a Trumpy construction. The faux ventriloquism shtick you’ve got going on here isn’t really responsive to what is actually being said (in this discussion or at UChicago) or done. It’s not hypocrisy (or disingenuousness) when different people say different things. Different kids have different comfort levels* with public transit or cities, kids often travel together (whether by bus or uber), Chicago is large and has lots of different neighborhoods with different attractors. Some destinations are farther than others. And when you’re going out with friends, travel time itself is social time.

If you have a kid that would be overwhelmed by or scared of living in a large diverse city, your kid is unlikely to want to go to UChicago, so this is a non-issue for you. So stop fear-mongering about stuff you obviously know f*ck-all about.

*and kids’ comfort levels may differ from their parents’

So much wrong here but then again you are dependent on DC’s suspect world view. Keep taking the El and see how that works out. Be smarter.

[Anonymous]

OP, the caveat with Chicago is that in spite of its recent surge in rankings, its alumni network (or street prestige) is not nearly as strong as some of the ivies, Stanford, and Duke because historically it has ignored its undergrad division for a long time until the 2000s. Therefore, its undergrad outcomes look poorly in the rankings that measure ROI and graduate salary. Other than that, it's a great place to be if your kids are quirky and fit into the school's highly intellectual vibes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fake news. U-pass is not free. All students are nudged into a U-pass and charged a fee for it. And nobody tells you that you must never use it after dark and never use it alone and avoid X Y and Z buses, trains and stops. And then when you're robbed or murdered people will say I can't believe s/he was traveling on X Y Z at x y z hours, i.e. victim blame. And really, don't use it to go downtown (where else would you use it for?), use uber for $30 each way instead to shave off 1/2 the time and not risk death or mugging. But again, Chicago is TOTALLY safe.

I didn’t say the U-Pass was free, I said all UofC students get one and it makes riding the bus and the EL free. Again, my (affluent but cheap) daughter used hers regularly and wasn’t robbed or murdered while doing so. Nor were any of her friends.

“People will say” is such a Trumpy construction. The faux ventriloquism shtick you’ve got going on here isn’t really responsive to what is actually being said (in this discussion or at UChicago) or done. It’s not hypocrisy (or disingenuousness) when different people say different things. Different kids have different comfort levels* with public transit or cities, kids often travel together (whether by bus or uber), Chicago is large and has lots of different neighborhoods with different attractors. Some destinations are farther than others. And when you’re going out with friends, travel time itself is social time.

If you have a kid that would be overwhelmed by or scared of living in a large diverse city, your kid is unlikely to want to go to UChicago, so this is a non-issue for you. So stop fear-mongering about stuff you obviously know f*ck-all about.

*and kids’ comfort levels may differ from their parents’

So much wrong here but then again you are dependent on DC’s suspect world view. Keep taking the El and see how that works out. Be smarter.

So much right with the PP above this one.

Astonishing to think that different people have different experiences and value different things.

SHOCKINGLY, some people like living in a more diverse part of a major city. You couldn’t pay me to live in the area around Loyola, for example — too much Lululemon. But that’s me and I fully recognize that some people love that area.

Thousands of people take the El every day. Thousands of people live in Hyde Park and never encounter any crime. Thousands of people live in other parts of Chicago’s south side (ask me, I’m one of them) and have literally never encountered crime nor felt in danger. I was mugged in MoCo MD at dusk once but you won’t hear me talking about how dangerous Chevy Chase is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:great school but expect uchicago bashers and the hypsm prestige defense squad to show up on this thread really soon...

Present and ready for duty!
HYPSM is the best and top tier of the elite of elite of academic institutions.
UChicago is a great place, if the fit is right.
Positives: academic, intellectual, has prestige but NOT HYPSM prestige
Negatives: frigid cold, crime-ridden, quarter system so if you get behind you are toast

Prestige-wise less than schools like Columbia, Penn, or Duke but above Northwestern and JHU.

Roughly tied with the lower ivies in terms of student caliber and popularity if you want an honest take. DS went to STA and most from his class who ended up at uchi were rejected from ivies or stanford.

...and Duke and Notre dame. I’m sure uchicago wins cross admit battles with Wash U since St. Louis is an even more miserable flyover city than Chicago.

The only schools chicago wins cross admits are northwestern and jhu in the T10 and comfortably WashU, Vandy in the T15.

Citation?

A sample cross-admit data of uchicago vs other schools:

https://www.parchment.com/c/college/tools/college-cross-admit-comparison.php?compare=Harvard+University&with=University+of+Chicago

Harvard vs Chicago (71% picks Harvard)
MIT vs Chicago (76% picks MIT)
Yale vs Chicago (75% picks Yale)
Stanford vs Chicago (68% picks Stanford)
Columbia vs Chicago (66% picks Columbia)
Princeton vs Chicago (62% picks Princeton)
Penn vs Chicago (60% picks Penn)
Duke vs Chicago (57% picks Duke)

Brown vs Chicago (50-50% tied)

Dartmouth vs Chicago (54% picks Chicago)
Caltech vs Chicago (53% picks Chicago)
WashU vs Chicago (56% picks Chicago)
Cornell vs Chicago (61% picks Chicago)
JHU vs Chicago (69% picks Chicago)
Northwestern vs Chicago (69% picks Chicago)
Vandy vs Chicago (85% picks Chicago)

The only ivy that Chicago has an edge over is Cornell. It's roughly tied with Dartmouth and Brown, coming in last or second to last in the T10 in terms of cross-admits. It comfortably wins over Vandy, Northwestern, and JHU. This generally goes in line with my expectations. The gap between Chicago and peers like Columbia/Penn are only getting bigger as the latter rise in applications, domestic/international rankings, and both grew their endowment by 30-50% this year to 15 billion and 20 billion, respectively, and are investing heavily in state of the art facilities and new STEM faculties. Plus the ivy branding always have an edge.