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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I feel like this is the general consensus of the thread:

Those who are hyper-obsessed with rankings & prestige over academics & post-grad outcomes tend to think lower of UChicago because they attract the majority of their students from the ED pool (which, in their minds, [u]must[/u] make the school an undeserving T10).

Those who know about academics, job placement, and support their children no matter what college they fall in love with think UChicago is an excellent school that equips students with the skills they need to do extremely well in their future.

Signed, a concerned UChicago student from the DC area.[/quote]

I think this is generally correct.

For those of us who are a little older, Chicago was always known as the "intellectual" school. We visited three years ago - and it still seemed like one of the smart schools. Good vibe. Smart kids. Generally very good professors. Tons of opportunities. Great city. Very nice campus.

[b]But private school families seem to have some disdain for it. [/b]Personally, I think Chicago should embrace their roots and be the intellectual school, never mind the Sidwell and Dalton families. Chicago has raised their profile enough in recent years. They should remember their identity - and be the difficult, passionate, intense, nerd school that made Chicago Chicago. [/quote]

No one has distain for it.  Everyone thinks of it as a highly intellectual place.

We are simply saying (for the one millionth time) that Chicago routinely takes kids with middle-of-the-class GPAs whereas the other top15 schools do not.

At our school, college counseling will suggest Chicago as a sure-thing ED2 for any top kid who was rejected ED1/SCEA from another top20 school. They will also suggest Chicago for families who want prestige and/or a high academic school but have a kid without top grades.  Scoir/Naviance do not lie.  Chicago takes kids down to a 3.5 at our school every year. As such, it has lost some of it's sparkle. As the saying goes, "I don't want to belong to any club that will accept me as a member." Chicago suffers from some of this at top privates. [/quote]

Again, that may be true at your private. Our DMV private sends 3-4 kids to UChicago (out of 80-90) every year. The students who are encouraged to apply are top notch. Last year, they were all in the top 10 percent of the graduating class, with average SAT/ACT of 1540/35 (per Scoir). The rest of the top ten kids get into Ivy Plus schools, so it is truly the case that the UChicago students self-select into applying there. [/quote]
They self-select in terms of either recognizing they do not have the intangibles to otherwise get in to a top school and/or because they are risk averse.

I really don’t get the defensiveness with Chicago. We all know it’s an easier admit. It is still probably a top 20 school. So what’s the problem?

Either you care about its top 10 ranking (too much) or you don’t really believe the self-selection argument you are making.

It used to be an intellectual place. Those days are gone. (Unfortunately, as I loved the old Chicago.) The only school that is arguably still like that (Swarthmore having gone pre-professional) is Reed.[/quote]

Why is it so hard to accept that the self-selection is not always based on risk aversion. UChicago still has the reputation of being nerdy and intellectual, at least compared with many/most other T10 schools. For instance, my UChicago kid could have easily gotten into ED Cornell, Dartmouth or Upenn. But they knew that it was the wrong fit for them. (And I know this because kids from our school get in with worse stats and ECs). [/quote]

Risk aversion is taking silly pol sci at Brown and have fun for 4 years[/quote]

Yes, all the Brown nepo babies are scoring 1520+, sure they are....they go to Brown because they don't want to take another math class.[/quote]

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