Sell Me on UChicago, Please!

Colleges & Universities A-Z University of Chicago ✅
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<p>OK, so this is a story and a half, and I apologize for it, but I need to here beautiful things about UChicago from y'all.</p>

<p>I committed to UChicago BEFORE ever visiting. I plan on pursuing economics and international studies - and you cannot beat UChicago in Econ. My other choices were Washington and Lee University and William and Mary, both of which are fantastic schools, but they don't have the intellectual air of UChicago, and in some respects, the diversity, both of which I wanted, but was willing to compromise, as indicated by my applying to those schools. </p>

<p>BUT - I went for the admitted students weekend and had an absolutely miserable time. I'm not a social butterfly, but I don't like being greeted by people in black capes w/ hoods covering their wearer's eyes to deliberately freak me out (why?) and I don't like being stalked and having my personal space severely invaded by someone who can't speak to me like a coherent person, who instead squeaks and hums around waiting for my reaction whenever someone says something clever or funny (I know she was trying to be my friend and was clearly uber-intelligent, just not socially intelligent, and I feel terrible for judging, but we're all almost adults, we need to be able to speak to each other, come on now). Sitting in the dining hall after being greeted in such a manner and squeaked at plenty, we had a guy come sit down and stare intently at his macaroni and cheese until randomly (I cannot emphasize random enough) he BOOKS it out of the dining hall, w/ everyone sitting around like everyone always just books it out of there, no problem. And this is only a small sample of the craziness, I could go on and on w/ my experiences that night. </p>

<p>Some people I met were ABSOLUTELY fantastic. They were the smartest people I've ever met that also still know how to hold a decent conversation - I would love to spend four years w/ those people. But they were in the tiny minority of people I met. Can anyone reassure me that my experience was a unique one, and not representative of what my time there would be? I don't want to waste $500 on a naive viewpoint - I'm sure there's more awesome people w/ more social intelligence at UChicago than the ones I met in greater concentration elsewhere (obviously just NOT where I stayed), I just really need to hear about it.</p>

<p>I can tolerate weird, my family is very interesting, and I understood UChicago's level of quirky before I applied, but I got more quirky than I could handle. I like quirky, it adds a level of character to someone, but what I found was utter social incompetence. Tell me stories! I still want to give UChicago a chance, b/c my gut reaction was to attend there, and I still doubt that W&L or W&M would be the best choices for me.</p>

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<p>Lol, I’m sorry that that was your experience here, but I can assure you that your days in UChicago wouldn’t consist of such interactions. The social scene is very much what you want it to be, with activities that cater to nerds, “party people”, jocks, etc. (mind you, there’s people that fall under more than one of those categories). I can’t lie and say that there is a rampant party scene, but of course we do have one, and if apartment parties/frats aren’t your thing then getting downtown is as easy as hopping on a bus. There’s also other on campus alternatives like Doc Films, plays, orchestra concerts, etc. Now for the people. It’s true that there might be higher levels of social awkwardness at UChicago than at other campuses, but I feel like you truly have to go out of your way to be surrounded by these type of people. Did you go to any of the activities hosted for the prospies, or did you just stay in the dorm you were assigned to? It seems like the House you stayed at had a particularly high concentration of the socially helpless nerds that UChicago is stereotypically known for…</p>

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<p>Are you sure you knew about “Chicago” before you even applied? Looking at the other two schools you got into that are known for having lots of prepsters…I wonder if you will be happy at Chicago in all honesty. If you have ever visited schools like Swarthmore, Amherst, Reed, or even MIT you would feel at home there as you would at Chicago…I seriously wonder…</p>

<p>…if your intention is to seek “economics” prestige by going to Chicago and be miserable…I would not do it. Moreover, if someone told me they want to study engineering at MIT but they hate “geeks” and want to be around the “cool” people I would tell them to go to Michigan or Georgia Tech…</p>

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<p>I’m in my first year at UChicago and nothing like that has ever happened to me. I’m kind of baffled where you prospied (or what your idea of a “decent conversation” is!) if the people who could “hold a decent conversation” were only “a tiny minority.” I do live in one of the more “social” dorms but I don’t really think that makes THAT much of a difference. </p>

