hey I got into UChicago and am crazy excited and shocked by it but now am indecisive about going. My older brother went to UChicago and loved it and I visited him a bunch when he was in undergrad but that was like four years ago. I would consider myself weird in certain aspects but many if my friends are pretty normal/super social. In high school I’m friends with nerdy type kids but also roll with other crowds. After reading facebook posts and personal testimonies the idea of attending UChicago sounds nightmarish.
Obviously bc I applied and had an older sibling go there I know what I would be getting myself into. I know UChicago more than any other school but felt like I could always manage if I went there bc I like academics and weird kids. When I visited my brother I was obsessed with the people. They were super friendly, funny, and kinda quirky. However the kids I’ve seen online and met on campus were weird in a different way, like super outspoken and intense. Although I love dif ppl I don’t see myself finding friends with those crowds. Nothing against them, not saying anything bad I just personally am afraid I won’t find people I love if I choose to go. It’s a bummer bc I love the school but for some reason everyone I’ve met have a totally different vibe from the kids that went to school with my brother.
Sorry if this post was obnoxious, thanks if you read it all the way through. If anyone has any opinions about people on campus that be great. If I go, BJ will prob be my top dorm choice.
For what it’s worth, my friendly, funny, shy and kinda quirky daughter is a first year at UChicago now and really likes classmates she’s met through her house, in classes, and through extracurriculars. Which, presumably, is how your brother found his friends too. I think that tours and overnights are pretty artificial social environments and if you don’t luck into a particularly simpatico host, then the people who stand out can be people who are extreme, in one way or another. With 1600 people in your class, you will find the kinds of people you seek and it won’t be a needle in a haystack kind of search, they’ll hit your radar while you’re doing the kinds of things you like to do.
What are your other options?
I think you’ll find your people once on campus. Both my kids found the the online Facebook groups for their entering classes (2 different colleges) a bit scary and not their type of student. They chose to not engage and waited until on campus to meet people and make friends more organically. Facebook groups can be dominated by a few dozen people who spend time online. They aren’t indicative of the hundreds or thousands that make up a freshman class. Some of the more interesting people are too busy doing to be on-line (says the person who spends too much time online 
).
Chicago would be the negative for me move the university and it would be great! 
The noisiest, most obnoxious people always stand out in brief visits, either online or in real life. And there’s little question that Chicago has some noisy, obnoxious kids, maybe a little more than its fair share. But when you are there and in the flow of things, you can tune them out if you aren’t the kind of person who wants to mix it up with them. And, invariably, their edges soften over time, too. You can come to appreciate their less immediately apparent good qualities.
My son, a number of years out of college, shares a large apartment with two Chicago classmates. The three of them met in the same Sosc section on their second day of college. Both of the housemates – one of whom has shared an apartment with him for four years, and the other of whom is getting married to him this summer – are happy to recount how obnoxious they thought he was the first day they met. Luckily for him, they got to know him better over time, and they have been good friends for years and years (long before he got involved romantically with one of them).
Reflecting back on my own overnight visit to a liberal arts school (not UChicago), I barely saw those kids again for the next four years! Totally agree that the environment at the overnight is really not what you will experience once you show up for real. Your visits to your brother are probably a lot more representative as you were visiting him in his “natural” environment and meeting his real friends.
That must be disorienting, @sarah39 . You sound like you are ready for the academic challenge and for a pretty normal social environment. My kid is a first year and she is definitely not super intense. She has house friends and she values those friendships and she feels no need to be more extroverted. Don’t let the (loud?) people you happen to meet on campus turn you off. And consider the alternatives. If there is another school that just feels right then by all means you should trust your instincts. Just realize that what you have seen so far is an extremely limited and probably biased (toward extroverts) data set.
We call them “that kids” and let them say their piece. I can think of a handful I’ve taken classes with, but they aren’t that common. Or maybe I’m “that kid” in most of my classes and I don’t even know it.
Bingo. Especially agree that one’s house matters, though more in the closer-knit dorms (Snitchcock/BJ/I-House/Stony Island) than the larger and more impersonal ones (North, South, Max P). OP, if your first-choice house is BJ, you’ll be guaranteed a group of friends and acquaintances. Our houses are fairly close, but not cultish. I’m fairly (read: very) socially awkward, but by spending time in the house lounge and taking time to help others/hang out/do fun stuff with housemates, I’ve made a fair number of friends - most of them closer ones than I’ve met through RSOs or random interaction.
I’ll add that going to parties can help. I am not now, nor have I ever been, a party animal. I barely drink, I dance like a three-legged giraffe, and I can count the number of parties I’ve attended this year on one hand. Even so, just interacting with people in two different settings makes for a closer relationship. Familiarity breeds comfort - so if you see a classmate/RSO acquaintance at a party, or someone you met at a party in class/at an RSO meeting, they’ll naturally want to speak to you rather than a group of random strangers. You’ll probably have the same reaction. Interaction begets interaction, and with minimal social skills (a lower bar than you’d think) you can make friends.
FWIW, if you do end up in North, some of the Houses seem to have fun/interesting outings that bring people together – Botanical Gardens, Pilsen Art Walk, Second City, karaoke (and dinner) in Chinatown, apple picking in Indiana, etc. – as well as regular Movie Nights. It’s a less organic/more organized form of interaction initially, but one thing leads to another. Basically, a kind of “open invite” culture seems to have evolved in my kid’s house, especially wrt Saturday night (when the cafeteria is closed). And the CTA pass makes it easy (they meet in the lounge and walk to the bus stop together).
i know the type you’re referring to, and that turned me off a bit from chicago as well. but rest assured, chicago has a ton of nice, interesting people, and definitely has its fair share of introverts. you will find people you want to be friends with! I know like 15 people who are going and they’re all amazing people!
For goodness sake don’t go if your not sure let someone off the waitlist in!