Columbia vs UChicago

[warblersrule]

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@marshallmeyer12

University of Chicago boasts the best Econ department in the country.

Harvard, Chicago, and MIT all have claims to a #1 spot; Princeton and Stanford possibly do as well. Harvard undergraduates had the most Clark medals in the country, or at least they did two years ago when I last counted the medals. Regardless, Columbia is no slouch in econ. In the other fields the OP mentioned, Columbia is considered a bit stronger in political science, and Columbia’s five year BA/MIA program through Columbia College and SIPA trumps Chicago’s IR offerings. Academically the two are a wash.</p>

<p>

@marshallmeyer12

Frankly, the overall student body on average is more intelligent at U Chicago than and Columbia (this, however, can be a good thing or a bad thing.)

The two have virtually identical admissions standards. The primary difference is that Columbia’s admit rate is half Chicago’s.</p>

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@marshallmeyer12

Columbia is more popular, because it’s ivy league.

Actually, the two have quite similar application numbers these days, largely due to Chicago’s enthusiastic and successful mailing campaigns in recent years. Last year Chicago and Columbia received ~25,300 and ~31,800 applicants, respectively. The 6500 applicant difference can easily be explained away as applicants to Fu; Chicago lacks engineering.</p>

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@marshallmeyer12

Keep in mind that the motto of U Chicago is “Where fun comes to die.”

This has always been a somewhat trite phrase and has lost most if not all meaning. The Chicago of today is totally different from the Chicago of the 80s.</p>

<p>Columbia isn’t known for wild parties. Here’s a cartoon commenting on the social scenes at Columbia and Penn:</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.columbiaspectator.com/2009/10/12/columbia-its-discontents-0[/url]”>http://www.columbiaspectator.com/2009/10/12/columbia-its-discontents-0&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;