<p>Honestly in college you are not going to be forced to hang out with anyone. Make friends with the “ABSOLUTELY fantastic” people, go to parties, go downtown, go see a show on campus, and don’t let yourself be “absolutely miserable” just because you got squeaked at or because someone randomly ran out of the dining hall. </p>

<p>Sometimes you just have to learn how to accept and get along with a lot of different kinds of people. I have a good friend who probably fits the traditional “UChicago awkward” stereotype, but after getting to know her she’s one of the sweetest, funniest, and most intelligent people I’ve ever met. Try to have an open mind when you meet people and I’m sure you’ll be fine :)</p>

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<p>^^miss Harold’s spicy chicken! My mouth is watering…</p>

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<p>All very good points made. It’s hard to come off well on a post like that and I kinda anticipated getting the “you must be a prep, this is why you didn’t like it”. Gotcha, I’ll give you that maybe I’m not the stereotypical UChicago student. But I am not a prep or partier (ergo my doubt for other schools and choice to deposit) and I wanted UChicago b/c I really wanted a “life of the mind” in college - my interviewer was fantastic at conveying his love for the school, it was absolutely contagious. Point taken though. I did go to an RSO fair, that’s where I met some of those awesome people :slight_smile: I just went back to the dorm afterwards and had more craziness, which I didn’t elaborate on for sake of you all not having to read it (it was awesome of you all to read it all anyhow!). I’m not being uber specific so I avoid embarrassing anyone, I’m not here to do that, I just wanted confirmation that maybe my experience was off base. I already was acknowledging that in a way, I guess I just needed to process still. I wouldn’t normally let these things get to me - I’ve had worse, I go to a large public school, I’ve seen a lot haha. It was just the frequency of the things that got to me. And I only used decent conversation as my descriptor b/c I’m tired - I really meant more along the lines of people who weren’t hard shells to crack in the one night I spent w/ them. I get it takes time to really appreciate a person, I think that’s true of most people, and I probably should have taken that into account. I wanted diversity, and I suppose it sounds contrived to say I was freaked out by too much diversity in personality haha</p>

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<p>And YAY! I am so glad my experience was off base. I figured, I just really needed confirmation. I’m sure I could find all kinds of people there, you guys were awesome for confirming my thoughts :slight_smile: I was having serious doubts, and this late in the process it was freaking me out. Common sense, always.</p>

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<p>Gonnabefamous: Did you get to sit in on some classes? If so, how was that?</p>

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<p>@OP, what dorm did you end up staying at for the overnight?</p>

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<p>My daughter, who is now a first year at UChicago, had a sort of similar situation but in a different way. To explain: She has always loved the school and felt that she fit in academically and socially. She is an introvert but social self-confident, but doesn’t really party. On her prospie visit, she saw some beer-pong being played in the dorm hallway and suddenly wondered if there was going to be a pervasive drinking culture at UC. She doesn’t care what other people do, except that she doesn’t want to be the only one not drinking. (Unusual: I don’t think too many people have used “party school” and “UChicago” in the same sentence. I told her the U would be flattered.) Well, long story short, she’s there, she loves it, and she finds people in her house and in her RSOs to hang with. The point is the school is big enough and varied enough that you will find the people you want to be with. The socially awkward people you met (and the drinkers she met) are only one part of the University. You will seek out and find the more socially comfortable people you desire. I think prospie overnights can be a little forced, anyway.</p>

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<p>My son will play football at UofC this fall and he’s in the same boat… sort of freaking out about surviving the UChicago culture. We live in Southern CA, he attends public H.S. in a small beach town, most of his H.S. friends are athletes, very few of his friends are AP/Honors students. He was hoping for Cornell or Yale, but they didn’t come through.</p>

<p>On his recruiting trip to UofC he felt most of the students seemed odd, other than the football players/athletes who were “more normal” in his words. Apparently many of the athletes go to parties at DePaul to meet “normal” people, haha, yikes! But my son decided to go for it! Chose the high-quality education and “prestige” of the Econ program. Hopefully it will all work out.</p>

