<p>I am not arguing that Chicago has not been known but rather it is continuously increasing in recognized prestige. This will only increase the respect from everyone even if it is subconsciously. Even in the eyes of the finance sector I am sure that the increased prestige will help even it is not a major effect.
Even if we generalize your anecdotal evidence it hardly applies to the OP’s question. So these schools got people uninterested in finance to be interested in finance, but the OP is already interested in it. This is also due to the fact that a lot of these schools have larger business programs and more people enrolled in them(percentage wise). If you are considering a teachers job, which doesn’t pay a large starting salary, and your good friend is getting a 100k a year job on wall street you may just decide to switch. However, I don’t think anything about this schools necessarily makes you more prepared for the world of finance. I feel that the work hard/party hard attitude is largely in the person and not the institution. Obviously there is an effect of environment, but I would argue it is minimal.
However, I do agree with the statement about larger alum networks for the other schools, which makes a difference. The UofC network is growing and with the increase in reputation more top students will attend and it will only get larger and larger(this may be outside the time frame of the OP’s question though).</p>