<p>I come here every now and then, and what I often see is the prospective applicant/admitted student creating a thread like,
"name recognition?"
"uchicago vs the ivys?"</p>
<p>and they're growing. Bigger. and Bigger. pop!</p>
<p>for those of you who applied: remember why. your original, idealistic goals: to get the best education, despite freezing midwestern winters and a dubious-social life-by-reputation-even-though-we-all-know-that's-not-true (so they say). To meet nobel-prize winners on your way to class, better yet in class. To have mates like William Lopes (google him, he's cool) on occasion. To swim in beautiful ideas, etcetera, etcetera.</p>
<p>And now that you got in...or applied..or whatever..
you're not satisfied.
Oh no.
Because when we go up to our immigrant aunts and cousins and say Chicago, they say, "well it's a nice town" after thinking hard for 47 seconds. Or you come up to your classmate you've never talked to before. He says, Chicago. Great! what is it?</p>
<p>Now let me ask you this:
why?
why does matter that much?
what are we getting an education for?
what is the meaning of life?
(the latter question you might actually attempt to answer after 4 years at Chicago. Which answers the question before that. And completely destroys the question before that.)</p>
<p>And now, for good measure, I'm going to add a bunch of really really incredibly good schools that not everyone's heard of anyways. Feel free to add to the list.</p>
<p>Cooper Union
Franklin Olin
St Johns College
Reed
and the list goes on...
cheer up.
life is good.
you're going learn lots and lots of interesting things if you go here.
and that's really cool.
peace.</p>
<p>I believe that the theme of those threads is more trying to understand why everyone doesn't see what WE see in Uchicago. The fact that others do not see how wonderful it is does not mean that we love the school any less.</p>
<p>For those who want an ivy- they will go to an ivy.</p>
<p>Take a deep breath.
Everything is fine.
Thanks for your concern.
peace.</p>
<p>I have to admit that I am one of the people that are dragging on these threads. I just want to note that doing so does not detract from the university in any shape or form. I guess it's an attempt to get the most out of both worlds. I can't see why we cannot not have an intimate environment as well as name recognition?</p>
<p>However, I must say orangetree, you hit the bulls-eye target in terms of the situation. Before I applied, I was so excitied, going to their site at least an hour a day, and so forth. But now I'm accepted, some of that early eagerness has worn off a tad bit, and my extended immigrant family is ticking me off.</p>
<p>Wow. Chicago is the one school that has registered on the grandparents' radar! (Both lived in Chicago many years ago and I was born there and lived there as a kid). Ivy, schmivy. They could care less about that. But mention Chicago, and they actually were impressed.</p>
<p>My suspicion is that the kids who attend Chicago and love it are the ones who have run counter to their peers for years, anyway.</p>
<p>And another school that is underappreciated: Harvey Mudd.</p>
<p>"you're going learn lots and lots of interesting things if you go here.
and that's really cool.
peace."</p>
<p>says it all really. i dare anybody to spend a year here and emerge claiming they still give two craps about "prestige" when they've just the experience of a lifetime.</p>