<p>There is nothing wrong to aspire to be the best IMO. It is often said to shoot for the moon you may land on the stars, etc.</p>
<p>Of course there are not concrete definitions of the best of anything unless it is associated with numbers such as 100 meter track race. Many people think Harvard is arguably the best for now and many schools aspire to become it secretly or openly.</p>
<p>Chicago was there with Harvard a century ago and may be there again (not sure how long). Princeton was an also-run and Stanford was still a regional school (using its president’s remark) that time. See where they are now. If they had been satisfied with their status they might not have gotten their current status. Things can change and always change. Where are the mighty German schools?</p>
<p>Chicago should have a long way to go, starting with the relatively smaller endowment. I hope it can sustain the new initiative and expand it in the future.</p>
<p>BTW Harvard does not have 3 times as many Nobel laureates as Chicago. That would result in one-third laureates ever lived.</p>
<p><a href=“List of Nobel laureates by university affiliation - Wikipedia”>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Nobel_laureates_by_university_affiliation</a></p>