<p>Ive heard that the University of Chicago's students are some of the quirkiest around.apparently they are pretty crazy about their academics.is it true.</p>
<p>haha, yea i’d like to know too! (actually was gonna post a thread of a similar nature)</p>
<p>i come from a pretty pretty high school… i’m guessing chicago is not preppy by any standard haha</p>
<p>To begin, there are more than 4000 of us, so it’s hard to generalize about character. </p>
<p>For example, consider the Breckinridge dorm. I spent a night there. My host kept a large knife under his pillow (with a case). While we were socializing in the lounge, someone came in dressed as a bear and began wrestling with people. Another occasionally wears dresses and is always twirling his hair. These kids are intelligent, but one doesn’t necessarily feel comfortable around them.</p>
<p>I assume there are ‘preppy’ kids in places like Max and SCRH. For example, I’m friends with a guy in my HUMA class who seems to wear bright Aeropostale hoodies and those jeans with holes just about every day.</p>
<p>Myself, I’m a Burton-Judson resident. I find myself wearing U of C hoodies more and more often. I like reading, a lot. I don’t drink and I’d rather do my laundry on Friday nights when no one else is. I enjoy socializing, but I prefer to do so when I’m sober and before midnight.</p>
<p>As I see it, it’s a large student body, and there are plenty of different sorts of people on campus. You just need to get in the right dorm, and you’ll be aOK.</p>
<p>All top colleges have a significant overlap in terms of the types of students present at a particular school. A big difference for Chicago is, that if you looked at the proportions of students present at a given top school, Chicago would have a higher proportion of the very nerdy, quirky, eccentric types.</p>
<p>Obviously, this quirk can manifest itself in different ways, but Chicago, by nature, is going to have more of the cape-wearing, bear-costume donning, dungeons & dragons playing crowd than most of its peers. </p>
<p>This proportion has changed in recent years. When I was at Chicago (around 10 years ago), the preppies were absolutely an outlier on campus, and the majority of the student body was more of either the pasty-faced, bookish, and nerdy type, or the hipster, Marx-Engels reading type. Now, I’m assuming Chicago has a higher proportion of the preppy lacrosse playing types. </p>
<p>How do these proportions work out exactly? Again, I’m not exactly sure, but I’m quite confident that Chicago has a higher proportion of the above types than its peer schools. Dorms like Snell-Hitchcock, Breck, Maclean, etc. seem to follow this mold a bit. Moreover, Chicago, with only about 10% of its student body involved in intercollegiate athletics, does tend to be a bit less athletic than many of its peer schools. Places like Princeton or Dartmouth have at least 20% of the student body playing very competitive D1 sports, and another 10% probably compete in very competitive club sports, so that changes the feel of campus quite a bit when 1/3 of your students are pretty elite athletes. </p>
<p>I think what is interesting about Chicago is that there is indeed tremendous disparity amongst the student body. You’ll have a prep crowd, a hipster crowd, a nerdy scav-hunt-crazed crowd, etc. There’s no set archetype on campus.</p>
<p>Please note, this fact can cut both ways. Also, unlike other colleges, Chicago has very few unifying themes and traditions. Some of the most-publicized student traditions actually tend to alienate a good number of U of C undergrads. For example, scav-hunt arouses a fervor on campus, but for each person who is really into scav hunt, you have another student that thinks the whole charade is bizarre and flat-out nuts. </p>
<p>So, at a Princeton or Dartmouth you have the eating club/frat culture that probably 60-70% of the student body partcipates in to some degree. At Chicago, I can’t think of ANY tradition or school-specific trend that draws in 3/4 of the student body. It’s just a more disparate environment. All the students tend to be more focused on their academics, but the points of similarity end there.</p>
<p>We. Are. Awesome. To prove this, I bring you anecdotes!
I present to you, Tales of Chamberlin! (That’s in BJ, folks)</p>
<p>1) During O-Week, most housing have some sort of outing in the city. For ours, we went to Millennium Park, had deep-dish pizza, and played ridiculous and childish games on one of the lawns (I’m talking freeze tag. I know. AWESOME.) People stopped and asked our Resident Heads what the heck we were doing, it was hilarious. Another house was doing a scavenger hunt, and asked us to sing a song explaining the Chicago flag. So, we rapped.
