I considered applying ED at UChicago. However, this motto really scares me that I am reconsidering the thought of applying ED.
This motto is no longer true - it died 10-15 years ago. Where did you hear this, and why do you think it’s still true?
Chicago is a challenging academic experience, but no harder than what you’d find at MIT, Cal Tech, Swarthmore, or other schools known for being challenging.
I thought it was the most beautiful campus when visited with my D. The tour guide students seems smart as hell. But no idea of fun dies there. One of my S’s friends is going this year. May have a better answer in a few mos. But college is not all about fun. Its about education.
The type of people that go to UChicago tend to find true pleasure in being intellectually challenged in and outside of the classroom. UChicago students are very unique as is obvious by the rather quirky essay prompts. Something you can look at to see the type of fun that students are interested in is the Scav Hunt.
UChicago definitely had this reputation once upon a time. But that was back when the undergrad. college was small and the entire atmosphere of the place was heavily influenced by the graduate departments. Rightly or wrongly, UChicago was perceived as a place where kids who were “serious” went to school. However, when in grad school there I met several who had graduated from the college and other than being a bit quirky and definitely smart they weren’t unfun students. Quite the opposite.
I know that the college has changed in terms of growing in size. This was explained to us at a recent info. session as returning to the original size and purpose of the college. I didn’t realize that it had actually shrunk during the “bad years” - I always assumed it was predominantly a grad school with a few undergrads tacked on.
In any case I’m not sure that UChicago has changed it’s core mission for the undergrads and I don’t think the type of kid who does well there is any different from 30 years ago. This is anecdotal but we do know academics who have been at both Chicago and other comparable institutions and maintain that the college kids at Chicago are different - they don’t separate their coursework from their social life. They discuss the concepts and ideas and arguments that they are leaning - when they are outside the classroom. In the dining hall, in casual conversations with their friends at the coffee shop, at parties, etc. In other words, they are drawn to an environment where ideas are a part of their life. It can be a highly intellectual, intense environment as a result.
There will always be folks for whom that kind of student life is where “fun goes to die.” They should not attend UChicago.
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Explaining this motto is always a challenge. It’s an onion. It has layers and layers of different meanings. You probably couldn’t come up with a better short phrase to encapsulate UChicago student culture or the experience of attending UChicago. A lot of students say that you can’t really understand it until you attend.
Is UChicago literally where fun comes to die? Of course not, people have fun here.
People go out and do things. We’re in the freaking city of Chicago, that comes with a million things to occupy yourself with. If you don’t feel like leaving, there’s like 4 museums in Hyde Park and a professional theater company. There’s a free ice rink on the midway. There’s bookstores of every variety, the Med’s milkshake counter, a great record shop, a comic shop, and a ton of student productions. The dorms freely allow alcohol, and parties from dorm to apartment to frat parties, are plentiful and generally open. Students sit around being the giant nerds we all are, discussing everything from philosophy to astrophysics to Terry Pratchet to the cultural implications of memes. In short, students have fun.
But on the other hand, it isn’t sarcastic at all.
UChicago is hard. Like, really really really hard. It’s probably as hard as MIT and Caltech and all those other schools that also have a reputation for being hard, and I wouldn’t say we have a monopoly on the school overworking students, but if you come here you will devote your life to schoolwork or you will have trouble. It doesn’t help that the core means you will have to devote your life to schoolwork in a subject you probably do not care very much about (Did I enjoy every moment of reading Feuerbach? Heck no - though I am very glad the core exists). Lots of people are not prepared for the work - I don’t mean people aren’t able to do it, I mean people didn’t realize what they signed up for and are not happy about having their life consumed by schoolwork.
Adding to that, it’s very easy to shut yourself into Hyde Park. The 6 might run up to Michigan Ave 100 times a day straight from 55th and Hyde Park Boulevard, but when you’re buried with work, the weather is -20 with wind chill, and you haven’t seen the sun in a week, it’s easy to feel like you’re in a little island of misery and the rest of Chicago is an eternity away. UChicago student culture is fundamentally different from supposedly happier schools - it is socially acceptable (some would say encouraged) to complain. There are moments you will be miserable, and all your friends will be miserable, and you will be acutely aware of it. At Stanford, if you’re miserable you look around in the beautiful 70 degree sunny January day to your friends effortlessly having a great time (are they really? probably not) and you don’t say a word because you don’t want to be the only one having trouble. UChicago is the opposite, even if you’re happy you might join in on the complaining-fest because that’s what people do and (honestly) complaining is fun.
