If you got the impression that UChicago is pretentious, you misjudged pretty badly.
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My impression is based on the essay prompts, but JBStillFlying just provided another argument by explaining how special UChicago is that it needs prompts that can’t be copy-pasted by other college essays.
That’s a good point. They want the universities which are the best in the world, not just the best in the US?
Often completely different, but it doesn’t follow that they are therefore meaningless. The top universities tend to show up at or near the top across a variety of rankings. Unless there are specific methodological flaws - for example, rankings systems that rely on other ranking systems as their input - it stands to reason that those are the “best” universities. That means they tend to have the deepest field of research expertise along with a relatively (to highly) selective undergraduate program. Not that top students don’t attend other universities or that every institution on every list has an incontrovertible placement.
Assuming that question mark is intentional and the answer is “yes” because they are seeking High Performance Individuals from all over the world and the visa program applies to those with undergrad as well as grad degrees (masters, PhD) from the subject institutions. This will naturally rule out a whole lot of American LACs, as one example of why the exclusion.
But isn’t it “pretentious” to be excessively consumed with rankings, reputation, self-worth, stature, etc.? For both the institution and many associated with it (especially parents of students), the term seems to fit like a glove. Even Chicago’s great pride in its supposed iconoclastic personality is somewhat pretentious, as is its belief in the superiority of its “core curriculum” approach, and its preoccupation with the supposed rigor. It is as if those who aren’t interested are looked down upon because they wouldn’t fit in or couldn’t handle the demands anyway.
For example, when a poster suggests that their kid was turned off by the “quirky” prompts, and the response is to suggest that Chicago is no place for someone who would rather avoid rigor and “cut and paste from other college essays” that’s pretty pretentious, is it not?
IMO, many associated with Chicago seem to have wholehearted embraced pretentiousness as its primary defining characteristic.
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Yes, and I don’t see how people justify paying the same tuition price for an LAC vs a top research university where the resources are unparalleled (and you can still take English and philosophy at these places while you’re learning the more practical disciplines). You’ve literally got a ticket to the world at these places; why settle for less (unless tuition is reduced?)
PSA: copy/paste is probably not a good idea for any college essay. These are far less a “throw-away” element of the application than many assume. Especially at the very top schools.
Now back to our regularly scheduled programming.
And yet, UChicago is the only one that has these pretentious essay topics. 
By asking these uncommon essay topics isn’t Chicago trying to discern who is “demonstrating interest” which helps with yield management, yes? Why is that such a bad thing??? I think that’s much better than simply rejecting high stats applicants like some other institutions apparently do…
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Judging from my personal experience, it is trying to discern pretentious from other students. Which, as I said multiple times, is a GOOD thing. It definitely helped my son to not apply there.
If he would’ve gone if the topics were normal and he applied? Who knows, the college is good for his major.
I don’t get it. What is pretentious about having an applicant do some work to apply? You see, that’s the problem with the CommonApp, anyone can just apply wherever they want with a click of the button…
It’s not the work, it’s the topics. You have to do some work to apply to any of the top universities.
There is no clear definition of what criteria makes a university “best”. There is also no validation that of how correct/incorrect different lists are in rankings of which universities are “best.” The fact that a lot of the same names appear towards the top of different rankings does not mean the rankings are accurate or meaningful. It often more relates to rankings lists choosing weightings to make familiar college names appear towards the top, which may make the list look more correct to typical readers who do not review methodology or criteria used in rankings.
“Best” does not mean anything of the sort to a large portion of students who are choosing undergrad colleges.
Unless the topics are outright objectionable, they probably don’t want to just see a “copy and paste job”. They want applicants who are truly interested in applying… Just my 2 cents, but maybe we have to agree to disagree.
Again, one more time, and for the last time. None of the other T20 universities want to see that either. But, UChicago and only UChicago uses these pretentious topics for its questions. If you don’t know what I am talking about, try to educate yourself.
If your child misjudged it as pretentious, clearly not a fit. The essay did its job.
ETA: It’s fine if your child is not a fit. UChicago was a perfect fit for my daughter but not my son.
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Or, on the other hand, maybe, he DIDN’T misjudge it?
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Variant perception
That’s funny. My D18 did the same thing about 4-5 years ago.
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