Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: "If you’re a serious student with true intellectual curiosity, this is probably the best University in the US to attend. You will be pushed, you will be stretched, you will be challenged, and you will wrestle with some of the smartest people on this planet over important issues, 24/7. It is a place that is well aware of its history & celebrates intellectual accomplishment. If you are up to the challenge, U. Chicago is for you. Otherwise, go to Harvard or some other place."

Sounds like what you'll find at most major universities in America. Chicago is not special in this regard.

+1 Am I missing something or is there some insane UC booster on this thread?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: "If you’re a serious student with true intellectual curiosity, this is probably the best University in the US to attend. You will be pushed, you will be stretched, you will be challenged, and you will wrestle with some of the smartest people on this planet over important issues, 24/7. It is a place that is well aware of its history & celebrates intellectual accomplishment. If you are up to the challenge, U. Chicago is for you. Otherwise, go to Harvard or some other place."

Sounds like what you'll find at most major universities in America. Chicago is not special in this regard.

Concur that the resources are available. Whether you are pushed to use them is the difference. In many of the major universities a kid can skate through If they elect to do so.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My UChicago kid's a STEM major, headed toward a PhD program. She's had really good advising both from Career Services and departmental faculty.

FWIW, I think the 38% in business/consulting is a percentage not of the class as a whole but of those who go directly into the workforce after receiving a BA. UChicago claims 15-20% of its College grads go on to receive PhDs and that that's a higher percentage than any other university's college (in the US?). https://collegeadmissions.uchicago.edu/academics/planning/grad-prep

I don't think so since law and medicine are clearly separated out. For the last point, I don't believe it's true for recent graduates/alums. UChicago is not even in the top 10 for PhD production per capita any more (https://www.reed.edu/ir/phd.html). It used to be in the top 5 but as the classes become increasingly pre-professional the PhD route is getting less and less popular among students.

UChicago began its marketing strategy around 2013 and had its first post-marketing class graduate in 2017, so an accurate reflection will be noticeable in a few years.

Actually that is what makes me believe that these are job numbers — the percentages are too low to encompass law school applicants (closer to 10% of the class — not 3%). And there are jobs in both sectors (law and medicine) that require only BAs. For example, recent grads unsure about law school often work as paralegals for a couple of years.

Agree that the demographics of the school could be changing. But faculty and culture still seems very supportive of kids who are interested in academia, which is why I referenced my daughter’s experiences.

Anonymous wrote: "If you’re a serious student with true intellectual curiosity, this is probably the best University in the US to attend. You will be pushed, you will be stretched, you will be challenged, and you will wrestle with some of the smartest people on this planet over important issues, 24/7. It is a place that is well aware of its history & celebrates intellectual accomplishment. If you are up to the challenge, U. Chicago is for you. Otherwise, go to Harvard or some other place."

Sounds like what you'll find at most major universities in America. Chicago is not special in this regard.

My DC goes to Chicago. Their campus life is much like any other school now, may be not quite as intense on epic partying but it's there. I think the following statement from a prior grad is still relevant and generally felt by their students no matter their other interests or career aspirations.

"If you’re a serious student with true intellectual curiosity, this is probably the best University in the US to attend. You will be pushed, you will be stretched, you will be challenged, and you will wrestle with some of the smartest people on this planet over important issues, 24/7. It is a place that is well aware of its history & celebrates intellectual accomplishment. If you are up to the challenge, U. Chicago is for you. Otherwise, go to Harvard or some other place."

Chicago didn’t lie; you glossed over the qualifier in its statement. It said a higher percentage than any *university’s* college — LACs and specialized schools don’t fall into this category. That’s consistent with 3/4 of the rankings Reed presented. The most recent NSF data I could find isn’t consistent with either school’s claim (Rice edges Chicago by .1% for first in the university category) but it’s annual and limited to science PhDs granted in the US. So not directly commensurable. Without better sourcing, it’s hard to tell which school’s presentation is accurate — could be either, neither, or both.

I’m done with this discussion.

^Chicago is very opaque with their admissions statistics, retention numbers and all sorts of data. Always trying to manipulate stuff in its effort to rise in rankings. Quite off-putting tbh.

Take it to UChicago to blatantly lie in an effort to tout itself.

It has NEVER been #1 for sending the highest percent of students to receive PhDs. The Reed source has a historical set of data as well (https://www.reed.edu/ir/phdrank.html). UChicago was 6th from 1975-2004, 9th from 1995-2006, and 10th from 2003-2012. The link above is from 2005-2015 in which UChicago is 10th. Caltech has been the #1 for as long as this data has existed.

Honestly, I feel they are making up or manipulating data in order to excel in US News ranking. They reported a 100% retention rate for 2015 which is realistically impossible given the number of students who take a leave of absence for medical reasons or academics. Even at Yale which historically has had the highest retention rate, it has never been higher than 99%. Ever.

All I know is that when we did the campus tour there were numerous implicit and explicit statements to the effect of "it is ok that we are not ivy league, we got our own traditions and history". the emphasis on that seemed quite insecure and unnecessary

Nope. It's the other C.
http://www.thecollegesolution.com/the-colleges-where-phds-get-their-start/

Anonymous wrote:My UChicago kid's a STEM major, headed toward a PhD program. She's had really good advising both from Career Services and departmental faculty.

FWIW, I think the 38% in business/consulting is a percentage not of the class as a whole but of those who go directly into the workforce after receiving a BA. UChicago claims 15-20% of its College grads go on to receive PhDs and that that's a higher percentage than any other university's college (in the US?). https://collegeadmissions.uchicago.edu/academics/planning/grad-prep

I don't think so since law and medicine are clearly separated out. For the last point, I don't believe it's true for recent graduates/alums. UChicago is not even in the top 10 for PhD production per capita any more (https://www.reed.edu/ir/phd.html). It used to be in the top 5 but as the classes become increasingly pre-professional the PhD route is getting less and less popular among students.

UChicago began its marketing strategy around 2013 and had its first post-marketing class graduate in 2017, so an accurate reflection will be noticeable in a few years.

My UChicago kid's a STEM major, headed toward a PhD program. She's had really good advising both from Career Services and departmental faculty.

FWIW, I think the 38% in business/consulting is a percentage not of the class as a whole but of those who go directly into the workforce after receiving a BA. UChicago claims 15-20% of its College grads go on to receive PhDs and that that's a higher percentage than any other university's college (in the US?). https://collegeadmissions.uchicago.edu/academics/planning/grad-prep

Dork school for obnoxious know-it-alls who think they're witty/funny but are really just annoying and abrasive.

Also, economics is by far the most popular major: https://www.chicagomaroon.com/2016/05/17/breakdown-of-undergraduates-by-major/

25% of undergrads majored in it.

At Yale, the most popular major is History (https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2017/04/06/history-returns-to-the-top-major-for-class-of-2019/)

At Princeton, the most popular major is Public Policy Analysis at around ~11% of undergrads majoring in it (https://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/?q=princeton&s=all&id=186131)

At Harvard, economics is the most popular major with 12% of undergrads majoring in it (https://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/?q=harvard&s=all&id=166027)

Just found Princeton's too: https://careerservices.princeton.edu/sites/career/files/Annual%20Report%202015_2016.pdf

Professional Services + Finance = 33% (page 14)