This leaks into everything. Sometimes the parties feels like a giant coping fest to deal with the school. A lot of people don’t like the work, don’t like the core, don’t like the weather, and don’t like that despite our US News rank, people still think we’re a state school. Objectively, people are doing lots of things that are fun. People are partying, taking really cool classes, joining clubs, starring in student productions, making art, exploring Chicago…doing all the things people do at any other school to have fun. But sometimes finding that perspective is hard to find.
Don’t get me wrong, I love UChicago. I wouldn’t trade away my experience here for anything (though some people say that if you don’t think about transferring at least once, you aren’t really a student here). In high school I would have chosen UChicago over any other school in America and I still think that’s true. But this school is not for everyone. While “where fun comes to die” is used sarcastically 90% of the time, every single student here has said, “Yes, this is where fun comes to die”, and meant it at least once.
If you think UChicago is the school for you, it probably is, and you will probably love it. But if any of this is scaring you, I promise the US News rank isn’t worth it.
Look at the retention rate. It’s >90%. That’s the best evidence that people find it worthwhile to be there, and that the school puts in some effort to make it worthwhile.
Most recent data published by College Navigator shows 100% retention. That’s a bit higher than previous years.
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Guess I was dreaming about the people I know who transferred
In the 50s they considered shutting the college down. I can’t find the source for that exactly right now but here’s a similar one about the troubles the college went through in the 50s:
[Source here.](Lawrence A. Kimpton | University of Chicago)
I own Dean Boyer’s book so I’ll find a better/more detailed source when I get home from work.
@MurphyBrown I heard it at a local info. session and it wasn’t something that was part of the main talk but rather in a conversation I was having with the admissions rep. My daughter had heard it during her visit to UChicago last fall.
Here’s the story as I remember it - hopefully I have some of the facts correct. Not sure if it was the '50’s or '60’s but at some point the college had an agreement with another university (Stanford? Can’t recall) to relocate UChicago just due to the rapid increase in crime and poverty in the surrounding neighborhood. Instead of exercising that option, UChicago (called “U of C” in those days) expanded South of the Midway in order to have some control of that area. The UCPD is still, I believe, the largest private university police force in the country and has an active agreement with the city of Chicago to patrol even in areas outside the campus.
@MurphyBrown I should clarify that “the story as I remember it” was NOT from the admission rep - that individual just spoke about the College returning to its original size. What I was relating was something I remembered from my time there 30 years ago. I’m sure the facts are out there on the internet somewhere.
Okay, yeah - John Boyer’s book has an entire section called “The Age of Survival, 1951-1977”, which should tell you something about how it was. It was a rough time for the school. The low point was 1953 - enrollment dropped to nearly 1000 total, and it’s been steadily climbing ever since. It hit 2000 by the end of the 50s, 3000 by 1986, 4000 by 2001, and 5000 by 2007.
Regarding the Retention Rate- I think that is only based on freshman returning back in the fall for sophomore year. It appears that the 100% was for freshman starting in the fall 2014 and returning for fall 2015. Yes, that does seem really almost impossible.
yes I should have clarified that it’s freshman retention that College Navigator directly tracks. Still, 100% seems unreal. I actually had the impression that UChicago had a pretty low retention rate given it’s ranking but maybe that’s from older data. Can’t beat 100% but it’ll be interesting to see if UChicago is able to sustain that.
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Is that a rounded number? If so, you can still have a few people leave and stay at 100%.
It really depends on what you define as fun. My son thinks it’s fun but he’s the kind of kid who likes hanging out with friends and going downtown for concerts a few times per year. There aren’t the traditional college mainstays of big athletic events and daily parties. The weather does seem to get to some people as well. The work is hard and constant which for people who coasted through high school can be a surprise.
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