@SouthernHope well I do think phoenix1616 went a little overboard; but to be frank, it can quickly get wearing when people who are very obviously unfamiliar with the University of Chicago have an outmoded, stereotypical view of what life at the University is like. These same people then pontificate to people who are actually affiliated with the University on how Chicago REALLY is (as if us students didn’t already know).
I suppose Harvard undergrads suffer from the same sort of problem - it must be annoying to be looked at as God’s Gift To The World or a Privileged Asshole every time you tell someone where you go to school.
I came from one of the sorts of high schools that never ever send people to the Ivy League, where students who get in might actually use threads like this to make decisions due to lack of resources. I think it’s moderately important that threads here have some relation to reality. There are many decent comments on this thread but also some (@planner and @proudparent126 most blatantly) that are indefensible and show no real familiarity at all with the schools, and I don’t think making fun of them is unjustified. You would never get advice on a school from a clueless parent who’s never attended in real life, and you shouldn’t online either.
When we were doing our college visits we visited the UChicago. Our guide told us privately that the statement “where fun goes to die” was a huge understatement and he was miserable. After that my kid didn’t apply to Chicago
I think phoenix1616 describes things pretty well. I have not attended either school, but have lived in close proximity to o both of them and know people who attend/attended one or the other. The way phoenix1616 describes the schools is similar to what I have perceived as an outsider. I know a lot more about Harvard since I grew up nearby, temped in several of their offices, and know more people who went/go there, and I think he describes it pretty accurately. One is not better than the other - it’s just that their cultures are VERY different, and if one school fits you and your personality, it is likely that the other school doesn’t.