Chicago Vs. NYC - Page 3

Chicago also has the best 20th-century architecture in the US if not the world. But I accept the idea that it's stupid and tacky to feel the need to go around saying what the "best" of everything is. A secret I learned in my late 20s: you can really really like New York AND Chicago (and LA and San Francisco, and Paris and London and Berlin). In fact, it's probably more natural and reasonable and grown-up (and cosmopolitan) to do so. In most cases, liking one thing does not necessarily imply a dislike of a lot of other things. At all.

Not to mention San Francisco, the MET, LA Phil, St. Louis, and the Minnesota Orchestra. koji

I'm just a big fan of the "old" U of C. Not that I went there, but a lot of my teachers did, and a lot of scholars I respect (and whose books I practically memorized) did as well. They held the line for a long time, keeping up standards and an insanely rigorous curriculum. I think it is safe to say, too, that from the mid-40s at least through the 80s and into the 90s, they had the best all around faculty of any university in America, ever. Now they're becoming just like everybody else.

Superior schmerior. I have found almost all talk of "superior" educations are baseless. The quality of ones education for me is predicated on the following factors, in decreasing order - 1) The individual students eagerness to learn and committment to academics 2) The field of study 3) (And a distant 3) The institution attended That some of the smartest and most "educated" people I have ever met were to a large degree self-taught really drives home this point. I am talking from experience. I have been fortunate enough to have attended both a large state school and an Ivy League school. Aside from costing a hell of a lot more and having much snootier and whiny students, I wouldn't say the Ivy education in itself was in any way superior to the State U one. Yes, you make better contacts and have more door immediately opened w an Ivy sheepskin, but no way the education in itself was better. No way.

William Faulkner: frat boy, college dropout

This is true; a college education is what a person makes of it, certainly. Faculty and student body cannot but affect a student's education, so to say that attending a top school makes no difference at all is also very naive. For the record, I was not applauding Ivy League schools. Rather, I was saying that Swarthmore and Haverford are two colleges that put many Ivys to shame.

Swarthmore, yes. Haverford, no. Also add to the list CalTech, Reed and MIT.

The quality of the faculty in a University has much more effect on the graduate schools than on the undergraduate ones within a university. And actually that's ( among other reasons) why most of the graduate students in the US are not americans. B

This person explains why Yale is better.

Listen, we all know the reason Yale is better is because they pop the collars on their polo shirts. Jon.

LOL...

I also think that making the assumption that more renowned scholars and richer/more connected students that are typically found at "top" schools will necessarily provide a better education also very naive. For example, at the Ivy that I attended, there were Nobel Laureates all over who couldnt teach worth a damn. How is that going to better ones education (other than bringing in grant money)? Futher, I find that I learned much less from the kid at the Ivy from Andover who had Dad help him get in over the kid at State U who is taking three majors while working 20 hours a week to help buy food and pay rent. No these are not steadfast rules but the comparison is valid. Again, superior individual effort makes a great education. The rest is gravy.

Finally, linux_pro resurfaces.

May I just point out that I think this has to be, hands down, the single "best" thread ever to appear on StyleForum?  There is really no comparison, gents, to the black suit and farmer-related threads.  

I agree Chicago is no sartorial NYC. But think how much worse it could be. I live near Philadelphia, and that city is so full of really awful dressers that even the employees at the highest end menswear store, Boyds, dress horribly.