Is there anything truly sucky/awful about going to UChicago? I might be going there next year for biochem or molecular engineering but I want to be fully prepared before I commit.
Things like coursework, flexibility, atmosphere, campus vibe, greek life, food, cows, competition, financial aid, or any other thoughts, pls shoot.
Thanks!
Lol. There are a few readers on this website. Search and you will find them. Private Message them and they will give you an earful. They seem to have a special bone to pick with UChicago
sadly I have not seen a single cow on campus 
Weather, workload, nerdy student body.
Cows?? I think OP was also posting in the Cornell thread and just copied/pasted over to UChicago thread. OP, I thought that you were still waiting on the Waitlist? While it still may be possible to get off, I think it’s OK to put your energies wherever you have been accepted. Have you been accepted to Cornell? It looks like you got accepted to CMU- a great school.
@goingnutsmom :">
Ok you caught me – I need help deciding between going to Cornell and sending a first choice letter to UChicago and I was hoping these comments could push me one way or the other. I was reading another “Drawbacks” forum and it actually made me like the school even more so I was wondering what ppl had to say here. (and thanks about CMU!)
Honestly if the choice is between here cornell or cmu, either of those places is going to arguably have exaggerated versions of the problems uchicago does. CMU is going to be much much nerdier (plenty of normal people go to UofC for that US news ranking) and cornell is going to be very isolated. Uchi is nerdy and there is a large workload but your experience can be what you want it to be (go downtown, join greek life, be life of the mind) whereas those schools i think are very locked in their archetypes (nerdy, isolated).
omguchicago: I would expend on your characterization of CMU vs. Chicago. I am very familiar with both (alum of CMU, student at UChicago). I would say that both places are populated by extremely intelligent students who are very serious about their studies. I would say that fewer CMU students are less purely “intellectual” than UChicago, which comes from CMU’s engineering / CS influence and its history as a technical college populated by serious career minded people. CMU has brilliant arts, particularly theater arts, but again these people tend to keep to themselves and they are very career oriented. UChicago also has a very good arts scene, but it is not as developed at CMU as a career path. I actually think average student participation in the arts is higher and better at UChicago though. UChicago has the core, “the life of the mind”, and stronger and deeper humanities and social sciences which tends to promote a more rounded intellectualism for its own sake. UChicago also has the undergraduate college which consolidates all disciplines from the “Divisions” (Physical Sciences, Humanities, etc.). CMU’s departments are somewhat balkanized into their own colleges. In fact, as you know, CMU students are accepted by the colleges, and not by any overall undergraduate college.
I think UChicago has my alma mater beat in this respect, actually. I think UChicago, with all of its world class graduate schools, actually focuses better on the undergraduate experience, including the way they have “houses” inside of the dorm buildings, including having faculty members serving as “masters” inside of the dorms. It is one area where I am slightly critical of President Suresh, who I respect and admire tremendously. I sometimes think Pres. Suresh is operating CMU as if it is another NSF, without a coherent strategy for undergraduates.
Even if you send a first-choice letter to Chicago, you will still have only a small chance of getting in off the waitlist. There, nothing wrong with doing that if you want to. But you should recognize that Cornell is a world-class university, too, and one whose appeal is much broader-based and more mainstream than Chicago. USNWR aside, most people would think it was nuts to choose Chicago over Cornell. Cornell offers a wide spectrum of academic opportunities – much wider than Chicago’s – and a wider spectrum of students, too. You can find plenty of UChicago types at Cornell, if you want, but you can find some serious parties, too, D-1 sports, and a culture in which moving between floors in the library isn’t considered exercise, and your experience of nature isn’t limited to crossing the Midway. Ithaca isn’t Chicago, Lord knows, but it’s about as great a classic college town as there is. People love it.
If Cornell is your most realistic college destination, you should feel really, really good about that. You are not required to keep waiting for a call from Chicago that may never come. A year from now, you will probably wonder why you ever thought about going to UChicago.
I have a S at CMU. I have to say that the enviornment is pre professional. Most of those kids know exactly what they want and are there to put in the work in their interest or field- whether that be design, engineering, computer science or theatre. But my S has found plenty of opportunities to have intellectual conversations and debates with those who also like to engage in that. And if you are an engineer who wants to be in a play- you can do that too (albeit it perhaps not in the drama dept but in Scotch n’ Soda).
The good thing is that you have great options and perhaps it’s time to explore and invest in looking deeper into what the schools that have accepted you can offer you.
The weather sucks.
@puzzled123 The weather sucks in much of the country, Chicago just makes a virtue of complaining… The midwest is notorious for its winters, but go to Washington/NY and the heat and humidity are killers (and they arrive very early and leave very late in Washington). Parts of the south are literally swamps.
@exlibris97 New York City weather isn’t so bad! Washington DC has endless springs and falls. Please. Upstate NY can be snowy in some areas, and cold, but it varies.
The obvious solution is to go home to DC in summer and come to Chicago just in time for winter to start!
…sigh…
I think that the most important thing about committing to Chicago is liking the whole “Life of the mind” / “Where fun goes to die” vibe. If that is a good fit for you, you will love it at U of C.
I think this constant hearkening to the Where fun goes to die line does the University great disservice. It may have been cute and quirky a generation ago, but holds little appeal to a majority of college age kids of this generation and bears little resemblance to the truth today. Now I know UChicago is not for everybody, but it certainly is not a University for Masochists for crying out loud!
If my son thought he was going to a University where fun goes to die neither he nor we as his parents would have chosen UChicago.
So, Snark, does this mean you’re from DC?
Biochemnerd has not logged-in since May 5. I do not know if he has gotten in UChicago or chosen Carnegie-Mellon already.
My daughter has heard about this “Where the fun goes to die” line and simply laughs about it. She thinks any college can be hard and can be fun at the same time. It all depends on attitude, expectations and goals. There is a time and place for everything and being academically inclined for only four years of your life will reap you great harvests later on.
@exacademic Yes, it’s very unfortunate