<p>every once in a while, I hear folks saying “But, Chicago is not as prestigious as HYP. Many ordinary people don’t realize it is a top notch school”.</p>
<p>Recently, my son (who is a rising second year at Chicago) shared some interesting observation. He said, a year ago as a high school kid, he sort of felt a little short changed because Chicago’s acknowledged reputation among general public falls short of its place in the elite academic/scholastic setting. Most ordinary people think it’s a state school. </p>
<p>Now, he is very happy with Chicago’s relative obscurity. He said, almost everybody he needs to impress has a very high opinion of Chicago and is well aware of its prestige. He is an aspiring hedge fund manager/investment banker and doing a summer internship at a well known Wall Street firm. He says he gets plenty of respect on account of the school he is attending. </p>
<p>And, its obscurity among general public works to his advantage also. He noticed that in a more open social setting, when somebody says “I go to Harvard (Yale, Princeton, whatever)”, it immediately creates a barrier among those who do not breathe that rarefied air of the uber elite academic circle. People hold back. People do not approach him/her easily and openly. On the other hand, my son has no such problem. He says, he enjoys this sense of not standing out. He is very driven and achievement oriented (and competitive) in his own way, but standing out as an uber elite in a general social setting is not something he desires. </p>
<p>I never thought about this prestige issue from this angle, and I thought his perspective was a very interesting one. </p>
<p>Of course, I don’t mean by all this to denigrate the likes of HYP. I do believe if one gets admitted to Harvard and Chicago, for most kids, H is probably a better choice. It’s just that for my son, Chicago REALLY worked out the best for him, and he couldn’t be happier at Chicago. He didn’t make it to HYP, and now says, if he had known what Chicago really meant for him two years ago (rising HS senior), he wouldn’t have bothered to submit applications to HYP. Sour grapes??? Maybe. What counts to me though is that he is very happy with his school. That’s something. </p>
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<p>BTW: recently, my son got to know a very successful figure in Wall Street who is a Chicago alum, and he went out of his way to help my son. I get the impression that since Chicago graduates do not rule Wall Street, they circle the wagon and many successful alums do their best to help promising Chicago kids who want to follow their footstep. My son was also speculating out loud whether a Harvard alum would also have tried that hard for another Harvard Wall Street hopeful, who is a dime a dozen)</p>