<p>Sorry, probably doesn’t help much!</p>

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<p>getmoreveggies and OP:</p>

<p>Regarding whether UChicago has more “weird” (and less “normal”) students, especially vis a vis peer schools, I think it’s helpful to take a macro-look at the college. Please note, for a college of ~5500, UChicago currently offers 17 sports teams at the DIII level. Compare that to say, Princeton or Yale, which offer close to 40 teams for a smaller college population (both P and Y have around 5100 undergraduates) at the Division I level.</p>

<p>So right there, there are very meaningful differences in numbers. Maybe 7% of UChicago’s population play varsity sports at a relatively low college level. In contrast to that, maybe 15-20% of Yale or Princeton’s student body play varsity sports at a very high level. Y and P also have more robust, serious intramural and club sports programs.
Additionally, schools like Y and P are more likely to admit students for reasons other then academics (for hooks such as legacy status, alumni development reasons, etc.). </p>

<p>So, when you put it all together, the cultures at these schools are still pretty distinct. This is why UChicago probably still resembles MIT more than it resembles Princeton. MIT and UChicago probably take at least 85% (or more) of the class based on intellectual merit. At Y or P, unhooked intellectual merit probably only account for ~60% of the class. </p>

<p>I apologize if I’m generalizing about athletes but, especially at the D1 level, being an undergraduate athlete generally means that one pursues a certain endeavor (basketball, football, whatever) with probably equal zeal to one’s academic pursuits. Athletes very naturally then, tend to group together a bit (not all athletes, but a good number).</p>

<p>At UChicago, this pool of like-minded students is much, much smaller, and also forms a significantly lower percentage of the overall student body. This isn’t to say that Yale and Princeton don’t have very quirky, nerdy, students (they certainly do - look at their avg. SAT scores). This is, rather, to say that the percentages of “types” of students are very different at UChicago and many of its ivy league peers. </p>

<p>All this being said, the UChicago athletic community is probably still (as it was in my day) very tight knit. The vibe is probably different when the total size of the group is ~350, as compared to say, ~750 at peer schools. Personally, as the college has increased significantly in size, I thought it was time for UChicago’s athletic offerings and perhaps participation level (maybe moving some sports up to DI), to increase. This hasn’t happened yet, though, which demonstrates that the school is still focused on taking a higher percentage of the class for purely academic reasons. This decision cuts both ways.</p>

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<p>I did sit in on a class! It was History of Stat. And there’s a funny story to that as well! I stayed in Maclean, for all those wondering (there goes my anonymity), and I did like my host, just not some of the others there. My class was at 9:30 and I had to trek all the way across campus to the Logan Center in 30 degree windy weather (which for those of you not entirely familiar w/ campus is quite the walk). My host was awesome and walked me all the way there but when she dropped me off I was told that my class wasn’t in that building - and that the same thing had happened to other prospies the previous weekend and they didn’t change it. So I went off in a completely opposite direction again all the way across campus only to find my directions were to the wrong side of the street and that the stat department staffer was really rude when you asked him for directions twice haha. By the time I finally got there there was only 20 minutes left and thank goodness the prof didn’t call me to the carpet about being late, I probably would have been rather impolite and just flat out left. But he was marvelously nice and extremely knowledgable about stat (unfortunately it was a 200 level class so I didn’t understand much) and was exactly the kind of prof I wanted. I didn’t stay after to speak to him or anyone b/c at this point I was frozen and confused about life, so I did what every good kid does and ran back to my mom :wink: I’m very much like your first years, I don’t think I fit neatly into any one category of people there, I’m social but yet definitely introverted sometimes, but more often than not I’m definitely really social. I’m not terribly unique but I mean I love my soccer, I coach and I play (for fun), and I love being silly and having nice sober fun. I’m not a partier, but I am one of those people that if and when I didn’t have papers, readings, or problem sets, I would want to be going out on adventures about Chicago and such. It’s nice to hear from parents who have kids really similar to me that they’re doing fine albeit maybe having to venture out for more social people. I concur to some degree w/ the last poster, but I don’t think anything can happen anytime soon w/ those regards, there doesn’t seem to be the want nor the money to expand those programs. You definitely get some balance socially on campus w/ athletic groups though.</p>

