Is U Chicago worth cost over in-state UVA?

[Anonymous]

DC has about 14 days to decide. Undecided on major - maybe trying for the business school McIntire at Virginia. As a parent, is it crazy to think Chicago will have fewer distractions compared to the rah-rah UVA?

[Anonymous]

yes def

[Anonymous]

Depends. Do you have the money saved? If so then yes, that's what you've been saving for all these years.

[Anonymous]

Those are two very different college experiences. Does your kid like urban or rural(ish) living? Do you have any friends/family in the Chicagoland area? Is the answer to that question a plus or a minus? Does DC want to go to grad school? Is the cost differential an inconvenience or does it mean DC will graduate with $80k in SL's?

They're both good schools. I think Chicago is more prestigious, but the prestige gap is not that large, especially if your kid ends up living in this area, where UVA has a large network and is very well regarded (I am from another part of the country where I never heard anything much about UVA one way or the other).

[Anonymous]

Hey, another UChicago thread. Another opportunity for the UChicago hater to show up and post some inane non sequitur. Lets see how quickly this thread devolves

[Anonymous]

This threads are useless if we don't know your financial picture. If you have the money saved, yes. Why not?! If you odn't have the money saved and it'd require major loans or raiding your retirement account-NO.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DC has about 14 days to decide. Undecided on major - maybe trying for the business school McIntire at Virginia. As a parent, is it crazy to think Chicago will have fewer distractions compared to the rah-rah UVA?

UChicago parent. Not so much that there aren't a lot of potential distractions, after all it's on the outskirts of a very fun city. But the ethos is to take the academics seriously so there is little to no pressure from peers to skip studying and party instead. Needing to work is highly respected. My DC (and friends) is very social and active in attending/throwing parties but appreciates the lack of pressure to do so in order to keep up friendships. Just to ward off the inevitable remarks on these threads...I am not comparing to UVA as I have no insight on that school.

[Anonymous]

If purely for undergrad business, I would pick McIntire School at UVA - well regarded.

But, finances are key here like most PPs said. That would be the overriding factor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does DC want to go to grad school?

Nothing makes me cringe harder than asking this about 17-year-olds, or taking their response to it seriously. Nearly 80% of rising college freshman at orientation claim they're going to be future surgeons or white shoe lawyers. How many end up there? Maybe 1 in 10, if that.

Bank the prestige now, op. Plans change. Kids change. Majors change. Prestige is forever. But warning, if gunning for Wall Street or top shelf consulting shops, a high gpa is going to be very tough at Chicago.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does DC want to go to grad school?

Nothing makes me cringe harder than asking this about 17-year-olds, or taking their response to it seriously. Nearly 80% of rising college freshman at orientation claim they're going to be future surgeons or white shoe lawyers. How many end up there? Maybe 1 in 10, if that.

Bank the prestige now, op. Plans change. Kids change. Majors change. Prestige is forever. But warning, if gunning for Wall Street or top shelf consulting shops, a high gpa is going to be very tough at Chicago.

Cringe away, but I took a full-ride to a not-at-all prestigious school for undergrad because I knew I wanted to go on to law school. When law school came around I got full-ride offers from Tier II and below schools, and I went to a top-5 law school with not much financial assistance.
I only got around $15k/year in merit aid and graduated with scads of debt. The debt was challenging but going to that school would have been completely off the table if I had already had $50-80k in SL's from undergrad, and my job prospects would not have been anywhere near as broad.

[Anonymous]

Yes, almost anything is better than UVa.

[Anonymous]

NO it is not

[Anonymous]

Everyone with a brain will take a Chicago kid seriously upon hearing they went to Chicago, or when scanning resumes/LinkedIn. UVA has a lot of smart kids, but also many play hard rah-rah types who are just there to check a box, so nobody instantly thinks a UVA kid is high IQ.

If the teen is OBSESSED with becoming a doctor and has years of dedication, surgery shadowing, hospital volunteering, 5s on STEM APs then I could see where UVA would be a savvy value move to pump the undergrad GPA in prep for applying to medical school. But for all other kids, just bank the prestige and head to Chicago.

[Anonymous]

The data is crystal clear on this: for the students who get into both but elect to go to the state school, their outcomes are the same.

[Anonymous]

I believe they are really on a par, academically - so where does your kid prefer living and how much do you prefer spending are the questions that need answering. We can't answer that for you.