University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is best-known as the university "where fun goes to die". Students even wear T-shirts proclaiming this sad fact. In fact, the university has such a scary reputation that few apply, and thus almost half get in. Students take pride in the so-called "Uncommon Application," since there is little else about which to be proud.
Chicago claims to have either an older or more rigorous Core Curriculum than Columbia. According to a WikiCU contributor from Chicago[1] (I wonder which university he/she went to), "the University of Chicago's Core Cirriculum is generally recognized as superior to Columbia's in both depth and difficulty". Such assertions are dubious. In fact, Chicago's Core was inspired by Columbia's; it was founded on the teachings of lifelong Columbian and Core advocate Mortimer Adler. We can agree, though, that our schools are superior to those institutions which don't believe any such rigor is required.
However, Columbia did plagiarize the concept for its Committee on Global Thought from Chicago's prestigious Committee on Social Thought.
Chicago advocates also often claim that economist Milton Friedman belongs to their own "Chicago school of economics". This claim is also flawed, since, as everyone at Columbia knows, Friedman was both a student and professor at our great institution.