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<p>Wow. There are a lot of stereotypes in this thread.</p>

<p>My Chicago kids were both very social, and neither had much of anything to do with varsity athletes. One was a hipster, the other a little nerdy by choice. Their social lives did not revolve around their houses, at least after Thanksgiving of their first years (one lived in a dorm with an anti-social reputation, the other in what was then the most social dorm); extracurricular activities, their majors, and plain old random connections were far more important in building their friendship circles.</p>

<p>I only know one kid from recent years who really hated being at the University of Chicago, and he was a football player of the type who thought that he had to go to DePaul to score with women. He had a cousin exactly his age who was a future NFL draftee living like a god at a top national program, and I don’t think the Chicago kid ever quite got over the difference between their experiences. He certainly wasn’t typical of most athletes at Chicago – I know others, not through my kids, who like it just fine, but they don’t spend any time wishing they were at Penn State.</p>

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<p>@gonnabefamous i stayed at Maclean too! for the first prospie weekend. everyone I met there was really nice, and although Chicago obviously has some “socially challenged” students as my host put it, there are definitely tons of kids who are outgoing and social. some kids in Maclean went out to a frat party when I was there, so it just goes to show that there’s a wide variety of people even within each house. My overnight weekend wasn’t amazing, but since it’s sort of a “choose your own adventure” it’s not really representative of normal university life. Also, all of the other prospies I talked to seemed super “normal” and were all really nice. I committed to Uchicago this week; I hope to see you on campus in the fall!</p>

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<p>@gonnabefamous It’s funny that you had that experience during your overnight, because I had the exact opposite problem. I stayed in Max and my host was a pretty strong partier who left with all of his friends to go to the frats sometime in the evening, and the ones who were left behind drank generously in the rooms. I didn’t meet any students who were “quirky” or “intellectual.” In fact, until I decided to go check out the Quiz Bowl later in the evening it seemed like I was at DePaul or UIUC (which was kind of disappointing because I was attracted to UChicago by its unique reputation). Reading your description of yourself, I’d say we are fairly similar, so our perspectives wouldn’t be too different. Our disparate experiences demonstrate how much of a spectrum there is at the school and that the people you met aren’t representative of more than a fraction of the student body, IMHO</p>

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<p>@luminalcoin8 Ah, that doesn’t sound fun either! It sounds like there’s a wide variety of people at UChicago, you just have to find your kind of people. I agree the people I met were probably just a small fraction. Where did you stay in Max? I was thinking that it was maybe the place I wanted to be if I attended, however, I’d prefer not to deal w/ that… but then again, there’s a variety. Are you committing? Where would you be thinking of dorming if so? I’m trying to narrow down options.</p>

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<p>I would normally say go for UChicago… but try to imagine your life over there is you really think you wont fit in. Its four years of your life. </p>

<p>Be sure to think of it over and over. If you do decide to go to UChicago, you better accept first that there are going to be a lot of socially awkward people there that may not suit your taste and that you have consciously and actively find a group that you would click with.</p>

<p>It should be clear in your mind that the “life of the mind” experience is worth the extra effort you will have to do to feel like you belong. If, and only if, you can do that should you rule out your other options. Let’s face it, your other options are not that bad… not better, as you already know in your mind but not worse either, as you already know in your gut.</p>

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<p>@gonnabefamous I stayed in Max Palevsky East, right across the street from frat row. I got in EA and committed almost immediately, so I have pick of the litter so to speak. Right now I’m looking at BJ, South and Snell-Hitchcock (for the location). New Grad is also on my radar, and so was Maclean (your posts, however, have made me reconsider that). Basically I have no idea where I want to live except not in Max or those smaller satellite dorms like Stony Island and Blackstone</p>

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<p>Why not in Max P?</p>