<p>I'm a rising high school senior, and at my school the students have given UChicago this playful nickname based on the experiences of matriculated friends. I was just wondering: is there any truth to this? Are the rumors true that UChicago students do nothing but study and that parties/social life are non existent? How intense is it? Thanks!</p>
<p>I was wondering how long it would be before this myth raised its head again. A search of this forum will produce many threads dedicated to this topic.</p>
<p>Yes .</p>
<p>Myth?</p>
<p>The first day I arrived, they put me in my jail cell, handed me a book and said I had 3 hours until the first exam. Fortunately that day I passed and didn't have to go hungry...</p>
<p>Beefs and WindSlicer provided the answers I want to give when I see this question, but my internet personality is not known for sarcasm Here's my answer on the "Chicago FAQ" highlighted thread:</p>
<p>
[quote]
1. ... So, is this really where fun comes to die?</p>
<p>Short answer: No.</p>
<p>Longer answer: Only if you want it to be.</p>
<p>More eloquent answer: The "WFCTD" slogan was created by the residents of Tufts House in 1597 as a rallying cry/ secret handshake that dissuaded inherently unfun students from applying and to attract students who understood the slogan's humor and also understood that fun is immortal and fits pretty well in a suitcase. It's probably the school's best-selling and most ubiquitous t-shirt, next to "If I wanted an A, I would have gone to HARVARD."</p>
<ol>
<li>...I still don't believe you, unalove. Prove it.</li>
</ol>
<p>Uhmmm.... okay. So on top of lollygagging here on CC, I'm very involved in my job, my schoolwork, and my volunteering, and, of course, my friends. Tonight, for example, I'm procrastinating planning for one of my final papers. Tomorrow, night, though, I'm going to celebrate reading period in style by going to one of my favorite restaurants in the city with a bunch of my friends and then going on to celebratory activities.... Friday I'm going to see a movie at Doc Films, and Saturday, we'll see.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Somebody also pointed out to me that the bookstore sells plenty of shirts that are very rah-rah. We have all sorts of shirts that have our logo (and variants) spelled proudly and we have a shirt that lists all of our Nobel Laureates on the back. Some students wear the logo gear (particularly the Underarmor sweatshirts...mmm, comfy) but I've only seen one person wear the Nobel Prize one, and that was sort of as a joke-- it was right after Myerson, our most recent Nobellish dude, won, and he used masking tape to correct his shirt.</p>
<p>Anyway, what this all tells me is that U of C kids have the option of being all about pride, but that they don't feel the need to brag and boast. Instead, they like to be ironic and sarcastic about showing pride for their school.</p>
<p>Considering that I don't really jibe with the boastful aspects of "lookee me, I attend a top college!!11!! I am awesome!!!111!!! Please validate me by complimenting me on the fact that I attend such a wonderful and well-known school!!!111!!!" I relish "Where Fun Comes to Die" as an effort to work against that narcissistic and excluding trend.</p>
<p>S2 loves wearing the Nobel shirt to HS and elsewhere that his brother sent. (Probably bought more as gifts than anything else.) One day someone asked if U of C was a good school, he just smiled pointed at his shirt and said, "Most in the country."</p>
<p>LOL-- I remember when I first saw a "Where fun comes to die" shirt-- one of my friends (two years my senior) had picked it up during her first quarter first year and was coming back to my high school to visit over her winter break-- she was all smiles.</p>
<p>I reread the OP a little more carefully and I see that the OP has friends who have matriculated. If I were you, OP, I'd use your friends (or acquaintances) as valuable resources, and see if you can stay overnight at the University and if they are willing to give up floor space. (This is not uncommon-- a lot of my friends have high school acquaintances who stay over for a few days. Showing off your school is a point of pride for many).</p>
<p>I encourage you to come in on Wednesday night, visit a class/see some class syllabi on Thursday, and stay for Friday night. A "typical" Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday here all look very different-- different people will be studying or socializing each night, depending on their own schedules.</p>
<p>Another big difference in social life is the dorm and dorm personalities. Students who go for singles have the same amount of free time as those in doubles, but the students in singles are probably more likely to spend their free time alone. Pierce and Shoreland are probably the most social dorms, though they are social in different ways. Pierce is happy-go-lucky loud, with small rooms and a huge lounge, so everybody tends to hang out in the lounge together, and Shorelanders have huge rooms, so people tend to wander the hallways and collect in one person's room. (Big rooms also means big parties).</p>
<p>Max P is an interesting blend of social and quiet-- whenever I'm there, it seems like there are both going on in parallel. Max P rooms look a little less inviting than Pierce or Shoreland rooms, but Max has a lot of people relatively close together and those walls are frigging soundproof.</p>
<p>First-years tend to be a lot more frat-party oriented than upperclassmen, too, so if you overnight with first-years, they'll probably want to take you to themed frat parties or Wednesday night Bar Night. (Upperclassmen tend to find frat parties "lame," and because a good number choose to live off-campus or have friends who live off-campus, apartment parties are more the norm). It seems like in every dorm, every year, there's a cluster of people who are dedicated to the cause of Bar Night. In my house, Wednesday nights were more or less declared a lost cause as far as studying goes, and a bunch of my housemates clustered in the lounge to watch TV, play Guitar Hero, and outfit compare before heading out to Bar Night. If an observer were to hang out in my house lounge from around 7pm to 1am on Wednesdays, he or she would assume that the U of C was just like any other college anywhere in the nation. In some ways, the U of C is like every other college in the country. But when these drunken kids come back from their night of debauchery and start talking about The Birth of a Nation, you start to rethink that "typical college" aspect. ;-)</p>
<p>And, just a reminder... I live in one of the less social dorms.</p>
<p>If you overnight in any of those three dorms on three days in a row, I can promise you that you will rethink this "study all the time" image and will probably start to think along the lines of "study very hard but still have expendable time to do stupid things."</p>