<p>I’m a math major at Chicago. We are widely considered to have a top 5 math department. While I don’t think that much of general rankings like those from US News, I think that rankings of specific departments are one indication of the strength of that department. We also have a strong physics department, and it helps that we have close ties to Argonne and Fermilab as someone already pointed out.</p>
<p>The OP said that he or she thought Chicago was not math/science-oriented. I think you are mixing up engineering with math and science. Chicago is oriented towards pure studies, which includes math, science, the humanities, and much more. It’s especially characteristic of this description that we have no engineering department. No offense to engineers, but I really like this :)</p>
<p>JHS mentioned that math/science students here spend more time studying humanities than the average elsewhere. I’m not sure how true this is, and it depends on the definition of “elsewhere”. But I think it is important to factor in the difference between core curricula at schools like Chicago and Brown – Brown which has no core curriculum. I have mixed feelings about the core here (which the college feels the need to capitalize): I want to have read the Great Books, but at the same time I want to just be doing math. Though I think that if you manage your time well and don’t take Biology for Majors as a Nonmajor, the Core shouldn’t be that time-consuming.</p>