Moral of the story: NO SHAME!</p>
<p>2) We ARE intense about our academics. But in a good way! During finals week, one of my housemates and I were both writing SOSC papers at the absolute last minute. He finished at around 3 (they were due at 5), and at that time I still had to do my conclusion. So, he came up to my room and serenaded my roommate and I with Karl Marx specific versions of Neutral Milk Hotel songs. (Oh Comely = Ooooh, Karl Marx) We love our Marx at UChicago. Fun guy. There was also a picture of him on someone’s door that ended up with a santa hat on it, the caption “Santa Marx is coming to town” was later added.
Moral of the story: As my RA would say, UChicago kids have a big crush on learning.</p>
<p>3) An on-going prank war among the guys on the (all male) first floor has been…interesting. One guy literally alphabetized another’s room. He moved every single object in the room onto corresponding letters. Another time a large group of us made tons of paper chains (out of the Maroon, haha) and hung them all over someone’s room. Another time, a few of us walked into someone else’s room and found a perfectly crafted shadow monster. Someone had arranged a coat rack and a lamp so the shadow of a dinosaur could be seen on the window shade.
Moral of the story: Sure we work hard, but we also play hard!</p>
<p>4) On the fashion question. You will see all sorts of people at UChicago. Sure, there is the occasional prep, but they’re definitely overshadowed by a way more stylish and way more hilarious stereotype- the hipster. They all smoke outside of Cobb, so you can always count on an unwanted nicotine pick-me-up when you get out of class. But rest assured, while these creatures may dress and act differently than you, they still got into UChicago, so they’re still awesome. The fashion trend in my house last quarter revolved around one essential piece: the Cosby sweater. I’ve taken at least 3 pilgrimages to this really shifty thrift store way west of campus near 55th. At least 1/3 of my first year housemates are in possession of one of these sweaters, and next quarter I’m totally planning days on which we all wear them together.
Moral of the Story: Fashion doesn’t drive our lives at UChicago, but when we want it to, we go all the way.</p>
<p>5) The student body is quirky, and that means that everyone, even you, will have their quirks. I know people who beat box, sculpt glass, know ridiculous amounts of rap lyrics, blast Britney Spears while studying, build blanket forts regularly, really like the song Party in the USA, wear their grandpa’s clothes, wear shorts when it’s below freezing, are really into negative space, juggle, make balloon animals (that’s me, haha), are really good at ping pong. It’s important to know that once you know people, especially your housemates, their quirks are no longer weird to you. For example, I know that guy from Breck lasermouse9 mentioned who wears dresses. He’s an awesome person and he was invited to apply for an internship at Google this summer!
Moral of the Story: UChicago students know you can’t judge a book by it’s cover. Unless it’s an actual book and the cover art is really pretty, then it’s obviously a very good book.</p>
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<p>I - actually remember that. Oi, small world, yeah?</p>
<p>Really? What house are you in? We wondered who the heck you guys were, haha.</p>
<p>Also, I just noticed that I said “it’s” when I should’ve said “its” at the end of that long post, and I am very ashamed. Very. Very. Ashamed.</p>
<p>After reading your anecdotes I can’t wait to get to Uchicago. It would be just more than amazing to get accepted.</p>
<p>Ha. You’re making a pretty big assumption there, KMad, that I’m from the other house. (But you know what? Maybe I am from the other house!) ;)</p>
<p>To preserve some anonymity: the “other house” is Pierce-based.</p>
<p>Well I knew you weren’t from Chamberlin, because if you were, you would’ve said “BAW$$” or “REALLY!?” or something like that. We’re a fun group, haha. </p>
<p>And oh, I gave up on anonymity long ago…haha.</p>
<p>There’s lots of Chicago students from prep schools of various sorts, but I think very few of the lacrosse-playing, fraternity-joining types. For the most part, I believe they tend to play against type. The preppier students I know there are all public school products.</p>
<p>Cue7 is right about things like Scav Hunt. For many students, it may be the beating heart of their college experience, while at least an equal number of others wish it would go away and never come back. There is a sizable contingent of investment banker wannabes, and a sizable contingent of people who try to avoid dealing with the investment banker wannabes more than they have to. Out of all of its peer schools, Chicago may be the least arty, but the arts community on the campus is really vibrant, tight, and dedicated.</p>
