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<p>Chicago isn’t intellectually intense in the sense you described. And it is not competitive at all. It may not have grade inflation like some other schools, but I don’t think this is a bad thing. The students are very cooperative, and in fact, especially in math and science, students often form groups and tackle the problems together.</p>
<p>It may be intimidating to some at first, since intellectual topics tend to come up during dinner (the things we learn here can actually be very interesting, and we can’t help discussing them), but some people (esp. math and physics majors) don’t shut up about academics. For instance, I was just sitting in a lounge the other day, and some kid sitting next to me (who I recognize as a math major) looks at me, smiles, and asks what the probability of choosing a topologically connected graph out of the collection of all graphs in the plane with n vertices would be. I asked him where he heard that, and he said that he just thought it up a second ago. It’s kind of an innocent intellectual curiosity, which can be a bit annoying at times, but it’s not at all pretentious.</p>
<p>However, the vast majority of people here are normal and have normal interests, like America’s Top Model. There is much ultimate frisbee, video games, televised football, and <em>gasp</em> dance parties. Students sometimes get carried away and overemphasize that Chicago is the place where fun comes to die. The students are proud to be at such a demanding university, but it’s not often the best thing to tell prospies and their parents who may take it too seriously. We have plenty of fun here.</p>