I realize the academics are fantastic at the U of Chicago but read somewhere that if you go to U Chicago it is where “fun goes to die.” There are a lot of reasons to pick a university besides the academics so was wondering is this school only going to be “school, school, school” without experiencing other aspects of college life. Are the students willing to enjoy themselves sometimes too? Thanks for your input.
First, I think it is officially “Where fun comes to die.” :^)
My son did some investigative work on that. It is very rigorous. However, some people find that challenge actually fun. Next, the perception of “where fun comes to die” is something that the University has really tried to get away from and the current students he talked to reinforced that you will have fun and you shouldn’t find yourself in misery for the next 4 years.
There are dorms where people party a fair amount. And some people find a lot of intellectual engagement with others to be their brand of fun. But the workload is very rigorous.
I mean there are parties but I wouldn’t go here for the party scene or if you want to be able to avoid work on weekends
Aside from the pretty pathetic party scene it’s pretty fun. There’s lots to do. It’s just a lot of work. Don’t worry, your time management skills will dramatically improve!
If fun=raging parties then no
Go to big university
If fun=hanging out with friends in millennium park then yes
Go to UChicago
Copying @CU123
If fun = attending big time college sports events and tailgate parties at elite schools, then NO.
Go to Stanford, Duke or Northwestern.
If fun = staying late studying at Reg with friends, serious intellectual debate, truly understanding the theory behind your favorite subject, inspired by world class scholar, then YES.
Go to UChicago
Totally agree with @CU123
My daughter and her friends are foodies. For them, fun is going to a different restaurant in the city every Saturday, or brunch + Art Institue on Sundays.
UChicago knows It’s reputation as “where fun goes to die”. They don’t try to counter that reputation. maybe it’s a way to dissuade the tailgaters from attending.
@85bears46 “truly understanding the theory behind your favorite subject”. Hmm. I hope the teach the lower levels of econ better than they did when I was there. Intro Econ was awful. But I loved my history and political science classes.
@TomSrOfBoston Seems to me that UC has done a lot to counter that image. It is a lot better than in the 70s and 80s when the College felt like an after thought. I frankly think UC is no more boring or difficult than Columbia, Swarthmore, Amherst or other highly competitive universities.
“But I loved my history and political science classes.”
-Good to hear as my D17 is considering history for her major.
I agree that they probably don’t want to repudiate the old image, in part, as @TomSrOfBoston pungently puts it, “to dissuade the tailgaters from attending”. They appear to keep stressing in the materials they’re sending out and in what one reads and hears of visits to the school the specialness of the place for cultivating “life of the mind”. One could say - as many have on this board - that they make way too much of Chicago being special in that way. However, judging from the student comments and questions on the board, that seems to be where the attraction lies. That’s Chicago’s brand. I note that some intelligent kids have shied away from it for that reason, probably overreacting to the brand. Many others - the tailgaters - no doubt never considered it in the first place. Some others like that emphasis but also want to feel that there’s room for “fun”, by which they must mean EC’s and a variety of non-academic improvements of the place, which have undoubtedly brightened it up. (Although “fun” always has to be put in scare quotes because, let’s face it, that word has a different meaning at the U of C, where reading Hegel can be considered a barrel of laughs.) Very few if any kids will choose the University of Chicago principally because they want to attend parties and cut classes in order to play volleyball.
Only a University of Chicago thread would label students at “Stanford, Duke & Northwestern” as “tailgaters”.
A couple of weeks ago, I asked my son who is a 2nd year what he was doing for fun over the weekend. He proudly said that he and a classmate had a bet to see who could learn more of an obscure language on Duolingo over the weekend. For him that is fun. Btw, he won the bet which involved, as he called it, “fancy cheese.” I am not sure if this anecdote does anything to dispel the Chicago image of fun.
And yet I know a student at UChicago who went to a raging drunken party last weekend where the student rode a mechanical bull and played beer pong for hours. Because that stuff is available too, if you want it.
I love UChicago simply for referring to Stanford, Duke & Northwestern students & alumni as “tailgaters”. An intelligent sense of humor scores a lot of points.