<p>You liked the classes, the people, and the architecture. That’s pretty good, actually. You’d be seeing a lot of all three.</p>
<p>Did you get out into the city at all (the Loop, museums, north side neighborhoods, etc.)? Did you eat Chicago pizza, ride the ‘L’, or go out to the lake front? Did you wander around Hyde Park much? </p>
<p>Aside from academic rigor (which as MD Mom suggests, you can seek out elsewhere), is there anywhere else where you simply felt a better fit? </p>
<p>The main attraction at Chicago is the academics. There is a more or less rich extracurricular life, too, but compared to some other schools, admissions does not seem to do so much to “craft” that. Other than Scav Hunt there are not too many big institutional EC attractions like Princeton’s eating clubs, Dartmouth’s fraternities, or Big Ten football. Students are relatively left to their own devices to entertain each other. Some people are fine with that. Many others arrive on a college campus expecting a big people-watching “scene” such as you find in and around Boulder, Berkeley, Charlottesville, sections of Georgetown, Greenwich Village, or Cambridge. Hyde Park? Um, not so much … at least not at first glance. Some of my best memories of college social life are of quiet dinner parties in an apartment off campus. But then, I lasted about 15 minutes at a Grateful Dead concert. So it depends on what you’re after.</p>