“Chicago law is fourth in the nation, and Booth is third.”
Churchill, we are talking about undergraduate, not graduate programs. But even if we weren’t, Booth and Ross are peer MBA programs, and Chicago and Michigan Law are both elite. Both have equally good Medical schools as well. I do not think either of us can honestly claim one school edges the other when it comes to graduate professional programs. Michigan has a top 10 College of Engineering while Chicago does not have a College of Engineering, but that is probably the only difference between the two.
“Ten percent of the entering class of Yale Law School in he the fall will be from Uchicago.”
Do you have proof of that? 10% seems excessive. Usually, Harvard and Yale graduates make up 10% of Yale Law school’s entering class. No other university comes close. Princeton clocks in at #3 with roughly 5%, and no other university makes up more than 3-4% of the entering class at Yale Law. Michigan and Chicago usually enroll anywhere from 2-5 of their graduates at Yale Law schools annually, which works out to roughly 1%-2% of Yale Law’s entering class. And no, Chicago does not have the edge here.
“Chicago is a world leader in Nobel prizes, both historically and since 2000.”
But how many Nobel Laureates have undergraduate degrees from Chicago? 11? Maybe 12? Michigan has produced 5-6. When you consider the fact that Nobel Prizes have been handed out for 115 years to close to a thousand people, it is clear that Nobel Prize winners are outliers. Case in point, Michigan undergraduate alumni have won more Nobel Prizes than Princeton and Stanford undergraduate alumni…combined. I will be the first to admit that Michigan is a tiny notch below Princeton or Stanford. Northwestern undergraduate alumni have won 1 Nobel prize and Penn 3 Nobel prizes. A Michigan undergraduate alumnus has won the Fields medal. As good as Chicago is in Mathematics, none of its undergraduate alumni have won the Fields medal. Does that make Michigan better than Chicago in Mathematics? Again, the quality of a university cannot be measured statistically.
“I would take Michigan over any public university other than Berkeley.”
A personal choice, and a perfectly legitimate one, although many would choose Michigan over Cal. It really boils down to fit.
“But this is summary judgment in favor of chicago for undergrad unless one has a very specific undergrad pre professional school in mind at Mich.”
My posts above prove beyond a doubt that it is not a “summary judgement”. Chicago does not present any advantage over Michigan. Those are two peer institutions, albeit completely different in character and feel. When choosing between the two, as I did many years ago, I would recommend going for fit. As much as I respect Chicago, I would not have had nearly as good an experience there as I did at Michigan.
By the way, the OP has said that he/she is considering CS or Biology as a major, and Medical or Law School later one. When it comes to those interests. I do not think Chicago presents any advantage over Cal or Michigan.