I heard that one of the universal house traditions is to sell shirts with the best self-demeaning slogans… what are some good ones besides “where fun goes to die”?
I like this one which is from the Yale board: “Our group of randomly selected students is better than your randomly selected group of students.”
One of the better known ones from my day was
“Upper Flint (?), where men and women copopulate”
BTW, ‘self demeaning’ was not part of the picture for house t-shirts.
Don’t know the houses but I’ve heard of the following t-shirts:
If I wanted an A I would have gone to Harvard
And my favorite:
That is all very good in practice, but what about in theory?
Some good general ones from back in the day, that I saw on t shirts from time to time:
The University of Chicago: the level of hell that Dante forgot.
Dating at the U of C: the odds are good but the goods are odd.
The University of Chicago: where the only thing that goes down on you is your gpa.
Dating at the U of C: where the squirrels are more aggressive than the guys.
The University of Chicago: proof that hell has frozen over.
Snell Hitchcock house motto: deformed but useful.
I imagine with the newer bubblier students, many of the above slogans have been phased out. (Except maybe the one about Snell Hitchcock.)
If it were easy, it would be your mom.
Also, from a (short-lived, I believe) S&M club: The University of Chicago: Whip me, chain me, make me read The Iliad
A story about the GPA one: My son had that t-shirt, and loved it. He was wearing it one morning when we were on vacation, having breakfast in an outdoor cafe at a hotel. A very smart, very personable 10-year-old girl we had met the night before marched up to him, eyes wide, and said, “How can you wear that shirt? It’s terrible! That’s a bad thing to say! You shouldn’t be wearing something like that in public.” Her slightly older brother was trailing behind her, and his face was all screwed up with confusion. Finally, he said, “I don’t get it. What does it mean? What’s wrong with the shirt?” The girl flushed bright red and said, “You have to ask Mom.” And stomped away. My son stopped wearing the shirt anywhere smart little girls might see it.
^^^ That’s hilarious. As a mom, I appreciate the ‘ask Mom,’ not ‘ask Dad.’
“I really like it here”
Hilarious to students but no one else gets it
So glad this thread came up - my D just graduated from UChicago and I already miss it (ink on the diploma not even dry yet). Funny how this popped up on my phone and it didn’t id UChicago, but when I saw “biochemnerd” and “house shirt slogans”, I knew what it was about. Thanks for resurrecting these slogans. Love that college and will miss visiting it.
@momzhood, DD hasn’t even started yet. However, having had one go through college already, I know too well how fast it goes. I’m getting sad already about her finishing in 4 years…