<p>orangetwee: aww, gee thanks :) right back at ya</p>
<p>my parents think princeton's in Canada so.....yeah</p>
<p>just sharing my humble opinion....</p>
<p>i don't care whether people recognise UChicago's name or not. in fact, exactly because it is not one of the so popular universities, i decided to apply there. i personally can't understand how can one possibly want to go somewhere just because of the prestige or anything. an example, a student from my school went to harvard and after two years came back in bulgaria, struggling with his drug addiction, caused by the enourmous stress he faced there. this is to show that even if you go to the Perfect School in people's eyes, it doesn't mean that you go to heaven.
and, now that i think about it, one of the reasons why UChicago is not veeery popular is because of its title, "The Life of the Mind". i wouldn't say that a lot of people can be drawn by such a phrase. not that this is bad, or that it means they are stupid, no. it's just what it is- reality.
I like that not many people apply to UChicago, I like that it is known as the place where fun dies- because it is that kind of fun where a bunch of children drink beer (the coolest thing on earth) and make out with each other= what i did when i was very silly and just 15. </p>
<p>to cut the long story short :P UChicago is UChicago because of all this. If someone doesn't like it, well, there are other wonderful schools which are very popular among the masses :) and a person can have great fun there.</p>
<p>
[quote]
caused by the enourmous stress he faced there
[/quote]
</p>
<p>To say UChicago's a stress-free place? :) </p>
<p>Actually, I've found Chicago's reputation to be quite good, although when I tell people I've applied there, most respond, "Isn't that the place where fun goes to die?" I like that it has a positive academic reputation, but it's not the type of place people apply to just "for the fun of it" or "to see if I can get in."</p>
<p>about that stress, it's just what i've heard, nothing surer, but my impression is that in most schools the atmosphere is pretty competitive, while in Uchicago not so much. that's what i meant under "stress" and not so much academic toughness/ rigour?</p>
<p>Well good news everyone! My family is well extended in China, and my dad just came home from a business trip, and knowing his braggish self (indeed, for most "traditionalist" families, if I may say so myself), he tried bragging about me getting into UChicago, and guess what. It worked! Everywhere he went, people knew Chicago's name, if not only for their "outstanding" economics department. My cousin, who interned in France absolutely was taken back at Chicago. </p>
<p>Lol, weird thing is though that people oer 4000 miles away know of UChicago, but my own friends in Stockton, California still give me a blank stare. Oh well.</p>
<p>It seems that the farther you go from Chicago, the more prestigious it is. In Chicago I get "so you go to UIC," about three hours from Chicago I've gotten "is that a community college," at home I get "why did you go there?" and when I was in Europe a couple of years ago I got "Wow."</p>
<p>A few comments..and facts, if I may.</p>
<p>1.- U of Chicago, does get confused ALL THE TIME with U of Illinois-Chicago, which really irritates their students ( as you can see from this thread ). Those who do not want to acknowledge that are just not being honest.
2.- U of Chicago is a top ranked university but it is NOT an Ivy League. Face it.
3.- U of Chicago students are well known for their knowledge of useless trivia. (that's the big joke at Northwestern, and a true stereotype )
4.- U of Chicago students are extremely cut throat and competitive. The environment is very stressful. A+ high school grades turn into C+ for a lot of top high school students which further add to their unhappiness and depression.
5.- U of Chicago's campus is not as pretty as the ones from other top universities.</p>
<p>I feel that it is clear that making the decision of which college to attend is not an easy one. Most people will tell you that you need to visit the place. I know of students that have turned down Harvard for the University of Chicago because of specific circumstances. You need to make sure that the place you go to makes you "complete" ( jezz..now I sound like Tom Cruise ) and all these things apply, otherwise, we would not be obsessing over them in these threads.</p>
<p>I am not in a position to rebuff any of your comments, MovieBuff, except point number 5. Chicago is the most beautiful college campus I have ever been on. Since I was old enough to talk, my dad had been brainwashing me to love Yale (he went there), so in my head it was the epitomy of the best college in the world, so I grew to love the collegiate gothic architecture at Yale (modeled off Oxford). When I went to Chicago, I found that its architecture was even more interesting and lovely. I felt the U was full of more nooks and crannies than Yale, which really appeals to me. I say U of C is tied with Yale's campus, my dad will only say its his second most favorite one. </p>
<p>Aside from how I interpret the campus to be, the campus is also an official botanical garden, so I don't know how you can call the campus "not pretty"!</p>
<p>Not to turn the conversation into this, but please, I took classes at Penn, have walked all about MIT and Harvard, stayed over at Columbia--none of those schools hold a candle, imo, to Chicago (or Yale) as far as campus aesthetics are concerned. Harvard's boring federalist architecture can put me to sleep, MIT is a giant building, Columbia is small and nice but not great, Penn is more modern with interesting architecture but nothing to blow anyone away (except Locust Walk).</p>
<p>It is true, UChicago is not Ivy League, it has no Division I sports teams. Some may be upset with that others may like it, but the fact that it doesn't is irrefutable. It does have a good Div. III team, however!</p>
<p>I think we can also rebuff points one through four..
