my impressions of uchicago after visiting: negative

<p>haha, i don't really think that all of the students (or even necessarily any) qualify as einsteins. i'm sure they are still smart though...</p>

<p>I wonder how many Nobel winners associated with Chicago actually went there for undergrad. Seems to me most, if not all, were/are phD students or professors there but never went there as undergrad.</p>

<p>this is my take on the social side of uchicago. if you are easily offended, please skip my post. when i got there, my host immediately seemed like a flake. he was not there to greet me at the max palevsky cinema and he was not in his room when i first got to the dorm. i decided i had to make the best of the situation, though, so i left my cell phone # on his door, wrote for him to call me, and then went to go hang out with the other prospies from my dorm. when he got ahold of me, he told me that he would be busy for the night.."studying." okay, so i either had a total flake or a total nerd. what do i do? i decide to be proactive and make the best of the situation. i find the other prospies staying in the dorm, make friends with them, and hang out with them for the night. one of them had a cool host, and that was all it took to have an AWESOME night. i know that when i get to chicago i'm already going to have a few friends to hang out with. so sure, there were some recluses and some generally unpleasant people. and yes, there were some greasy, unshaven, and generally unclean people. but i was able to find my niche. i know that by being proactive and confident in myself, i'm going to be able to rise to the top - and i'm going to take along with me whoever else cares enough to try.</p>

<p>"I wonder how many Nobel winners associated with Chicago actually went there for undergrad."</p>

<p>Quite a few, actually.</p>

<p>And it doesn't even matter if they went for PhDs there...since most (if not all) PhD profs teach undergrads as well. And Chicago encourages an exchange of ideas between grad school students and undergrad students.</p>

<p>Delirious -- Nice post and mature attitude. It's great that you don't have to be entertained or led by the hand to find your niche! My daughter is a first-year at UChicago and she has been very happy there. If you want to be social, you can be social. But if you want to be a loner, that's your choice too. On any college visit, the host can be hit or miss. My daughter had a bad host at Emory. It doesn't mean the school is bad overall, though.</p>

<p>And jpps1 is right -- my daughter took a class last quarter in which she was the only first-year and one of just three undergrads. The rest of the students were grad students. She loved the class!</p>

<p>James Watson was an undergrad...
Indiana Jones earned his Ph.D. at Chicago, but I don't know if he was an undergrad!!</p>

<p>caths2005- I'm sorry you did not have a great experience at UChi. Mine was a mixed bag of good and bad things. One good thing was yes the students DID seem intellectual and more willing than at other schools to talk about good literature, their academic pursuits, and really seemed to take pleasure in going to museums! I haven't encountered many other students my age who like to do this so that was nice. Also, being so close to the heart of Chi-town is an awesome possibility. The size was very nice too, and the facilities were tremendous. I LOVED all the buildings here! As for kids not being social, I noticed a mixed bag. You could be social here or anti-social and either way thrive. I visited Sunday night, and was up till 1am chatting with current students.</p>

<p>As for the bad news. While many kids I met were social and outgoing, there always seemed to be something hanging over their heads. I noticed the stress factor among most students to be very high and about to burst. Also, during the tour guide and info sessions, they made too much of a point of the "Yes, kids have fun here too!" kind of deal. This self-reassuring of the fun factor worries me. Also, the class I sat in on was an Econ class. The subject itself was VERY interesting, so I enjoyed the class. Still the prof was very flat, and only 2 or 3 students out of 30 really participated in the discussions. Also, some students seemed to be a little on the pretentious side, and very impressed with themselves. There also seemed to be a real backlash against athletics and athletes here, much more so than at even Swarthmore. Finally, I stayed in Shoreland, which was not very well-kept up. The room size was great, but why would you want to live in a dorm in such disrepair?</p>

<p>So overall it was a mixed bag, and I don't think I'll be attending next fall. But for all those who are, congrats and good luck!</p>

<p>"Still the prof was very flat, and only 2 or 3 students out of 30 really participated in the discussions."</p>

<p>Hmmm, this seems to be a major criticism--I frankly never associated intelligence or argumentative abilities with class participation. From my experience, classes function perfectly well with just a few students regularly asking questions and making comments as long as the others listen attentively.</p>

<p>That said, I'm usually one of those few students who constantly participates.</p>

<p>Interesting... I agree with what you're saying but still I was concerned after the prof would ask a question, and then there would be an awkward silence and no one would answer. But generally it is nicer when 2-3 students who know what they are talking about drive the discussion rather than 8-10 students who are all BSing things.</p>

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<p>This is a HUGE deal to me and a big factor in my academic dissatisfaction with Bryn Mawr. If your classmates never say anything, it really doesn't matter whether they're intelligent with great arguing skills or not. They may as well be stupid and rhetorically impaired for all the good it does you. I'm also one of those constant participators, and if no one tells me I'm wrong, I can't learn a thing.</p>

<p>I preferred courses where no one is called on as a volunteer, but where the class is continuously sampled by directing questions at specific people. One true U of C story. In a Monday class a prof said, "I understand that I assigned an unfair amount of reading over the weekend, I will not do that again. How many of you were actually able to finish it before class today?" About 6 of to 18 raised their hands. "Okay," he said, "the rest of you leave, I don't speak to unprepared students." Made my love "The University."</p>

<p>edit, "me" love, not my (but not far from the truth...)</p>

<p>Haha, that's an awesome story.</p>

<p>Guess I'll have to make sure to do the readings.</p>

<p>If some of the students seemed stressed this week, it's with good reason -- some of them are taking mid-terms. I know my daughter's boyfriend had two this week in tough classes. Also, I can understand them getting defensive about the "where fun comes to die" stuff. Just look how prevalent the discussion on that topic is on this board alone.</p>

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Also, some students seemed to be a little on the pretentious side, and very impressed with themselves. There also seemed to be a real backlash against athletics and athletes here, much more so than at even Swarthmore.

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<p>This remind me of my experience at a party I attended. I was somehow (I don't remember how) invited to this party full of people from their art/religion depts. This religion prof gave me attitude when he learned that I majored in chem E at Northwestern--he thought he's more superior because he's pursuing something "intellectual" while I was pursuing something "superficial" (I guess he hated preprofessionalism). LOL! I was smart enough not to argue and just walk away. Life is too short for dealing with people like him.</p>