<p>I graduated from Chicago in 1989, when the number of applicants was relatively small. Many who applied then were essentially “self-selected,” because the reputation of the school as an intellectual hothouse for nerds was unattractive to most college applicants (in 1989 probably 7,000 applicants; 2013, 30,000 applicants!). It was a little oasis. What struck me, however, is that Chicagoans did not want the school to become an Ivy-League clone, we reveled in what set Chicago apart from better-known, more prestigious schools. I was NOT an H, Y, P reject, for the record. I went to U of C because it WAS the U of C. If you read one of the posted threads at the Chicago Forum, however, you will note that Chicago has tried, apparently very successfully, to reshape its public image: it has abandoned full-blown quirkiness for mainstream appeal. </p>
<p>What I have noticed – particularly on the Chicago forum – is how many Chicagoans seem to have become “prestige whores,” wondering anxiously when Chicago will supplant either H, Y, or P. They have become both anxious and arrogant with P.R. success and are really pushing the prestige buttons. What they don’t realize is that to supplant H, Y, or P, Chicago has to defeat C (Columbia). I don’t like the tone of the “new” Chicago, at least as represented on the CC forum. </p>
<p>I also have a very close relative at Columbia. What I have noticed about the two student bodies circa 2013, is that Columbians are much more secure in their status as students at the intellectual Ivy, and rarely obsess about supplanting H, Y, or P. Not because they don’t believe their school is equal to or superior in some ways to H, Y, or P, but because Columbians seem a bit more “chill” about who and where they are. Unlike the crumbling aristocracy that believes only H, Y, and P are “true” Ivy League colleges, Columbians seem not as caught up in all the prestige nonsense. Chicagoans recent obsession with rankings and with supplanting H, Y, or P seems to suggest a lack of comfort with what Chicago uniquely is. Back in my day, THAT is what we cared about: what was unique to our Chicago experience. It seems as though today’s Chicagoans will not feel secure in the school’s rising status unless it officially dethrones one of the so-called Big Three. And that kind of insecure arrogance is rampant on the Chicago forum. I hope the forum does not represent the school.</p>
<p>Therefore, go visit. Were I a college applicant today, I might pick Columbia over Chicago, for curricular, and personal reasons. Chicago 2013 is not the Chicago I remember and revere. It is trying too hard just to be another “prestigious” school. That is very un-Chicagoan.</p>