<p>ive been researching schools recently (im a junior in high school) and uchicago really interested me. i like the core, the campus, and everything. but then i remembered everything i had heard about the people. an education is important, but a social life is also as important... are the people really as weird as everyone says they are? is it really where, "fun goes to die" or is that just a catchy saying?</p>
<p>I can only tell you my experience with the university, which was over summer. The RAs were undergrads at UChicago. I got along with all of them and they did not seem abnormal in anyway. They were obviously very smart with warm personalities and great senses of humor!</p>
<p>My teache for the class and students were also attending UChicago and they were all very welcoming, humorous, and held good and interesting conversations.</p>
<p>With that said, I am not weird (atleast I don’t think so) so I am not biased.</p>
<p>I think that is a common misconception and by weird, maybe people mean out of the box and creative thinking?</p>
<p>If Chicago is your #1 and this is the only thing bothering you, why don’t you apply for the summer program to see yourself?</p>
<p>i would but i have no time over the summer (internship and work). i really like the all around look of uchicago, but i dont want to be stuck in a place where i feel alienated. i think im going to visit the school and see what its like. thanks for the advice</p>
<p>No. If you like everything else about UChicago, you’d probably be quite happy here. Simply put, if you want to have an active social life here you will have one. That would put you in the majority of the student body.</p>
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<p>Are the people anywhere ever as anything as people say they are?</p>
<p>@dunbar thanks thats kinda what i assume
@absweetmarie yea i have learned not to trust general opinion</p>
<p>I would say that I’m saying this “once and for all” but this thread will be posted many, many, many more times.</p>
<p>In short, “where fun comes to die” is a self-deprecating slogan for T-shirts. It is a joke. UChicago is as social as any other school (now more than ever), though we aren’t social in the same way that other colleges are; the UChicago social life isn’t built around Greek parties and sports (though both of these things exist and have some sort of presence).</p>
<p>There isn’t a student on campus who’s ever said “Gee, UChicago is great and all, but I just wish that there were fun and that students spoke to each other”.</p>
<p>Oxalis, as the mom of a prospie, I want to thank you for tirelessly coming onto these threads in support of your school. We appreciate it.</p>
<p>as a parent: I also would like to add a comment.</p>
<p>This line of “weird people in U Chicago” is getting really old. I don’t what it was like, say, 10 years ago.</p>
<p>However, everything my son (3rd year) tells me totally contradicts this.</p>
<p>Now, if you mean “weird” as in “not likely to be totally hammered in tail gate parties”, yeah, that’s about right. U Chicago kids go to parties, drink, smoke dope, get laid - yes, that all happens and I am sure quite frequently. However, they seem to do it differently.</p>
<p>For instance, my son does not seem to think it’s a great deal of fun to go to a party and just be mindlessly hammered. Even in those occasions, he loves to have intelligent conversation and witty exchanges. He likes to wax poetics discussing abstract concepts. And, he seems to have a lot of peers who are similarly inclined. Does this make this school and his peers weird? If they are by your definition, then so be it. </p>
<p>His good friend from HS is going to a very selective, U Chicago peer school. He once mentioned that it’s very hard to start a very deep intellectual discussion with his peers without getting it turned into lewd jokes. In Chicago, my son revels in conversations like this, and it’s well accepted, maybe even main stream.</p>
<p>Again, if this is what makes U Chicago “weird”, I am really glad that he is going to that “weird” school.</p>
<p>@Mutti: Thanks, that’s really nice of you!</p>
<p>We’re weird, but that’s not said in the typical derogatory connotation that people assume. I think abnormal would be more fitting, although that also seems to come with but of a derogatory tone. I simply mean that we’re not normal, which is good – normal is boring. We’re abnormal in the since that we do tend to place intellectual discussions and the whole “life of mind” (marketing term? Yes. Any less true because of it? Not really) above extreme levels of intoxication, sexsexsexsexsexsex, omg I haven’t drink in days, etc. mentality. </p>
<p>If you think that you’ll come here and be surrounded by incredibly stereotypical nerds with the long shaggy hair, glasses, and constant quoting of Doctor Who, playing of Skyrim, and talk of Dungeons and Dragons or what be it, you’re mistaken (if that is you’re nich</p>
<p>I agree with the above post. My RA, for lack of a better word, was hot. He played football in highschool, and although he had the typical jock look and said he got drunk every weekend, I was able to have interesting conversations with him.</p>
