<p>My son did very well on his PSATs and the college promotional material started to flow in. IOHO (me, my wife, my son) the material from Chicago was by far and away the best. It was funny, stimulating, quirky, beautifully laid out, etc. Then we saw the line on the website about offering students a cupcake in exchange for giving directions and we were LOL. No one else had the nerve or cleverness or wit to try something like that. On a serious university website.</p>
<p>Our sense of it is that they're looking for a new type of student to come there. No more of this "where fun comes to die."</p>
<p>I love everything I've received from UChicago. While all of my other letters and such are in a box in the corner, Chicago's are on a place of prominence on my bookshelf. I'd never heard of UChicago before I got my first letter from them almost a year ago, and now it's my first choice. They're obviously very persuasive!</p>
<p>Part of what makes them so good is that they're NOT attractive to everybody. Some types of people -- the types that are good candidates for liking the University of Chicago -- react just the way all of you have. Some people find them too-too precious, pretentious, even.</p>
<p>They've been using pretty much the same strategy for quite a number of years. I've got news for you -- the students this stuff reels in are the same students who get the joke in "where fun comes to die" (and some of the other, saltier t-shirt slogans). Chicago has never lacked for wit. It's just not a very satisfactory place to go if what you are looking for is Stripper Night at the lacrosse party house, or a white-tie banquet at Porcellian.</p>
<p>Precisely! Once I joined the mailing list, and got my first "postcard", I was sold! Since the first one, I've looked forward to getting more and more things in the mail, just to see what they'll send out next! Recently, I got a really AWESOME viewbook in the mail. I'd had an extremely bad day, but seeing the little UChicago label, and "the Life of The Mind", I immediately perked up and spend the rest of my night oogling over the pictures and dialogue from the current students. Undoubtedly the best publications I've ever gotten! :)</p>
<p>I think the material is terrific. D usually just scans the stuff she gets, but she actually read Chicago's. If it didn't get so cold (right now she is saying "no cold weather") it would be one of her top choices, but if she applies, it will be a real reach. She got material from them last year and more this year, although her test scores (185 PSAT, 29 ACT composite) are at the very low end of the mid-50% range (grades and rank are good, though). Unless you count an interest in majoring in Arabic/Middle Eastern Studies and Psychology, there's no hook, either. Guess that, like everyone else, they send mail to kids who have little chance of getting in. Or does Chicago count the essay more, and test scores less, than most elite schools do?</p>
<p>Chicago's materials are by far the best out of any school I've consistently received. I swear if UChicago were just <i>not</i> in Chicago then I would have already sent in my deposit. I want out of the MidWest!</p>
<p>I absolutely love their materials. I probably wouldn't have even considered UChicago had I not received Life of the Mind and a bunch of other postcards, letters, etc. early last fall. And now they're my number one (: it's obviously working out for them.</p>
<p>Exactly. Their publications make you really feel like they value each person as an individual, especially the postcard series from last year. I was so bummed when they stopped that! But I agree, Life Of The Mind was great! I read it a couple of times... :)</p>
<p>I think Chicago will never completely live down "Where fun comes to die" (the t-shirts are still sold, anyway) but if anything, I would say that the school lives up to its viewbook and "Uncommon" image remarkably well. I have found a collection of smart, motivated, interesting people who are serious about academics but have a lighthearted, offbeat approach to life.</p>
<p>Chicago is not going to appeal to the student who wants college for the sole purpose of getting a job, so each student who comes here has distinct reasons for coming here. They are kids who want to be challenged and intellectually engaged and they want to have a core. I think those parameters have powerful results. And as for the cold, I really don't mind it all that much. And when it bugs me, I find it fun to laugh at it and then swear at it.</p>
<p>This is amazing! Nine responses in less than a day. It's nice to know that our tastes aren't that unusual and others have noticed the same things. OTOH, maybe it means that within this group, our tastes aren't unusual. So maybe that means this is where my son belongs.</p>
<p>I never got any stuff from Chicago before I was accepted, but when I got that card around the Holidays I thought, "Wow, this place is so awesome."</p>
<p>I love the stuff from U Chicago. It's like a tour guide. I wish they had my son's major. We will definitely go visit them, just to see the gorgeous campus. Didn't get to that part of Chicago last year.</p>
<p>When I started to recieve materials from Chicago, I was extremely impressed. In addition to the viewbook, the also sent this awesome guide of Chicago with information on local restaruants, theaters, and other student attractions called "Chicago Life." For a while it was my top choice, until I realized I loved my southern weather too much to give it up!</p>
<p>UChicago has amazing materials. Other scahools send mundayne crap that just wastes trees. Chicago shows you what they're about and makes you want to be a part of it. I will be going there in the fall and I can't wait. They send me copies of the news paper and stuff to let me know what is going on on campus. It is great. I feel like part of the school already!</p>
<p>And the materials don't stop once you get into UChicago. Every couple weeks I get something new from them in the mail. Whether it be a subscription to their newspaper, course handbook, stuff about your desired major, and my mom's friends who are UChicago alums bought me some U of C gear....they do a great job of "courting" you.</p>
<p>Every time I get a new piece of mail from Chicago, I wonder why they didn't spend the money on improving their horrible financial aid so I might actually have a chance of coming.</p>
<p>Still, it is quite clever. I love Ted O'Neill's letters.</p>
<p>^^ I would consider them horrible when peer schools have 100x better fin aid policies. Brown has like a 2b endowment and their fin aid policies are a hell lot better than Chicagos.</p>