1. Yes, Uchicago is not in the Ivy League. It did not join an eastern seaboard athletic conference. Neither did Stanford, MIT, Caltech, Duke, Rice, and other top universities. Clearly, this tells me nothing about the quality of Chicago's education.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>what useless trivia are you referring to? Do you mean knowledge that can't be applied directly to a profession? I believe that the purpose of a liberal arts education is not to learn a trade, but rather to enrich yourself through learning. </p></li>
<li><p>I have NEVER heard of Chicago students being cutthroat competitive. My ex tells me that students there sit in big groups, in the library, in their houses, or in coffee shops, working together through problem sets and editing each others' papers. </p></li>
<li><p>As for the UIC confusion, I don't see much problem in that. Generally people don't define themselves by the school that they go to. If you want to impress someone with your intellect, do it with your intellect rather than with an academic logo.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>As everyone else has said,
1. It gets confused mainly by people in Chicago since almost everyone in the city went to or is very close to someone who went to UIC. That's no surprise, especially when people just refer to the U of C as "Chicago." I've actually never encountered this myself, but I don't think it would bother me much. People in MA think of UMass -Dartmouth when people say they go to Dartmouth. Whatever, it happens.
2. Besides what others have said, Chicago's rank is in the same ballpark as the Ivies (think #9: Chicago, Dartmouth, and Columbia).
3. Ooo, knowledge beyond a career. What a crime. What a horrid, horrid thing for a school.
4. The environment can be stressful due to the amount of work and the challenging classes. It is not cut-throat in the least. People talk about classes together regularly, exchange papers to edit before turning them in, study together, tutor each other, and help each other out.
5. I would say that this is certainly a matter of opinion. I think that Chicago has a better looking campus than MIT, for instance.</p>
<p>^^^^ You have rebuffed nothing!</p>
<p>1.- It is not an Ivy League university.
2.- Useless trivia= Knowledge that can not be applied to ANYTHING. Obscure, little details on any subject matter that you could only use to play games with people. I see it done ALL the time.
3.- U of C students are paranoid about their grades and GPAs! I find it actually embarrasing. They are extremely defensive on the topic. Very cutthroat behavior!
4.- U of C does get confused ALL THE TIME with a University of Illinois in Chicago, even by long term Chicago residents.</p>
<p>You have stated your opinion about how these points do not matter to you, or should not matter much to others, but you certainly have not rebuffed any of these well known facts!</p>
<p>Troll alert!!</p>
<p>I would recommend ignoring MovieBuff. You can put him/her on your ignore list if you like. I personally find that very helpful.</p>
<p>For whatever reason, he/she doesn't care for the University of Chicago, and that's perfectly OK. But if you let him/her get under your skin ... well ... that what MovieBuff wants.</p>
<p>Up to you, of course, but I'd just write him/her off.</p>
<p>MovieBuff: all your points are merely your own opinions and don't really matter when somebody is considering u chicago as a school. </p>
<p>trivia useless? i find this ironic coming from somebody called moviebuff</p>
<p>Uh, when did I say I didn't agree with, say, the fact that the U of C isn't an Ivy? I'm not debating the veracity of your points; I'm telling you that they're bad ones. If you can't see that difference, then you wouldn't survive your first quarter in hum at the U of C. </p>
<ol>
<li>Duh.</li>
<li>So? Is this a bad thing?</li>
<li>Paranoia: Delusions of persecution... I really don't think students here are paranoid about their GPAs. They do tend to keep them private, except perhaps among close friend. That's called being an adult and recognizing what information it is polite to share--SAT scores, GPAs, and income levels are not on that list.</li>
<li>Again, so? Yes, the person at the grocery store downtown may think you go to the state school. The person interviewing you for an internship will not.</li>
</ol>
<p>^^^ I think you should take a deep breath. Relax. There is plenty of excellent students that are dying to go to U of C. It is an excellent school, with strong academics and a great reputation in spite of the fact that it is not an ivy league school, gets confused with a mediocre state school all the time, etc, etc, etc.</p>
<p>Tarhunt is of course right. I couldn't help myself. I didn't want prospectives to come on here take Buff's statements at face-value.</p>
<p>There is, to me at least, a singular beauty in the accumulation of inconsequential information. A little trivia, you never know, can go a long way. </p>
<p>"It is, of course, a trifle, but there is nothing so important as trifles." --Sherlock Holmes</p>
<p>corranged:</p>
<p>You know, people are really pretty perceptive most of the time. I'm a psychologist, but it really doesn't take a psychologist to figure out what's going on with someone accepted EA at Harvard who comes to a board to taunt people from his safety school.</p>
<p>I think most people will get what's going on.</p>