<p>There is one thing, however, that unifies students, and unifies them perhaps more than at any of Chicago’s main rivals – being really into academic learning. People do lots of ECs, they party, they go do stuff in the city, but at the end of the day the classroom/course experience (and the preparation, papers, and tests that go with it) is central to almost everyone’s life. The hipsters, the pre-meds, the theater kids, the i-bankers, the math nerds, the newspaper people, the jocks and fratboys – they all get engaged in their classes; they talk about them; they work at them. What’s more, most of them (at least) really value breadth of knowledge. Most of them chose the Core, and most of them like being someplace where they share a pretty deep frame of reference with other students who have radically different interests. </p>
<p>Finally, I think there really is a University of Chicago style of argument, which is taught and practiced pretty systematically there. It involves (a) not being bound to politically correct positions from any political standpoint, (b) listening respectfully to other people’s positions and responding to them, looking for common ground, rather than belittling them, and (c) being rigorous about logic and evidence, and honest about the flaws in one’s own arguments. There is a lot – a LOT – of argument going on there all the time, but it is more respectful and much lower-key than you would find many other places – very little shouting at one another, and lots of let’s-identify-precisely-where-our-premises-diverge. That’s not for everyone – it’s very frustrating for people who WANT to be ideologues. But it’s great for a learning community, and it means that people with divergent politics seem to get along better there than they do almost anywhere else.</p>
<p>Every single student here is clinically insane. In fact, when they graduate, students are more commonly placed in mental institutions than jobs or graduate schools.</p>
<p>No, really. People here are probably just as quirky as they are anywhere else. What’s different about UChicago is that people here love others for their quirks. I feel like I don’t have to hide the fact that I sweep the floor in my room once a week, or that I like to listen to French techno when I’m doing my math homework. One of my closest friends participated in NaNoWriMo, even though she was already taking four challenging classes. She actually finished all 50,000 words too. But rather than writing her off as an insane freak, people love her for her abilities.</p>
<p>So, in short, if you want to be normal at UChicago, you can certainly do that. But I’d say the stereotypical UChicago student sees being called “normal” as an insult.</p>
<p>Going off what JHS was saying, I think the best way to capture the U of C tradition is this: The University of Chicago will teach you a way to THINK, but NOT a way to BE. </p>
<p>I agree with everything JHS said about the methods and approaches Chicago students take to their academics. Morever, the school certainly compels its undergrads to think systematically and rigorously about all sorts of problems and issues.</p>
<p>At the same time, there is absolutely no mechanism or movement on campus that really influences how the students ARE. What I mean is, at other schools, you have an archetype that, for whatever reason, seems to rub off on a lot of the undergrads. So I’ve had friends who have gone off to Williams or Princeton or Dartmouth, and they begin to take on characteristics that generalize the school. They become preppier or more interested in archaic sports or into the eating club culture or whatever, and, in that way, the institutional character of the place rubs off on them and modulates them a bit.</p>
<p>At Chicago, there is no such process. What continues to be interesting is, I meet people who seem to fit the mold of the archetypal “Princeton man” or “Dartmouth man,” but whenever I meet U of C graduates, besides there interest in learning, I have no idea about their affect or anything like that. (So when I hear “Princeton man,” I tend to think of someone who is preppier, etc., but when I hear “Chicago man,” or “Chicago woman,” I have no idea what that means - there’s simply no archetype.) </p>
<p>I’m sure trained sociologists would explain this much better than I can. My main point is, Chicago trains all of its graduates on how to THINK, but really does nothing that impacts how they ARE in a broad way. </p>
<p>Based on your perspective, this can be a positive or a negative.</p>
