Saw the movie “The Martian” recently. Interesting movie. The main character Mark Watney announces that he is a Botanist and gives a shout out to his alma mater “The University of Chicago” 
Given the positive way in which he is portrayed and all the creative ways he stays alive on Mars, I think this will reflect well on his Alma Mater!
Watney’s character is a strong case for a well rounded education.
It’s a movie. Made in Hollywood.
Hollywood doesn’t usually pick UChicago, though. Can’t remember if it is in the book or not. But props to whoever for not picking HYPS for once as the “smart person’s college” reference.
Can’t wait to see the movie!
Unfortunately for your theory, in the book, Watney refers to his fellow students at U of Chicago as “hippies who … spent most of their time working out better ways to grow pot.”
Lol… maybe their spare time.
It’s for sure the character did not study mechanical engineering from Chicago.
On the other hand, Hollywood has picked UChicago in quite a few high profile movies over the years. For example, Harrison Ford’s fictional character, Indiana Jones got his PhD from UChicago in “Raiders of the Last Ark”; Anthony Hopkins’s character as a genius Chicago math professor in “Proof”; Billy Chrystal’s and Meg Ryan’s characters in “When Harry met Sally”.
I am sure there are more, but those few came to mind at the moment.
The president of Production at Paramount Pictures is a U of C graduate, Marc Evans
The other nice thing about the movie is that many of the situations (except for the dust storm at the beginning. Mars’ atmosphere is too thin to wreck such damage) depicted in the movie are plausible, well researched and based on scientific facts. So its not some weird fantasy movie with no grounding in reality.
I saw the movie today, and I agree with the above posters, but I could really see why his character supposedly went to UChicago. He had that spirit about him.