<p>yes, this is precisely what I meant when I said above that for generic, ambitious pre-professional students, the likes of HYPW would be a better choice. Based on what I learned thus far, in these places, you would be get ample support and what not for your business career even if you decide on your path later (like 3rd year and on). But at Chicago, unless the students were very much set on what they wanted to do post graduation and took the initiative from very early on on their own, it gets increasingly more difficult to “catch up” with their counterparts from the likes of HYPW.</p>
<p>For my son’s case, he was already very well set and knew exactly what it takes even before he started at U Chicago through the summer Wall Street internship experience between HS and college and ample mentoring he got from his bosses at the firm he interned. Thus, Chicago’s life of the mind mantra gave him all that he was looking for that he won’t find easily in other universities, while U Chicago’s short comings in pre-professional support was something that did not matter to him. Hence, personally, this worked out terrifically well for him. But I am very well aware that this does not apply to everybody.</p>
<p>Thinking through all this makes me really wonder why they have such a stringent policy for “a single point of entry” for this program and don’t provide any opportunity for the students who find their “calling” later than the beginning of the second year. This sounds very shorted sighted. </p>
<p>They are trying now to provide more support for students with ambitions in fields other than academics. I say, “kudos. keep on trying and improving various programs”. Based on what I read on this forum, it looks like they need to do a lot more on the pre med and pre law fronts also.</p>