sonic.v

major in Econ and Political Science
And I want to do international business in the future.
How do you guys rank them ??

unalove

un uh. Don't think of them that way. Think about what YOU want in a college experience, and then the choice in terms of fit for who you are will be clear.

If you are looking for straight-up business, I think CMC might be the best, as it has more of a pre-professional bent.

newmassdad

Xiggi is a frequent poster on CC, has similar interests and goes to school at or near CMC. Don't remember which. PM him and invite him (her?) to join the discussion?

JHS

I would rank them as significantly different experiences, as unalove suggests.

Chicago is a major research university justly famous for its Economics department, and with a strong, if uneven, and I believe quant-oriented, Political Science department. If you tote up famous professors, or international name recognition, Chicago is going to win hands down. But that doesn't necessarily translate into a good undergraduate learning experience (or into a bad one, either).

Carleton is a small liberal arts college in a college town not so far from, but not exactly close to, Minneapolis. It is probably considered the academically strongest overall midwestern LAC -- roughly the midwestern Swarthmore -- and attracts similar students, including many students like you who might also be attracted to Chicago. CMC is a social-sciency liberal arts college on the edges of Greater Los Angeles, part of a closely linked group of adjacent colleges which, together, have somewhat more undergraduates than Chicago does. CMC is very much less well-known than some of its sister colleges, but has an excellent reputation among those who are aware of it.

All three colleges seem to attract and admit really smart, motivated students, many of whome share the OP's interests. (And lest anyone doubt the impressiveness of CMC students, I want to make clear that I find xiggi very, very impressive.) All three provide great educational opportunities. None of them provides any kind of golden ticket to future success -- that's up to the student.

So you are left with the big differences: Do you want a research university, with a larger, more research-oriented faculty, and many grad students around, or a liberal arts college with fewer faculty, more committed to teaching undergraduates, and few or no grad students? City, suburb, or country? 5,000 undergraduates or 1,400? Midwest or California? Core curriculum or not? How much math do you want with your Econ and Poli Sci? (At Chicago, the answer will be "lots".)

Also, you may want to note that, in part because of the Core, double majors are relatively rare at Chicago, unless there is a lot of overlap between their requirements.

sonic.v

I am not a bookworm or a student who never stop studying. I don't want to go very deep in academics, just wanna learn enough what I would use in the business future. And I also wanna make friends with tomorrow-businessmen, so it seems CMC fit me best...?

glasses

yes............

SCOMathmo

Yeah, it really sounds like Chicago is not the school for you.

uchicagoalum

To be perfectly frank, you need to come into Chicago solidly gung-ho about academics in order to not leave with a deep seated hatred off all things intellectual. If you don’t innately find learning highly rewarding on a non-professional level, you run the risk of being miserable at worst, or a bored underperformer at best.

sonic.v

Thank you for your advice... Do students in U Chicago enjoy themselves a lot? It's okey to study hard as long as I can live a happy life at the same time. I just feel bored and can't feel happy if everybody around me always study and don't have any free time.

unalove

Well, I think uca has a good point. You don't come here to escape working, and while you won't be studying all the time, it will make up a pretty significant/less avoidable part of your life.

I like working a lot, and I don't put a lot of emphasis on what grades I get, so I find myself working for the sheer joy of it. I would be working as hard as I work now if I went to any other school in the country. The benefit of being here is that I have people who work as hard as I do and understand why I like to work.

UCLA, Ph.D.

To answer your question directly

1) U of Chicago
2) Claremont McKenna (a distant 2nd)
3) Carleton (a very distant 3rd)

On an international scale there is no comparison in terms of name recognition. Plus the LAC's are generally overrated and while CMcKenna is a quality institution, it pales to even its sister college (Pomona).

newmassdad

To take a contrary view from UCLA:

The rank is:

1) the place where you did the best and can get the best recs from faculty
2) the place where you did second best....

You get the idea. what good would it be to go to chicago only to find out you don't like the atmosphere, so you do middling? You then become just one more college grad scrapping to get that first job.

I am also rather amazed that UCLA puts Carleton a very distant 3rd. Maybe LA is far from the midwest and still considers Minnesota to be flyover territory, but a good portion of the rest of the world, in and out of the US, is better informed than that.

OP, stop listening to us and do what your gut tells you. And don't be seduced by "prestige" or institutional name recognition. It will not get you personally very far.

JHS

Yeah, I don't want to make a big deal out of "prestige", but Carleton has a much higher profile where I live than Claremont-McKenna. (Which, to be honest, isn't hard, since Claremont-McKenna has the profile of a microchip here.) Carleton attracts a lot of great students who want a high-powered LAC, but want to go farther from home than Swarthmore, and don't love WilliamsAmherst. (The same kinds of kids who might go to Pomona, CMC's better-known sister-rival.)

theboneyking.

As a current Claremont McKenna College student, I take offense to the "it pales to even its sister college" comment, but I'll let that slide for the moment...

It seems like the OP is trying to figure out which school he/she should attend. There are many factors that go into this decision. One legitimate factor is which school will help you obtain a better career. There are many more factors that go into determining which school will help your career. Prestige is only one of these factors. Sure a Harvard grad might have an edge over a Podunk University grad, but there is so much more that goes into determining who gets jobs in real life.

Because CMC is a small liberal arts college, it is easy to get to know professors. I was helping a government professor do research for his book my freshman year. And this experience is far from unusual at CMC. I didn't do anything special to get my job. But at a big university, professors would just get their grad students to be research assistants for them. Doing research as a freshman is a great way to explore a subject and potential careers. Also, it looks pretty solid on a resume.

CMC is very good at helping students find and obtain summer internships. The school gives out roughly a million dollars every year in stipends so students can afford to take unpaid summer internships. Professors and career services are all really helpful in helping students find jobs and internships. CMC has a small, but very loyal alumni network that also can help students get jobs.

A job applicant with lots of research and internship experience and with great recommendations from professors who know him is going to be a stronger applicant than someone who happened to go to a big name university. In my experience, that's just the way most employers look at it. They want to know that you'll be a good employee. They care less about whether your BA is from a fancy school.

I know a good number of students and alumni from Berkeley and UCLA. The average person on the street has heard of those schools and not Claremont McKenna or Carleton. I would even say that Berkeley and UCLA have more recognition "on an international scale." But people I know from those schools definitely do not do any better in their careers than graduates from CMC.

My point is that prestige is not a particularly significant factor in career placement (and career placement is in turn not necessarily a significant factor in which school any given person should attend).

uchicagoalum

I think your post is fair, and further that the OP should choose CMC. Does prestige matter for career placement? Absolutely. Yet, strong performance is primary and CMC is certainly solid enough. If you don’t like UChicago’s environment, it really will be hard to do well there.

Nevertheless, UChicago does have some of the smallest classes around (going neck and neck with the best LAC's) as well as one of the strongest student-to-faculty ratios. Consequently, there is no shortage of research positions for undergraduates, and you can fairly easily get to know your much bigger name professors if you make a reasonable effort. In short, the standard selective LAC over elite research university argument tends not to hold up, and it’s why I would discourage more self-avowed, intellectually aggressive students to pass on the big four LAC’s in favor of UChicago (unless there is money involved).