I do find it very strange that UChic can be a close 2, not because of the quality of education, but some pretty important items of “fit”: “Core” vs pretty flexible distributional requirements; major urban city in the MW vs a medium sized city in the NE; residential living options; really cold winters vs a relatively temperate winter, to name a few. I hope this is not a prestige driven thing. I know my kid visited UChic (they wanted him as a baseball recruit), and he did not pursue it further after the visit. But I guess each kid is different.
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And then there’s this……I’d withdraw the ED2. Keep the Yale hope alive and if not Yale, whether it’s another private or public, it’ll still be great…if the student has the right attitude. It’s always about the student, and often not the name on the diploma.
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The Yale/Chicago connection I sometimes see is an intellectual one. I think of both as relatively “academicky” schools where a relatively high portion of people are more life of mind types than pre-professional/work-hard/play-hard types. Not that neither have any of the latter, just the weight is shifted more academicky.
And I think that shows up in things like per capita PhD placement. After the top tech colleges and most academicky SLACs, Chicago and Yale tend to be at or near the top of such lists (possibly Princeton too, although I think you need to asterisk them for having a decent-sized engineering program–about 18% of graduating primary majors, versus 6% at Yale and 2% at Chicago).
Of course the vibe is often described as different–but I think the kind of people who are not deterred by the vibe at Chicago could easily also like Yale, although not necessarily always the other way around.
So to me (and I recognize this is overly reductionist), there are sometimes Yale/Chicago kids, and sometimes Yale/Brown kids. Both of those make sense to me, it is just a matter of what you are emphasizing.
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And then there’s those that chase only prestige - and we should call that for what it is.
It doesn’t mean they won’t be happy. No one truly knows, even those that “have to be” at x school - what will happen when they get there…and we see this every year.
Hopefully, all students end up in the school right for them…whether that’s one that appeared right up front or not.
OK, but neither Yale nor Chicago are usually considered the most “prestigious” in their peer group. Depending on your interests, usually either Harvard or MIT is going to be the most “prestigious” US college. Maybe Princeton for the true US News devotees, Stanford for the West Coasties, and Wharton for the business types.
So when I see a Yale/Chicago kid, I do not leap to accuse them of being driven by “prestige”, at least not in the usual meaning of the term. Indeed, if anything I would see such a kid as presumptively rejecting the most popular senses of “prestige”.
Now, might they be an intellectual snob? Yes, absolutely. But I don’t think “prestige” is the right term for that sort of elitism, and for that matter I don’t think it is necessarily bad to be an intellectual snob when picking a college.
The main thing I would point out to such kids is that they should also consider some alternatives, including various SLACs, some other academicky universities that are not quite so prominent, some honors colleges perhaps, and so on.
But if they ultimately prioritize being around a bunch of smart kids who really care passionately about intellectual things–I think that is fine, actually. And Yale and Chicago are both good choices for that sort of kid.
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To put it in New Haven terms, Yale is kind of like Frank Pepe’s peperoni and mushroom apizza and U Chicago is like the white clams and bacon apizza. People who like the latter probably have no problems with the former. Many people who like the former, would never order the latter!
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Anything Chicago would NEVER be a white clams and bacon pizza!!
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I definitely do not remember clams on the pizza menu at Medici.
But somewhere in here there is a metaphor about the University of Chicago arguably being TOO much of a good thing, as some also feel about the local pizzas . . . .
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Depends - but for those only solely applying/dreaming in this peer group, it’s usually prestige oriented.
And for kids where that is important, then it’s fine. Every individual has their own needs. Abd fir some this trumps all.
My only concern is when they step on campus.
Back to OP, just not a fan of ED combined with ambivalence - even if that ED is leading the pack.
I would hope ED would be combined with EXCITEMENT. Getting deferred at Yale is AWESOME yet too many kids see this and then other possibilities they think rate lower as a letdown (sad commentary on societal pressures).
Some won’t get excited about anything. I get that. My son was sort of that way…well tip he saw he could get his own dorm room and shared bathroom with only one other.
But others are ambivalent because they chose schools for the wrong reason, or schools that don’t fit.
I’m simply noting that I’m sure this happens often on this tier of schools and I would hope students would find a place they’d be happy at for four years, day after day vs a simply a name they surmise will pay long term dividends - because truth is, many names will.
If they were only applying to those two schools, sure.
I completely disagree if we are just talking about their top two choices, as we are here. If you have the numbers and the budget to apply to these schools at all, I think it is quite wrong to assume that “prestige” is the reason why someone would choose Yale and Chicago as their top two.
Anyway, I just want to reassure the OP that if their kid has Yale and Chicago as their top two choices, at least some of us can understand why that makes sense. The ED2 choice then becomes a difficult one–I normally am not a fan, but I get Chicago really pushes it, and that becomes a serious consideration.
But as we discussed in the first round above, I still think the best path is to let the kid do what they think is best, even if they are themselves not sure. I totally understand your anxiety as a parent about a kid locking in, and I definitely do not think they HAD to ED2 Chicago. But my experience is also that Chicago people who liked Chicago for good reasons in the first place often end up thinking it was literally the best college in the world for them.
And so if the worst thing that could happen is your kid who is excited about Chicago already actually goes to Chicago–I think in the fullness of time this will very likely be seen as a great outcome, possibly even the best possible outcome, for this kid.
Of course other colleges are like that too for many kids–Yale, in fact, and hopefully also most of their other colleges. But Chicago is one such college, and so from that perspective a perfectly fine ED2 choice, IF the kid is enthusiastic about Chicago in the first place.
Just wanted to weigh-in that my Yale deferral also liked UChicago very much and I also don’t think it is a strange combo. The only reason he didn’t apply is because he was only interested in regular decision. The tour was interesting, wasn’t personally a fan of the hour long opener that was very stuffy and self-aggrandizing, but we all loved the incredible tour guide and all she had to offer.
His main criteria is “academicky” (stole the word). He doesn’t have strong preference on rural versus city, but does have strong preference on area of country. Any ambivalence I ever sense if any is more that he understands he’s done all he can and the rest is out of his hands, so he doesn’t feel it is worth his time to stew on things he can’t control and pushes on.
Not sure if helpful, but just wanted to say that my kid also liked both very much.
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The beauty of the word academicky is it is not actually a word, since academic is the recognized adjective for the noun academic. But that is an annoying gap–even colleges get collegiate! And scholars get scholastic! But just because academies got academic, now academics get nothing? Unfair!
And what is more academicky than making up words you think SHOULD exist, even if they don’t?
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