<p>Dbate: He has his reasons. Many of them.</p>
<p>Pizzagirl – Part of it is that MIT has a lot more cachet with this particular group of folks than Chicago. They could understand the value proposition better. I didn’t want to be snotty and walk away or dismiss them, because they weren’t being rude, either. I just told them the truth: S felt that Chicago would challenge him to grow more as a person and would push him beyond his math/CS comfort zone socailly and academically. He knows that if there is a time to explore the social sciences and humnaities, it’s now, before he goes to grad school.</p>
<p>S1 has always marched to his own drummer and has been a very, very tightly focused math guy, so I think the neighbors felt relieved he wanted to develop a social life!</p>
<p>OTOH, folks in other areas of our life heard he was going to Chicago and knew exactly why he was going, and were familiar with the financial pain it would involve. BTDT. No meowing there.</p>