U Chicago or WashU for physics/biol.

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Fri, 03 Apr 2009 09:00:54 +0000

Aardvark-
With a daughter who recently graduated from WUSTL and a son who is a first-year at U of C, I have a great deal of affection for both institutions. My D was very happy at WashU, and my S has been extremely happy with his experience at Chicago. However, I don’t think either would have been nearly as satisfied at one another’s school. I’d caricaturize the contrast as being best captured by the differences in the student populations: U of Chicago’s is social, but more focused on the intellectual side of things, while WashU’s is highly intelligent and academically focused, but more involved with the social/social action side of things.

With regard to academics, I think the differences in quality at the undergraduate level are small enough as to be unimportant. At the graduate level, I know from someone very much in the know that physics at Chicago is considered top-notch; physics at WashU is well-regarded, but not nearly to the same degree. (I don’t have any particular knowledge about any of the other subjects.)

You might want to look at these threads from last year: