Just found UChicago is going to staff its 20th varsity team in women’s lacrosse.
http://athletics.uchicago.edu/general/2016-17/releases/20170118dcfam3
At least Chicago’s sports have been on the rise since the demise of the original Monsters of the Midway.
The high schoolers are not ignorant. They follow the rankings, as do the parents and counselors. By ignorant , I mean the masses out there in general who think Penn is a state school and UChicago is a city school.
You all should listen to high school students interested in Penn whining about how everyone confuses it with Penn State.
“University of Chicago” is a great, classy name. No one outside of Illinois has ever heard of UIC, so no one confuses it with UIC. I’m sure there are people who have never heard of it who assume from the name that it’s either public (like the University of Houston) or Catholic (like the University of San Francisco or the University of Providence). Unless they happen to have heard of New York University, or the University of Rochester, or Syracuse University, or Boston University. I’m not going to worry about those people.
If you change the name, what are you going to do with the Chicago School of Economics?
Do you really think “University of Chicago” is less classy than “Leland Stanford, Jr. Memorial University”? Or all those universities named for what now seem like historical nonentities with some money once upon a time? Elihu Yale, Nicholas Brown, Jr., Ephraim Williams? John Harvard, an undistinguished clergyman who died at 30? Some of the more recent names still spark some recognition – Cornelius Vanderbilt, James Duke, Leland Stanford, and of course John D. Rockefeller. But how much do you know about their contemporaries Ezra Cornell or James Wharton?
University of Chicago may be a classy name, but it is not a memorable one. It doesn’t matter if the person it is named after was significant - it matters if you associate the name of the university with the great university attached to it.
The words “Harvard” or “Yale” or “Stanford” or “Oxford” or “Johns Hopkins” automatically spark recognition and the association is retained in the mind. “Chicago” does not do that, nor does “Pennsylvania.” There are too many other possible associations.
@ThankYouforHelp I can second on the positive transformation of Hyde Park in the last 15 years. Hyde Park in the 1980’s was not a pleasant place to stay. The vibrant scene around 53rd and Lake Park Ave right now was then a pretty down in dumps area in early 1980’s. Hyde Park today is much safer than 30 years ago. I stayed at the Hyatt Place a couple month ago. I could barely recognize 53rd Street with all the new shops and restaurants.
As for prestige of U of C, I am of the minority view: I am fine with the lack of name recognition among common people. If my second cousin’s son’s girlfriend’s mom has never heard of U of C or even confused it with UIC, what do I care? All it matters to me is that people in my professional circle knows and value the U of C brand name.
I still remember many years ago I had to go to a west coast luxury resort hotel for a business trip. I was wearing my U of C Nobel Laureate t-shirt to the poolside restaurant for a casual breakfast. A smartly dressed gentleman walked by and nodded approvingly at me and said “Ah, U of C.” Then he pointed at himself and said “PhD '82”. We both smiled at each other and felt like we belonged to an intellectual brotherhood in arms.
What’s the Nobel T shirt. BTW, Columbia is every bit as Nigel rich as Chicago and they are both ahead of all other
US schools in that regard.
"Nobel@
How’s the safety around the South dorms and Logan Center and that area? Female walking alone at 10 p.m.? Female crossing the midway alone, back to South dorms or BJ at 10 p.m.? (By the way, are there any female Chicago students who are answering questions on CC right now? Cause a different perspective on safety.)
@Chrchill For many years at U of C Bookstore you could buy a t-shirt that listed all the Nobel Laureates associated with U of C. And once every few years they would update that t-shirt with the latest Nobel Laureates. Unfortunately two months ago I went to the Bookstore and that t-shirt was no longer available.
@Lea111 We have church friends who have daughters staying at the South. I think they either just walk back to the South in groups or take the UGo Night Ride Shuttles which operate at truly college students hours: until 4:00 am on weekdays and 6:00 am on weekends.
Keep the name. The name was for me part of the allure of the place 50-plus years ago when I attended the College. With all its high intellectualism it is a school in a very big city - not in some faux-pastoral college town. The university’s students and faculty have likewise tended to the unfashionable, both in thought and behaviour. They were historically very serious kids who defined themselves almost entirely on the basis of intellectual achievement. The plain democratic name suits the place, reflects its history and has an unostentatious elegance.
I took at a Google Earth view of the South. In 1980’s we wouldn’t dare to walk south of 61st Street. I am truly astounded that U of C decided to place the South at where it is.
However, it must be dirt cheap for U of C Administration to scoop up the land there. Still I would be nervous too if my DD stays there. My wife last night just joked that she hoped the windows on the South were bullet proof.
@Lea111 I think you may have posted on the wrong thread, lol, but on campus, and on the midway in particular, there are guards literally every block. It’s the safest area.
I am not female, sorry, but I can relay what my friends who are say about how safe they feel. I won’t pretend there’s a difference (some of them won’t walk to/from the Cottage Grove green line station alone after dark while I do), but I think most people feel comfortable on campus at all hours.
@HydeSnark Just curious: if you don’t mind answering, where do students study these days? In my days College students either went to Harper or Reynolds Club. Grad students went to Reg. Crerar just opened when I was there and even though I was not a science student, I spent a lot of time there because it was modern and quiet.
@85bears46 People study in their dorms, in Harper, in Stuart, in the Reg, in any of the coffee shops, in Crerar if you’re a masochist, in the o-institute reading room, in the law library, in random chairs in the hallway (looking at you, Saieh)…the list goes on and on. The real question is where people don’t study.
@HydeSnark Do people actually study at Mansueto (or Divergent Library as my daughter calls it) ? It looks like a major social gathering place.
@85bears46 Mansueto is designated a quiet zone, it is a major social gathering place insofar that studying is a major social activity at Chicago. Under those parameters it is a massive social hub!
@85bears46 I don’t cause I live in BJ and I’m not walking all the way there. There are always people in it, though, so yes, people study in there. I just kinda consider it a part of the reg that’s a bit less depressing.
@Lea111, my daughter is in BJ right next to Cathey cafeteria and South. She has had no worries as there are people walking about, security posted on street corners and she is usually accompanied by friends on outings back and forth the midway but not always. She absolutely loves BJ. But South looks pretty cool too. I think it is probably really different than some time back when some of the parents went to UChicago.