<p>UChicago students tend to carry their affinity for reasoned argument along with them when they travel. S1 traveled to another university for Halloween and in full, rather creative, costume got into a discussion of cults and their principles with a certain group who kept calling in veteran reinforcements (to no avail) to fortify their argument. The discussion drew quite a crowd. Finally, one of the students in the crowd said, “I have never herd anyone argue like that, you must not be from around here.” S1 said he was from U of C, the group he was arguing with immediately stopped. One of them said, “That explains it. We should have asked where you were from before doing this.” S1 said it was great fun and gave him a very warm U of C glow.</p>
<p>I have to add my two cents in here, too.</p>
<p>I’ve stayed a few times with a student at Breckenridge, and the folks there are on the odder end. However, when I went to go see a football game there a month or so back, the stands were full, and there was some hearty tailgating by UofC and CMU (the opponent) alumns and students. People do go to games, tailgate, bring snacks and beer, and have a good time. It was re-assuring for me to see this, as I’m looking to play football, and also would like to be able to find company which can talk about the game last night.</p>
<p>S1 and friends are avid football and basketball fans who attend games when they can. As a grad student in the early 1980’s (and I was old even for a grad student) my friends and I used to attend. In those days there was a Kazoo Band. Now I understand there is a real pep band performing at the basketball games at least.</p>
<p>i remember there being a group of people with marching instruments all in identical rugby polos.</p>
<p>i also forgot to mention:
I was also heartened by the fact that the games seem to be a community affair, and that it’s something parents take their kids to to spend a Saturday afternoon.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>U of C students like to talk a lot (evidence: this thread)</p></li>
<li><p>U of C students like to think a lot (evidence: your application process)</p></li>
</ol>
<p>The vast majority of U of C students probably look a lot like any other person of 18-22 years of age. They even like a lot of the same things you do: hanging out, watching hulu, sending each other text messages that they will regret sending later. </p>
<p>So yes, while there are definitely things that make the U of C experience the U of C experience, I’d also like to note that on a daily basis, the experience can be unremarkable-- in a good way.</p>
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<p>Texts from last night is one of my favorite Facebook groups.</p>
<p>“The vast majority of U of C students probably look a lot like any other person of 18-22 years of age… I’d also like to note that on a daily basis, the experience can be unremarkable-- in a good way.”</p>
<p>Nah - especially on aggregate, the U of C student body is very, very different from most 18-22 yr olds at most other american schools. Perhaps on a daily basis, the U of C experience resembles what you get elsewhere - kids going to classes, sending each other text messages, etc. - but especially when reviewed over a longer period of time, the U of C experience (especially socially) is pretty distinctive. </p>
<p>Again, I have to preface what I say with “maybe things are different now…” but I think it’s misleading to analogize the U of C experience to the more “normal” view of college. When looked at on aggregate, sure, the U of C experience might be somewhat similar to the life found at a couple other elite schools (Yale, Swarthmore), but a U of C graduate’s recounting of his 4 years is most likely going to differ substantially from someone who attended a Michigan or Dartmouth or Ohio State or Princeton or Penn or Georgia or Williams. </p>
<p>I have friends from all these schools, and sure, my days or maybe a week here and there resembled the experiences my friends at any of the above schools had, but really, when the conversation becomes more detailed, its sometimes stunning how different my U of C experience was to my peers who attended other colleges.</p>
<p>Again, the only common thread I can find is - outside of academics - there is no unifying theme to the U of C experience. Accordingly, while Michigan has football or Princeton has eating clubs, Chicago has nothing that ties together the social fabric of the school. Accordingly, we may somewhat resemble schools that are similar in structure (such as Yale, where the residential colleges - and not any more student-run traditions - are the centerpoint of undergrad life), but most american schools don’t have the sort of structure the U of C possesses. There is no dominating theme that weaves together the U of C social fabric, and, accordingly, there is then no archetypal Chicago student, or no real meaningful way to create a generalization of what a U of C student is like.</p>
<p>Once again, this sort of structure can be positive or negative, depending on the person.</p>