<p>I think the stereotype is what should die, not “the fun”.</p>
<p>Another thing to keep in mind is that the culture of Hyde Park is in many ways dominated by the grad students. It’s been changing recently with the expansion of the College but grad students still outnumber the undergrads by a significant percentage. This results in a more serious and less “get drunk and dance in a toga” atmosphere, although you can find that, too, if you wish.</p>
<p>It also influences the seriousness of the place since you are surrounded by so many career academics. Inevitably, you soon start taking on many of the eccentricities of older, less mainstream humanities grad students who fill the darker parts of the campus. I wouldn’t say that there are ghosts of 19th century Europe roaming the halls of Chicago, but there is a sense of a past age in the spirit there.</p>
<p>On the other hand, college students are still young and full of hope and energy and it is this combination that really makes UChicago such a unique place. You can spend four years on the playing fields of the Midway, living in South Campus and preparing for a career on Wall St. or, if you wish, you can live in the old gothic dorms like BJ and spend your days communing with some truly bizarre grad students and preparing for a career in an appropriately arcane academic discipline. There is space for that and everything in-between.</p>
<p>I would just like to clear something up…</p>
<p>---- There isn’t a student on campus who’s ever said “Gee, UChicago is great and all, but I just wish that there were fun and that students spoke to each other”. -----</p>
<p>I’m currently sitting at my lab bench, which is on campus, and said just that - complete with odd wording. Myth Busted.</p>
<p>@oops haha thats funny
so would you not recommend it?</p>
<p>I stand corrected. Don’t come to UChicago.</p>
<p>oh wow i didnt get any message that other people had responded…
haha dont worry im not the kind of person that likes waking up without knowing what happened the night before. but what i am afraid of is that i wont be able to connect with people. by “weird”, and im sorry if i was vague, i meant antisocial. i get along very well with anyone, whether we discussing nuclear chem or girls. the thing i heard about UChicago is that people hide in the dorms and dont come out other than classes and meals. obviously from what people have said that is not true.
i think im convinced to apply. now comes the hard part- getting in</p>
<p>Hey,</p>
<p>I would highly recommend coming here! Just don’t expect to have a great social life and also be a highly competitive student. This place tends to make you choose…</p>
<p>I don’t think there’s any decent college where you don’t have to make some sacrifices on your social life in order to be an absolutely top student, if that’s your goal. (And there isn’t any college where a student who is highly competitive with everyone around doesn’t lose some friends because of that, but I don’t think that’s what Oops meant.) </p>
<p>However, if you want some proof that you can be a tippy-top student at Chicago and still have a great social life, look up some of newmassdad’s posts about his daughter. Goldwater and Rhodes Scholar (“highly competitive” enough for you?), Ultimate Frisbee Team member and Pepperland resident (rough translation: “Animal House”). I also know, more or less, a few current or recent students with ultra-prestigious scholarships or Phi Beta Kappa who have perfectly nice social lives.</p>
<p>Chicago is different from other colleges, but it isn’t THAT different. Just a little more low-key, less frenzied. If anything, it may be easier for top students to have good social lives because (a) people don’t talk about their grades or get really competitive with each other, so hardly anyone knows whether you are a top student or not, and there’s not a lot of resentment if you are, and (b) almost everyone thinks its OK to be really interested and engaged in academic stuff and to talk about what you are learning, so you don’t have to pretend to be someone you’re not in order to attract potential sex partners.</p>
<p>Oh god, let’s not even get into mate selection here…</p>
<p>And yes, you make a good point, the handful of Rhodes / Marshall Scholars we have every year are ridiculously well rounded walking resumes who have started every organization on our campus and simultaneously gotten straight A’s and played six varsity sports while also partying very hard at the fraternity that they are the president of every night but waking up early enough every morning to do their daily couple hours of community service. </p>
<p>Anyways, I just wanted to put my ten cents in here since someone was speaking for all of us and saying something I think a lot of people would disagree with… </p>
<p>You guys should all come visit and see for yourself - if you absolutely hate everyone you meet then don’t come here because we’re all like that. If you nerd out about something that you think is really deep like Nietzsche while you’re playing Lord of the Rings Monopoly and planning on helping out the Obama campaign with current students then you should come, you’ll fit right in.</p>