<p>The</a> Daily Pennsylvanian :: Hayley Brooks & Ali Kokot | Bring back the banter</p>
<p>Interesting op-ed posted on the Penn student paper today. While I highly doubt Penn is as pre-professional as these students attest, it's probably worth noting that I don't know if I could ever see a UChicago student posting a similar op-ed in the Maroon decrying a UChicago culture only focused on getting "the high-powered job." </p>
<p>Thoughts?</p>
<p>Wow, that’s unusual–someone at an Ivy League school who doesn’t think the only purpose of a college education is getting a job on Wall Street.</p>
<p>(I was taking a course in Itunes for fun about the American Revolution in which the professor mentioned in passing the fact that during the time of the Founding Fathers the height of sophistication for guys (“gentlemen”) was to write plays and poetry and belong to learned and literary societies. Those days are long over in America. LOL! If you can’t make a buck with it, why waste your time?)</p>
<p>That’s what make UChicago unique–the fact that so many people there actually still care about the life of the mind.</p>
<p>(UChicago aside, I find it easier in general to have a real conversation with someone in Europe rather than in America; here the only topic comes down to “What do you do?”</p>
<p>That article demonstrates both that Penn and Chicago really are different – it is absolutely, positively impossible to imagine such an op-ed in the Maroon, other than as deadpan sarcasm – and that their differences aren’t absolute at all – there are plenty of Chicago-type people at Penn, and vice versa. (Well, maybe not so much vice versa.)</p>
<p>I think the thing about UChicago is that we appreciate academic passion as well as professional success - there’s such a culture of the Life Of The Mind, but every student still goes to CAPS (Chicago Careers Programs) and can find that their future goals are facilitated - whether in Higher Education, Law, Business, Medical Professions…etc. I have conversations with my roommates about everything from resumes to Durkheim.
It’s like there’s a very flexible sense of ambition here, one that’s open to almost anything.</p>