Yes, UChicago does have more students who come for the US News rank and end up drinking away their sorrows because they didn’t realize the core existed, they can’t solve differential equations for the life of them, and they didn’t get into UCIB than we would like, but the life of the mind is far from dead. Your D may have gotten exceptionally unlucky on her prospie weekend - I spend mine sitting in the lounge being given advice about which math classes were most fun (“Take IBL Calc or you will regret it!”) from everyone in the house while a prospie and a 2nd year argued about Aristotle and my time at UChicago as a student has been no different. The dorm matters. Getting put in Snitchcock or BJ or Breck will yield a far different experience than South or Max P. A friend brought back stories of walls full of vodka and people wondering nude across the hallways. I was in one of the first set of dorms, she was in one of the second set.