<p>I can't sit around and lurk while exchanges like this are going on:</p>
<p>Poster A said:</p>
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<p>He selected Chicago because he preferred the "intellectual feel" of the campus vs. Cornell. I'm not saying one is better than the other because I believe both are great schools. For him the fit was right. He uses words like intense, awesome and unique when commenting about Chicago. The best analogy I can give about Chicago is that it is a graduate education for undergraduate students. Truly it is a college for those seeking, "A life of the mind"....[And so on.]</p>
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<p>To which Poster B responded:</p>
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<p>Wow, that sounds like a good college experience. From that description, the atypical Chicago experience really seems more fitting. I will probably visit both campuses, but from what I am thinking, Chicago is winning by a long-shot. Maybe I am still excited about getting accepted. (I think they have a better website too!)</p>
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<p>Don't be so quick to fall into the trap here. What you need to do is stand back and do your best to separate the school from the admissions propaganda (preferably by ignoring hearsay and talking to people who have actually attended the school). Frankly, I find it disturbing that a highly selective institution would so consciously push the idea of intellectualism as a 'unique' characteristic for them have -- which I guess would be sort of like one of their students claiming that if you like reading (or talking or breathing), then you might think about applying. (And it's not only the University of Chicago that is guilty of this; see Swarthmore College, in particular.) Or do they wish to insinuate that students who do not choose to (or who can't) enroll at their school are anti-intellectual? (Sounds like a delightful school, by the way.)</p>
<p>Go right ahead -- choose a place so you can pat yourself on the back and tell yourself that you are attending an 'intellectual' college, or someplace whose website looks particularly elegant (which therefore means it is more intellectually substantive than another place whose front page appears aesthetically challenged). Somewhere in the back of your mind, though, I hope you'll come to the realization that 'a life of the mind' (or however someone phrased it) doesn't come pre-packaged; it is not acquired just by virtue of enrolling at Such-and-Such University.</p>
<p>I just fail to see how the prestige-currying, smoke-and-mirrors operation that is admissions propaganda will benefit a highly selective institution; for instance, if you believe that Chicago gets self-selected matriculants primarily owing to the peculiarity of their propaganda machine, those would be exactly the students I would not want to see enroll. Instead, I think one would do well to consider those places which do not advertise themselves so loftily, but rather whose commitment to 'a life of the mind' is apparent merely from observing what is going on and experiencing their respective communities. (It's your job to figure out what those places are.) In other words, if I were smart enough, I don't think I'd want someone banging me over the head with their admissions sophistry.</p>
<p>Or as someone sensible once said, 'If you've got it, you don't need to flaunt it'.</p>
<p>In conclusion, all I can say is best of luck on y'all's college visits, and be sure to bring your bull-**** detectors with you.</p>
<p>(Sorry for spewing all that cynical vitriol -- I didn't mean to direct it at any one in particular, by the way. But honestly, over-the-top admissions sloganry and the types of sentiment it spawns just make me want to snap, sometimes; this is one of those times.)</p>