One website doesn’t believe so, based on freshman (First Year) retention rate and graduation rate.
https://www.collegechoice.net/colleges-with-happiest-freshman/
Stockholm Syndrome- A condition that causes hostages to develop a psychological alliance with their captors as a survival strategy during captivity.
Now before you attack my tongue in cheek response remember you are happy!
My kid DIDN’T attend, partly because the people who hosted her at accepted student days were hard partiers (and annoyed that she didn’t want to go out partying in Chicago on the night of the visit).
@intparent, so where did your kid attend?
@Nocreativity1 you are inappropriately named. But, unless UChicago is “The Hotel California,” I’m pretty sure your statement is N/A against the ranking criteria.
She went to Harvey Mudd.
@intparent Interesting story. Either most UChicago students really don’t party, or maybe, they are so smart they don’t get caught…very few alcohol/drug violations per Clery report. Some similar schools, CWRU, UPenn, Northwestern, have violations that are at least a magnitude greater!
sigh. not this again. one anecdote from years ago on a prospie overnight does not have very high explanatory value for understanding the entire breadth of student culture
“where fun comes to die” is probably the perfect motto for uchicago, even more so recently. it’s exact meaning varies both temporally and person to person: from BJ first years decrying “PARTY CULTURE!” while everyone else rolls their eyes to stressed fourth years really, really, wishing they were just done with their thesis to kids in frats that came for the econ reputation determined to prove to themselves and everyone else that actually UChicago kids can have fun the “normal” way.
but i think we can all agree that
- everyone wholeheatedly believes it’s true at least once while at this university
- it’s a joke
the only other motto that comes close is “I really like it here.” which oscillates sinusoidally between complete sincerity and completely irony
No surprises here. Yale and UChicago have the best housing systems.
An honest question never having visited U Chicago. Does all of the violence in surrounding areas impact the campus lifestyle or to tie it into this thread impact fun?
I have heard plenty of people speculate in an uniformed manner but never heard first hand impressions.
I’m wondering if Harvey Mudd is really where fun comes to die? Or they have parties too, which I find much more likely.
@Nocreativity1 I think that is a very good question. All of the research I’ve done points to low violent crime numbers in Hyde Park, but they also point to UChicago having the largest private police force in the United States. That begs the question. “Do you want to live in an area that requires you to have the country’s largest private police force?” Intuitively, one doesn’t do that for the sake of have the largest of something. As a concerned parent of a soon to be Maroon, I’d be interested in knowing some who have had recent experiences in campus from a safety perspective.
The violence in the surrounding absolutely impacts the students and their behavior, and I personally would not characterize these violence numbers as low. It’s all relative tho.
For example, many women won’t walk alone at night, even on campus. And I mean early, like at 9p. They can call for escorts in a number of ways. Please do your research and refer to U Chicago’s annual Clery report filing, where u will find all of the crime stats and you can in fact compare these stats to similar schools, as Clery report is legally required and standardized.
Mudd has parties, too. But they don’t drag prospies to them (they actually have some pretty strict rules about that on the prospie weekend). I do think UC is different than it used to be. Not saying it is any Penn State in terms of partying. But it is up a notch from how it used to be.
Will this year’s new class top last year’s record number of alcohol-related 911 calls during O-Week? We shall soon find out . . .
The question was asked at a recent info session. The response was that administration made a conscious effort to change that reputation about 10-15 yrs ago and that now it’s merely a joke seen on t-shirts.
Chicago had 50 shootings this weekend with 5 fatalities. But over the entire weekend I have received no alerts from Mr. Robert Mason.
“There were no serious incidents reported to and/or by UCPD from 12:01 a.m. Friday, August 3, 2018 to 11:59 p.m., Sunday, August 5, 2018, within the geographical boundaries of 37th to 64th streets / Cottage Grove Avenue to Lake Shore Drive.” - UCPD
Hyde Park is not Riverdale, Engelwood or Pullman.
I go to Hyde Park frequently during school year at all hours. I have seen lots of female students walking in the Main Quadrangle AFTER 9 pm. I have family friends who stay at RGG for 4 years and they have no problem crossing Midway at night. If you compare Hyde Park crime statistics to Mag Mile, there is no significant difference.
Crime does exist. I am on UCPD Crime Bulletin Alert List and there are muggings and theft periodically. But let’s not exaggerate, especially for people who have never been to Hyde Park. And there is an extensive network of UGo Shuttles to make sure everyone can get to their dorm/apartment safely even in weird hours in the morning.
@85bears46 DH is an alum, and we have many friends with kids at UChicago as well as the K-12 lab school. I am also frequently at the med center. I shared facts from a subset of people that I know. Everyone’s tolerance and points of comparison are different. The reality is that the campus is an island surrounded by neighborhoods where constant awareness is necessary, regardless of the time of day, period. All similar to many other urban campuses.
16 @Mwfan1921 "Everyone's tolerance and points of comparison are different."
I completely agree. We live in a Chicago suburb. Hyde Park will not never be as safe as our quiet subdivision miles away from the Loop. But Hyde Park has always been surrounded by urban decay for the last 60 years. So this is nothing new.
In fact I lived in Hyde Park in 1980’s, the period commonly regarded as the nadir of HP. I was afraid to walk at night and I was a big guy 
Things have much improved in the last 18 years. The sheer number of security people on campus is mind boggling.
Next time when you go to the Medical Center, may I suggest you to walk over to the Main Quad? Leisurely stroll under Hull Gate to Reg and then walk along 57th back to Medical Center. You may find many students (undergrad or grad) staring at the phone totally oblivious of the surroundings. I have gone through the bad days at HP. Even I may not condone these students’ obsessiveness with their smartphones, I find their lack of constant awareness reassuring. Their relaxed attitude tells me that they are in much safer place than my days on campus.
Going back to the original title, I am not surprised the myth of “where fun comes to die” has indeed met its own demise. My personal observation (as unscientific as it can be) is that the mood of the students has improved since I moved away from Hyde Park. 25 years and a few billions dollars spent on improving the campus have done wonder to kill off the old stereotype.
“The reality is that the campus is an island surrounded by neighborhoods where constant awareness is necessary, regardless of the time of day, period. All similar to many other urban campuses.”
This sounds about right. The question is whether HP is more dangerous than other urban campus communities housing a top private.
My son is thinking about applying to six colleges in the top 20 on USNews. Per the CSS stats (per 1,000 students), UChicago doesn’t rank the highest for crime on this list (it’s by no means the lowest either). For rape and robbery, it’s about in the middle. For aggravated assault its stats are definitely at the top of the pile but so are three other schools - two of them located in “nicer” areas with little discussion about crime. For burglary, it’s way lower than the other five. This is by no means an exhaustive - or even representative - set of “top” schools. But UChicago’s safety stats don’t stand out as alarming in comparison. That might seem surprising when you hear all the bad news from the south and west sides of the city. It’s important to remember that the city of Chicago is huge, and that several miles might mean totally different neighborhoods, levels of safety, community involvement, and policing.
Now that its not really true, I somehow want this “where fun comes to die” reputation to persist and mean something like “we really, really, really love learning here”