<p>Did anyone go? Your comments?</p>
<p>haha you guys were here on 4/20 hahahahah</p>
<p>I'm using my mom's account here (she's the real Ramses 2), but here is what I posted on Thick Envelope:</p>
<p>I had a fantastic time, and I am definitely going. I was wowed by everything from the surprisingly helpful, brilliant and friendly students to the vast breadth of unusual, obscure and exciting books in the Regenstein Library.</p>
<p>I only saw Snell-Hitchcock, Burton-Judson, Max Palevsky, and Shoreland, but I liked all of them, even the eyesore-tastic Max P. I'm hoping I get to live in B-J, which has a marble bathroom and in-dorm dining, but Max P has probably some of the nicest rooms. I noticed that the populations of the various dorms tended to brand other dorms as anti social, but since they all did it, and I never met anyone who was such, I think that this is mostly the "where fun goes to die" attitude of the school. The atmosphere actually put me very much in mind of Pratchett’s Unseen University. </p>
<p>What was particularly cool for me was meeting the other Prospies. One person I met had so many surprising coincidences with me (we both fence, are looking at law, like Egyptology...) that people kept asking how long we had known each other. Very cool. Later on at the frat party, I had a discussion about Joseph Campbell and Freakonomics with the other Prospies I was with. I was just really happy to find so many people with whom I could talk about such subjects on such a level. </p>
<p>Andrew, I had a similarly misfortunate experience with the class that I sat in on. I was somewhat disappointed that Continuity and Innovation in Late Antique Egypt was taught by grad students- I was hoping to see the more common professor taught class- and I was a little (as in very) surprised that one of the students didn't know who Harpokrates was (which, in late period Egyptology is similar to "who is John Locke"). </p>
<p>However, on the other hand, I felt that the grad students did know what they were talking about, and one of them made a very compelling and exciting criticism of an article about burial iconography of that period. I started out disappointed, but I actually left impressed.</p>
<p>The best classes to sit in on as prospies are hum and sosc because they are typical core classes that are required and generally pretty dependable. Prospective math majors should try to get in on Honors Calc or Honors Analysis. Other classes can be hit or miss; current students have the advantage of accessing professor evaluations online and picking classes with students who are very knowledgeable or very new to the subject.</p>
<p>Hi Ramses -
Just wanted to let you know not to be discouraged by having had a grad student lead your class! I actually know the instructor of that course quite well, and she is teaching it because she was one of a small number of winners of a Stuart Tave fellowship this year. These fellowships are extraordinarily competitive and small in number and have been developed in order to allow the very best and brightest of the university's graduate students to create courses for the college. Just preparing a Stuart Tave application takes dozens of hours, but to win a fellowship is considered a tremendous accomplishment by the graduate community.</p>
<p>Chitown Laura-</p>
<p>I'm actually not discouraged at all! I really did feel like the TAs knew what they talking about, and I was really impressed by the one TA's criticism of an article in the field, who I think may be the person you know (She talked about a mural of Isis and Nepythis, but no mummy/Osiris, and she said that it was missing not because the meaning was no longer there as the article stated, but because the literal mummy was placed in front of them). I have heard that the TAs of Chicago are the future professors of elsewhere, so my initial disappointment has faded considerably. Thanks!</p>
<p>(By the way, I am the one who posted under Ramses account, in case you were wondering, but now I have my own since I've begun all this posting)</p>
<p>Just semantics... In my experience, grad students teaching classes are not considered TAs. TAs are grad students who assist the teacher and may at times lead discussion, particularly if the topic is in the TA's particular field of study. The graduate students who are teaching full courses are generally the best of the best with prestigious fellowships. They are not called TAs, though.</p>
<p>Bugger! I stand corrected (well, I'm sitting right now, but I could stand...).</p>
<p>I was pretty dissapointed with what I saw; I hope when I go there next fall things are different. Was not the haven of intellectuality I thought it was. Maybe it was just the people in Max P.. -dejected sigh-</p>
<p>Also, not to be critical but my ears bled when that english prof gave his speech. 'ummmmm' Others commented similarly.</p>
<p>Don't be so turned off just because you didn't witness any star intellectual moments during your overnight-- the students are just as nervous about making an impression on you and your liking the school as you are in visiting, and part of that is turning down the geek mode a bit. (I know, my house hosted overnight guests too, and we spent an inordinate amount of time with them discussing vapid things).</p>
<p>The brilliant thing is that most Chicagoans operate on both nerd and non-nerd levels... a conversation that starts off being about a frat party can end in a full-blown dissection of Christianity.</p>
<p>(P.S. Some of the people I know who absolutely adore it here had terrible overnight experiences. And by terrible, I mean horrific, awful, ugly.)</p>
<p>Yeah, I didn't like my overnight. Amykins is also right that there's a mix between intellectual dorkiness and typical college student fluff. One easily and often morphs into the other, and there are always shreds of one in the other.</p>
<p>Who was the professor who spoke? One of the professors who spoke when I was a prospie was boring and disliked, but he's actually one of the most popular professors at the school and a very friendly man. He was a guest professor in one of my classes, and he really made me look at the topic in a different way.</p>
<p>"I was pretty dissapointed with what I saw; I hope when I go there next fall things are different. Was not the haven of intellectuality I thought it was. Maybe it was just the people in Max P.. -dejected sigh-"</p>
<p>Are you sure you can't chalk this up to maybe making the wrong assumptions about college? I mean, I've talked about Plato, evolutionary philosophy, religion, the meaning of life, the capitalist ethic etc. over lunch at Bartlett or with my friends in the dorm. But on an average weekend night me and my roommate are probably playing Madden, or crushing beer cans against our foreheads, or drinking whiskey and listening to Johnny Cash. I get the feeling that some people are envisioning the School of Athens or something, and it's simply not realistic. </p>
<p>If you so abhor the idea of participating in bourgeoise, mindless generic college behavior, there are lectures and concerts and the like every single night. When I get tired of drinking cheap beer and decide to indulge my priggish intellectualism I buy a $10 ticket to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. You'll find what you're looking for, even if it's not immediately apparent.</p>
<p>Good post, Jack. I agree. (Minus the crushing beer cans on my forehead. I haven't gotten around to trying that yet.)</p>
<p>$10? umm...that makes me happy.</p>
<p>Tell me, what is it that stops every weekend from being a combo of Oriental museum/smart museum/doc films/university theatre/art inst/etc etc i.e. my aesthetic wet dream?</p>
<p>"Tell me, what is it that stops every weekend from being a combo of Oriental museum/smart museum/doc films/university theatre/art inst/etc etc i.e. my aesthetic wet dream?"</p>
<p>Um nothing but believe it or not the student body at UChicago isn't a homogenous mass of people with the exact same interests/priorities/tastes as you.</p>
<p>Also, money. But if you have a job, or nice parents, you can definitely do those nice things every weekend, and there are plenty of people who do already.</p>
<p>Thanks for putting these things into perspective, Jack. I understand that not everyone is going to be the museum/opera type; if they all were, the environment would probably be pretty boring. (not that museums and operas are boring, but hearing stories about a friend passing out and waking up covered head to toe in whiteout is sort of entertaining)</p>