Swarthmore vs. UChicago

interesteddad
Sun, 27 Apr 2008 00:31:59 +0000

Now that the statistics are out of the way:

You’ve visited both schools. You have to prioritize what you are looking for in a school: location, size, diversity, style of teaching, campus culture, and all the other tangible and intangible aspects. Then, you have to decide, in your gut, where you think you will flourish. There’s no one right answer.

In general, I think the majority of students who choose between Chicago and Swarthmore choose Swarthmore. The endowment per student, all focused on undergrads, means a level of per student spending that Chicago can’t touch and a true boutique style highly-interactive education. IMO, no body offers a stronger undergrad academic experience than Swarthmore. Period.

However, there are also valid reasons for choosing Chicago. If you are planning to study an specialized niche field, it’s quite possible that the larger school offers it and Swarthmore doesn’t. Or, if you are a child prodigy and you are already deep into advanced college level courses, then you may need to choose a school where you can move quickly to grad school courses. That’s not the case for most students, but it is the case for some. Or, you may simply prefer the more anonymous student experience at a larger school.

Good luck choosing between two excellent schools.