<p>I visited the campus over this past weekend, and all I can say is wow.
The buildings were beautiful with the grounds being manicured without looking very country club(ish). The people were very pleasant and helpful.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, there were no tours or information sessions due to the long weekend, but the trip was well worth it. Prior to visiting, I thought it wouldn't make a difference between Northwestern and UofChicago if it came down to the two. Northwestern feels very much like suburbian Berkeley, which is cool but just not for me. UofChicago is the most beautiful campus I have ever seen, including Stanford, Duke, Berkeley, and Dartmouth. </p>
<p>The only possible advantages of Northwestern over UofChicago would be the amazing access and view of the lake and party scene. Even while I talked to students that knew I was thinking of applying, they said that it was not a social campus. While I do not go to parties regularly, it is nice to have that option. I was hoping for some more input on whether there is a lack of parties or just an all around lack of interaction and personability on campus?</p>
<p>Is it hard to meet new people? I have a tendency to throw myself into my work, but one of the reasons I would go to a specific college would be culture and atmosphere along with the ability to break away from surrounding myself with papers and research to experience new people and perspectives.</p>
<p>Anyway, comments would be much appreciated and thank all of the current students for allowing me to get a glimpse of what UofChicago is, and I earnestly encourage anyone who hasn't visited yet to take advantage of such an eye opening experience.</p>
<p>i am again between Northwestern vs U of Chicago vs Wash U as a transfer, same stuff as last year</p>
<p>Rawr! Is this the only question people ask?</p>
<p>The short of it is that, yes, there is a very definite social scene at Chicago, but it differs in quality and perhaps intensity from other schools. It won't be forced on you, which means you're going to have to make at least a little effort to be social. But it's not hard to find in on campus if you're actually looking. You'll have as much or as little social life as you want.</p>
<p>Also, Chicago is pretty close to the lake, too. Not as close as Northwestern, but it's within walking distance (i.e., about a ten minute walk). There's a bike path there that runs all the way downtown and it's a nice ride in the spring and summer, about 8 miles.</p>
<p>P.S., glad you liked the campus. If you look over at the "pretty campus" thread in another forum here you'll see that Chicago is often listed as one of the ugliest campuses. For the life of me I don't know why; I think it's beautiful, too.</p>
<p>One thing that's quite helpful is Orientation Week. Before classes start, you get 9 days to meet people, explore the campus/city, etc. with no classes. It would be hard to end O-Week not knowing people, unless you actively resisted social interaction.</p>
<p>And there are parties. Definitely not a party school, but not a party-free zone.</p>
<p>Oh yeah, O-week. It's been four years and I had forgotten!</p>
<p>O-week is a blast. You arrive on Saturday or Sunday and have a whole week to do whatever you want, basically. The only upperclassmen on campus are those who are involved in O-week, like orientation aides. So you really get to know your fellow first-years, unless, like Maroon8 said, you're actively anti-social or pathologically shy.</p>
<p>The O-aides really love it, too -- I was a house O-aide my second year.</p>
<p>Thanks, your comments were really helpful.</p>
<p>Diocletian, the whole lake thing was really unimportant.
I definately would not make my decision based upon the distance between the two schools and the lake.</p>
<p>I also thought the museum of science and industry was pretty weak sauce. The Leonardo Da Vinci exhibit was shallow and uninformative along with the majority of the rest of the museum. I would think that such an institution would shy away from riding the media hyped Da Vinci wave with the movie coming out along with the relative increase in sales that would accompany it.</p>
<p>That's all irrelevant. I loved the school and am now glad to be sure with my decision to have UofChicago high on my list. Going to go look through Course offerings. The philosophy department is quite large and extensive for such a small undergraduate population.</p>
<p>Well, you did says it was one of the "only possible advantages" of Northwestern over Chicago, along with the "party scene." I agree that it's a silly reason to choose one school over another, but I was only being thorough in my response.</p>
<p>Also, who mentioned the MSI? I only go when it's free for Chicago students, like during O-week, and they're handing out desserts. Cookies! I know of no Chicago student who goes any other time, and there are way better places downtown (AIC, Field Museum, Shedd Aquarium, etc.).</p>
<p><<if you="" look="" over="" at="" the="" "pretty="" campus"="" thread="" in="" another="" forum="" here="" you'll="" see="" that="" chicago="" is="" often="" listed="" as="" one="" of="" ugliest="" campuses.="" for="" life="" me="" i="" don't="" know="" why;="" think="" it's="" beautiful,="" too.="">></if></p>
<p>That's people.</p>
<p>UChicago = the school that beauty forgot, because the students are generally starkly unattractive.</p>
<p>The adcom is trying hard, though, from the looks of recent classes.</p>
<p>Yes, because admissions has a glamor photo of each applicant.</p>
<p>lol...................</p>
<p>People here tend to be quite good-looking, in my opinion. Chicago simply has a reputation for ugly students, but that seems to have diminished over the years.</p>
<p>The lake area by UChicago is not quite as well developed as the lake area by Northwestern.</p>
<p>Museum and Science and Industry, ah.. I actually liked that museum. I think it has some really neat exhibits. Particulary, I like the toy train display. The AIDS display is stupid though, haha, covering topics like birth control. Parents steer their kids away from that exhibit. </p>
<p><em>sigh</em>, I should have applied to Northwestern, seeing I got waitlisted at UChicago, I probably had a legitimate shot at getting into NWstrn. I'll be jealous of you college students in the city of Chicago.</p>
<p>You're right, it's not as well developed, but it's not like people didn't try. The City wanted to replace the old breakwall with something new a few years ago and there was this whole "Save The Point" campaign that curtailed it.</p>
<p>Trivia: Promontory point used to be chained off as it was used as part of a Nike Missile System installation. [url=<a href="http://m-epperson.home.comcast.net/nike/%5DPictures%5B/url">http://m-epperson.home.comcast.net/nike/]Pictures[/url</a>].</p>
<p>dio,</p>
<p>The battle over the breakwater was that the city wanted to replace the stones there now with a cast concrete structure. I have not seen plans, but from what I see elsewhere along the lake in the city, I shudder.</p>
<p>New isn't always better.</p>
<p>Oh, I know. It was a statement of fact, not of opinion.</p>