<p>What are the best/worst things about this school?</p>
<p>Best - great reputation
Worst - location/crime and cost</p>
<p>Best—Intellectually interested student body, reputation, academic rigor
Worst—Cost, some intellectual snobbery</p>
<p>as told by an alumni family member…</p>
<p>best: unparalleled academic experience that teaches you how to really think
worst: unparalleled academic experience that really stretches your thinking</p>
<p>best: its great reputation will guarantee you a 6-figure income for the rest of your life as long as you live up to the level of your education; also, its academics are probably the best on the planet</p>
<p>worst: students with dual inferiority/superiority complexes who feel it their duty to defend the university from the smallest slight, yet secretly lament not getting into Harvard because their lower-middle class relatives think that UChicago is a city college</p>
<p>“worst: students with dual inferiority/superiority complexes who feel it their duty to defend the university from the smallest slight, yet secretly lament not getting into Harvard because their under-educated relatives think that UChicago is a city college”</p>
<p>Does this post extend from some self-reflection, Phuriku?</p>
<p>Cue7: In some sense, yes. I was certainly disappointed (and rather offended) when my relatives from Indiana had never heard of UChicago. I now live in Japan, and somehow UChicago is more well-known among the common population here than 100 miles away from Chicago. Very frustrating, indeed!</p>
<p>On the other hand, I’m sure your comment was also intended to mock my support of the University. If you ever looked at my post history, though, you would find that I actually have leveled quite a bit of criticism toward the University; in particular, I have always opined that some departments are so intellectual that they are harmful to the rigor espoused by the University. I do defend the University against nonsense attacks that can be quickly disreputed by statistics, though.</p>
<h1>6: Does this post extend from some self-reflection, Phuriku?</h1>
<h1>7: I [Phuriku] do defend the University against nonsense attacks that can be quickly disruputed by statistics, though.</h1>
<p>Is this true? I have an impression that you sometimes attack others [defend UChicago against others attacks in your thought] using statistics with the mind possessed with dual inferiority/superiority complexes. </p>
<p>Lets think about the life of the mind philosophy of UChicago. </p>
<p>The president Edward Levi said,
“The University of Chicago…does not exist to increase the earning power of its students…[The University] does not exist to train the many technicians needed for our society, nor to develop inventions important for industry…The University of Chicago exists for the life of the mind
. It exists to increase the intellectual understanding and powers of mankind.”</p>
<p>Professor Zimmer said that
Thus, an education is called for that embraces both specialised knowledge and a synthesising, integrating perspective across disciplines…[And such an education should be focused on] teaching students a habit of mind to integrate ideas, to understand problems from multiple perspectives, and to challenge conclusions that may be too deeply rooted in only one perspective.</p>
<p>I do respect this life-of-mind philosophy of UChicago, more generally liberal arts education at the US colleges. And I know that most UChicago students leaned a habit of mind to integrate ideas, to understand problems from multiple perspectives, and to challenge conclusions that may be too deeply rooted in only one perspective. However, sometimes this was failed for one group of students with dual inferiority/superiority complexes and/or for other group with only academic focus neglecting broad college experiences: they cultivated the mind, intellectual and analytical but narrow and unbalanced (lacking multiple perspectives), which existed only to increase the intellectual understanding and powers of UChicago.</p>
<p>Evidence? some posts by Phuriku attacking others.</p>
<p>ok mom of a HS Jr. here. S has U Chicago high on his list. I’m open for comments on our good and worst impressions of this school so far.
The good- intellectual fit for S. Student body and professors.
The worst- Location. As a parent I’m concerned about the crime. Most people react to sons interest of this school by saying U. Chicago offers an excellent education but the winters are brutal and the crime is high. We are from NYC, I grew up near Baltimore and went to school in Philly. Is there a big difference?</p>
<p>muf123. Son was accepted this spring and he is attending next Fall. We are from a mid-size city in the South, so UChicago will be quite a change for my son. However, I have visited and known Chicago for decades, including the area around UChicago (Hyde Park), and I’ve always though the University and city were world class overall. The area around UChicago is pretty nice, but like all urban campuses you’ve got to be smart about where you go and what you do. The campus itself feels safe, and the campus police force is visible and substantial. The students there appear relaxed and comfortable. At the end of the day, the intellectual fit of the University was overwhelmingly positive for my son and so the decision was made.</p>
<p>You will get many opinions on this topic, but one thing I would recommend you doing is to look at the actual crime statistics and compare them with other campuses. Of course I would also recommend visit(s) where you can drive and walk around Hyde Park and the other surrounding areas. You can talk to teachers, students, administrators about your concerns and I expect this will help you draw a conclusion. Best of luck to your son.</p>
<p>Best - pound for pound probably the most intellectual, and intellectually stimulating university out there. Not for the faint at heart.
