Goshamoossy

So I applied as a transfer to Columbia (10 days!), and am thinking I should have also applied to UChicago - Academically, they're more or less on the same level, but from hanging out with people at UChicago (I'm at U of Illinois at Urbana right now), I think I've realized that the atmosphere there is really what I'm looking for.

So, what have people heard about major differences between Columbia and UChic, them both being very respectable schools in major cities, ironically enough both in the poorer districts of their respective cities? What differences are there in student body attitude, atmosphere, or anything else you've heard of?

I'm just curious, this isn't for anything serious! Although if I don't manage to transfer out this time around, I might apply to UChic next year...

Godfatherbob

Reading what people post on the U-Chicago board, it's a veeery academic school. Generally, especially in terms of colleges, competitiveness is associated with intellectualness. Well, U of C is the antipode of that rule. The students there don't just turn on the study-gene when they're being graded; many genuinely enjoy the material they're studying, and many are not very competitive at all.

Also, at U of C, it's possible to get a single with your own private bathroom--although that may be more of a selling point for incoming Freshman than for transfer students.

Goshamoossy

So you're saying at Columbia, there's less of the intellectualness associated with competitiveness? I mean, probably not to a huge extent, but food for thought anyways.

Denzera

Well, students at Columbia are very competitive, but that doesn't translate into general arseholery. As I've said before, there is a lot of helping each other out with problem sets, study groups, sharing notes, volunteer tutors, and the like. Columbia students certainly study hard and usually really are passionate about their subject. In those respects the two schools are very similar.

I have not been to UChicago and only know a handful of its grads. But from everything I've read and everyone I've talked to, I think the following are true generally:

- Chicago has more of a "geeky" atmosphere and Columbia has more of a "real-world / practical" atmosphere. Not that there aren't hardcore geeks of every type at Columbia, and not that everyone at Chicago is hopelessly impractical. Indeed, their Econ department is certainly in the same league. But that is somewhat true as a generalization. Chicago will be more geeky, and Columbia will be more practical.

- Housing isn't a reason to choose between the two schools. Columbia is one of the very few places where a sizable portion of freshmen get singles (~40%). That's unheard-of at most other schools, including peer schools in our athletic conference. And housing is guaranteed all 4 years, as opposed to some urban schools (such as NYU) where you may be on your own after freshman year.

- Columbia will afford you more opportunities with prestige-conscious industries, such as finance and business consulting and media and journalism. Not that you can't get those opportunities at Chicago, they will just be marginally easier.

- Both schools are fairly close to the city centers and both schools have self-contained urban campuses that actually provide a sense of a bubble keeping the majority of outsiders away from you while you're on campus. that applies both to safety and to a sense of community. Columbia's neighborhood probably has more in the way of immediately available services and resources - restaurants, bars, 24-hour diners, 24-hour supermarkets, and every convenience from 2 stationery stores and 4 bookstores to 3 24-hour pharmacies and literally a hundred food places that will deliver. UChicago, while not in a bad (or barren) neighborhood, doesn't quite have the same depth within a 10-block radius.

- Oh, and that reminds me. Our subway runs 24 hours too. Makes little difference if you're a middle-aged housewife, but makes a lot of difference if you're a college student prone to closing down a bar at 4am and then not wanting to pay for a cab home.

confidentialcoll

^spot on, i've been to Uchicago and know kids from there, gels with everything I encountered.

we make fun of ourselves, but they have t-shirts like "The University of Chicago, Where the only thing going down is your GPA"

pearfire

Think about whether you want to work in academia or in industries? People here tend to care a lot about their career prospects, but at UChicago, I feel as though students learn more for the sake of learning, relative to Columbia that is.