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The University of Chicago

How this student rated the school
Educational QualityA+ Faculty AccessibilityA+
Useful SchoolworkA Excess CompetitionA
Academic SuccessA Creativity/ InnovationA
Individual ValueA University Resource UseA+
Campus Aesthetics/ BeautyA FriendlinessB+
Campus MaintenanceB+ Social LifeA-
Surrounding CityC+ Extra CurricularsA
SafetyC+
Describes the student body as:
Friendly, Arrogant, Approachable

Describes the faculty as:
Friendly, Helpful, Arrogant

Male
SAT1520
Not so bright
Lowest Rating
Surrounding City
C+
Highest Rating
Educational Quality
A+
He cares more about Surrounding City than the average student.
Date: May 07 2004
Major: Unknown (This Major's Salary over time)
The University of Chicago is a thing unto itself. In some respects it is very arcane. Its value system of great books, near total intellectual meritocracy, quirky terminology and professors which are revered like pop icons borderlines on religion, and some students quietly harbor legitimate doubts that such lofty idealism is really necessary, or relevant to the real world. As much as schools like Northwestern, Duke, Penn and Brown are looked down on for their pre-professionalism, students have a certain hidden envy for their gross marketability and more upbeat nature (read, they are much easier). Yet, it continues to be on the cutting edge of research and academia, and it draws the brightest students from around the world, despite its astronomically high admission rate. Nearly every department is in the top ten, and close half compete habitually for being the number one institution in their respective field (e.g. Economics, Divinity, Business, Sociology, Archeology, Linguistics).

However, its biggest flaw is that, while it provides an unparalleled education, its lacks in its accreditation value outside of academia due to its name, and name alone. While strong performance as an undergraduate will certainly land you in a top graduate program, and earn you great deal of respect and a sizable salary in professions where your education matters a great deal (medicine, law, executive level business, PhD level work), unless you live in New York or Boston where a lot of elite college alumni are located, people will think you went to a community college. For example, in Chicago, people often confuse it for the University of Illinois at Chicago, which is more-or-less, just that, a community college. Therefore, I think the University is essentially only worthwhile to those who want to go to an elite graduate school eventually, and have identified which top ranking departments at U of C they will work with as an undergraduate to get there. Coming in open eyed to the world and wanting to explore everything seems to result for the students who try it in disaster or a lackluster four years, and what is worse, upon graduation what they have is essentially a high priced ticket to no better employment chances than an Ohio State graduate. If you are looking for a good entry level job straight out of college, with the prospect of maybe getting an MBA down the road, unless you are an economics major, you would be well advised to attend Amherst, Yale, Berkeley - more or less any school that when say you went there, turns heads. Chicago, for all its academic greatness, is just not that place. In hindsight, with a degree from elsewhere or one of its graduate programs, alumni do nothing but rave about the college, but you don’t get that sense of assuredness about the place until they have garnered those higher credentials. In short, Chicago has the academic fortitude of Harvard or Cal Tech, with the respect in the general public of University of nowhere.

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