Columbia and Uchicago

amykins
Sat, 26 May 2007 01:42:01 +0000

On paper, the schools are very much alike, and both are really excellent options. I know a Harvard undergrad who is now pursuing a PhD at Columbia in political science and he thinks Columbia offers the best undergraduate education you can get anywhere.*

Columbians perceive themselves as more pre-professional than Chicago; Chicagoans perceive themselves as more intellectual than Columbia. These perceptions are not necessarily accurate, but that’s what they are. (This is at least what I hear when I hear Chicagoans who were accepted to both schools say when they talk about why they chose Chicago or didn’t apply to Columbia; this is also what I hear my friends at Columbia when they talk about why they didn’t apply to Chicago or chose Columbia over Chicago).

Columbia attracts more people than Chicago, so there are more students at Chicago who in some way overlap with Columbia than there are students at Columbia who in some way overlap with Chicago. I think this has a lot to do with the way Columbia advertises and sells itself: New York City and Ivy League seemed to be the recurring theme on tours, info sessions, and its own literature. Chicago, on the other hand, didn’t give me anything that was eye-catching. I seemed to remember it had a lot of words and pictures of ugly students. I liked that.

Another similarity between the two schools that really comes off as a difference is the core. Not only does Columbia have its students complete core in a different way, but even though both schools offer opportunities to read similar books, the Columbia core is a “highlights” approach to the Intellectual Canon, while Chicago’s much more about refining your reading, writing, and question-asking skills.

For example, reading the Iliad for Lit Hum at Columbia is unavoidable; reading the Iliad for hum core at Chicago is almost unavoidable. Columbia covers the book in a week; Chicago takes anywhere from 2-6 weeks, depending on how sinister the professor feels. Columbia’s Lit Hum course focuses more on plot, characters, setting (I mean, even if you’re a super genius, sufficiently covering the Iliad four hours of class is IMPOSSIBLE), while Chicago’s focuses much more on reading, writing, discussing, critical thinking. You’ll be doing the Iliad till you’ll want to gouge your eyes out.

I’ve also heard that Columbia curves its pre-med courses to an A-, as a sort of “everybody wins” situation. If that’s the case, that would explain why Columbia might be a great place to go if you want that sort of GPA boost, but I haven’t confirmed that. That said, the average Chicago GPA is a 3.26, and I don’t care what you have to say, but a B+ average is NOT low.

*by “anywhere,” he meant to say “Ivy League.”