Worst - I got a lot of grief at the Northwestern forum here on this, being located in Chicago. As I write this a student is currently missing & hasn’t been found. See link. Last year Northwestern University student Harsha Maddula went missing & was found dead of “accidental drowning.” I was ridiculed for not having liked Chicago during my visit there (I didn’t attend either campus just visited Chicago), but it’s just my opinion. I think Chicago is it’s own worst enemy. Two students missing in one year and no one seems to think there is a problem in the nation’s homicide capital. I pray they find Ausin Hudson-LaPore alive & well.</p>
<p>[University</a> of Chicago Student Austin Hudson-LaPore Missing Since Wednesday (VIDEO) : News : University Herald](<a href=“http://www.universityherald.com/articles/3564/20130615/university-chicago-student-austin-hudson-lapore-missing-wednesday-video.htm]University”>University of Chicago Student Austin Hudson-LaPore Missing Since Wednesday (VIDEO) : Students : University Herald)</p>
<p>muf123: Both of my kids are recent University of Chicago graduates. I live in Philadelphia; the first ten years I spent here I lived near the University of Pennsylvania, and I am still in that area regularly (like, last Saturday night). I have also lived in Washington DC, New York City (Manhattan), and various places in the Bay Area. One of my kids still lives in Chicago, the other is in Brooklyn. </p>
<p>That’s all background.</p>
<p>Chicago, the city, is magnificent. A great place to visit, a great place to live. Way more exciting than Philadelphia or Baltimore, not as impressed with itself as New York. Like everywhere in the northern half of the country, there is winter, and sometimes it’s extremely cold, but people – being as intelligent and adaptable as humans are – cope with it fine. Much of civilization since the Renaissance has been developed in climates as cold or colder than Chicago in the winter. There is also crime in Chicago, but like most places with high crime rates, its crime is pretty localized in places where University of Chicago students aren’t. As with any university, including places that are seen as completely safe, there is a fair amount of petty theft; you can’t leave a bicycle unlocked, or a laptop unattended. There are also occasional muggings, but not at a higher rate than you would see at any urban university, including Harvard, Yale, Brown, Columbia, Penn, Hopkins, Georgetown, Vanderbilt, Rice, USC, UCLA . . . It affects students’ lives very little. As you well know, many more students have been maimed or killed by a criminal at Virginia Tech in the past decade than have been maimed or killed by criminals at all of those colleges put together.</p>
<p>Hyde Park is a sleepy, leafy, affluent neighborhood near some poorer neighborhoods. It’s like the nice, more established (and less hip) parts of Brooklyn, say Park Slope, or Mt. Airy in Philadelphia.</p>
<p>Kids’ and parents’ reactions to the University of Chicago aren’t based on fact, however. Generally – and I hate to say this – there is a huge component of racism involved. Visitors see African-Americans walking around the streets, and not all of them are wearing preppy clothes, and the visitors get scared. Most students get over that within a few weeks after they start, if they ever were “under” it in the first place. But if you think your student is so crippled that he could not get over it, and would live in constant fear if he were at Chicago – then, by all means, find somewhere that feels safe for him to go. Princeton, Stanford, Cornell and Dartmouth are all fine colleges that qualify. He won’t be any safer there, but at least you will be able to think he is.</p>
<p>I hope they find the kid who vanished, and that he is alright. But it sounds unlikely that he was murdered. And if he was, he would be the first Chicago undergraduate in forever to have that happen to him.</p>
<p>Best- Great education/ amazing opportunities/ classical teaching/ great dorm system/ not bad food</p>
<p>worst- Reputation for being anti-fun/ quirky (bad if you’re not quirky)/ athletics not popular/ party scene not as great as a lot of other big schools (but definitely not as bad as its reputation holds it to be)</p>
<p>So I’d say the best part is the education and the worst part is probably the social life, but then again any college’s social life is what you make of it and this school is big enough that you will definitely find some like minded people, no matter what your mind is like.</p>
<p>Worst: Annual Latke-Hamantash debate
Best: It happens only once a year</p>
<p>bad: so good that it tends to attract haters like lousyusername</p>
<p>good: there aren’t that many of them</p>
<p>Good: posters on uchicago threads respond with reasonably well to trolls like me.</p>
<p>Bad: they still defend precious inanities like latke-hamentash</p>
<p>Pros:</p>
<p>While the workload is hard, you feel yourself constantly growing both intellectually and in terms of your capacity to multitask / organize. It is hard not to deny you are a better student term after term. </p>
<p>Most majors are geared towards preparing you for graduate studies in related areas, which is better than a weak pre-professional focus given that most areas of employment require increasingly specialized training beyond college. </p>
<p>Strong general prestige and some major specific cache depending on your profession (I had no idea that an economics or math degree from Chicago was considered something special outside of academia until I began working). My thought was no one in the high end corporate / research world would really care. </p>
<p>Cons: </p>
<p>Although UChicago has found a better mix between the very cerebral and the type A overachiever types over the last decade, there is still a subset of otherwise bright students who are neither strikingly smart nor very goal oriented, and seem to regard college as a mix of book club and self-exploration. At schools one notch up the selectivity scale (HYPSMC), these students are missing.</p>
<p>UChi is different from many other colleges. Any student who is not fully ready to work hard and face teachers who are remarkably smart and rigorous in what they expect should go somewhere else. There are plenty of other respected colleges where talented students can have more fun, but there is probably only a couple of other universities like UChi (i.e. Caltech, MIT) where students are so beaten down (in a good or bad way depending on the student) academically.</p>