unalove

I mean, like anything, Greek life is there if you want it and non-existent if you don't. Some people get pretty involved in Greek life, but from my perspective (non-Greek, occasional partygoing female) I don't really think that there's a cool frat or an uncool frat or whatever. Personally, I can't distinguish among the frats and I usually can't tell who is and is not in a frat unless they're wearing something that advertises an affiliation. DKE? Alpha Delt? Psi U? AEPi? DU? It's all Greek to me :-)

I also agree with phuriku-- I'm a much bigger fan of apartment parties, and I also agree that frats (not at Chicago specifically, but in general) are lame to begin with.

oatmealia

Quick question, and I apologize if it's been asked before. After getting back my financial aid summary, I see that after grants and federal aid, I'll be left with only a $2000-3000 parental/student contribution expectation. Will outside scholarships cover this, or will they only displace grant/federal money I'm already slated to receive? Thanks!

phuriku

Scholarships will replace student contribution, but will not replace parent contribution.

oatmealia

Thanks! I'll look over my fin aid summary.

J'adoube

How would the Ramada Inn on Lakeshore be for 1st-year-delivery weekend?

pesto

J'adoube:

If you like to walk, the Ramada Inn is just fine for first-delivery weekend, and you will get a better sense of the environment surrounding the University -- both Hyde Park and the Lakeshore -- if you make that 1-1.5-mile trek back and forth at least a few times between the Ramada and the campus. The restaurant options might be more of a drawback: if you're tired by the end of the day, trudging back in the evening from 53rd street or 57th street where so many of the local eateries are located might seem overwhelming, as might going downtown in search of more interesting dinnerfare. On the other hand, a lot of restaurants in Hyde Park will deliver (just ask for menus at the front desk). On our S's last evening with us in the Ramada, we ordered dinner to be delivered, and "Men In Black" (which we had already seen umpteen million times to the point of being able to quote the dialogue) happened to be on TV that night, so we spent a really nice, relaxed evening with him, just hanging out in the room, watching the movie and eating dinner. We had arrived a couple of days before the beginning of Orientation because none of us had yet visited the University and because we were flying in and needed to pick up stuff at Target (an easy drive from the Ramada). Typically, my husband and I let our S sleep in, while we took off for a walk along the lake or through the University in the early morning (so that I could snap photos to my heart's content), and then we did the Target run or the Orientation-Day move-in at a more "civilized" hour with the lad. We used our rental car to get to the Ramada from Midway, to go to Target, and to transport all his stuff on moving-in day, but otherwise walked back and forth between the Ramada and the campus. The restaurant associated with the Ramada was not one I would recommend, but otherwise our accommodations there were just fine, and a whole lot cheaper than I expected they would be, with the UofC discount. There is a pool, although we never used it. One other bonus: If you do the Lake walk, you might see some of the green parrots that now call Hyde Park home.

btw, moving in and registration was a snap -- just be ready to park your car somewhere further afield after you have dropped off your kid and his/her stuff. It works well to have your spouse stay with the stuff on the sidewalk, while the student goes into the house to get the key and to check in. And you might want to surreptitiously keep track of that room key as you move around to the various registration stations, including the bank.

And don't be late to the Rockefeller Chapel for Convocation as we almost were!

unalove

I thought I might add to this thread. I forget the questions I asked/answered... here goes...

Where can I find some snazzy pictures of the neighborhood and campus?

Flickr: UChicago Applicants
Flickr: Search UChicago Applicants
Flickr: Search
Flickr: Search

Does Chicago ever feel like an Ivy League fallback school? Like the kids who are there all wanted to be somewhere else?

I added this question because I think it's how U of C is perceived by the general CC population. I can say a few things on this one.

1. Virtually every school in the country suffers a bit from the "We're not Harvard" complex. Even Yale. And yes, I have friends at Yale who are bitter because they didn't get into Harvard. Silly, I know. I think Chicago suffers a tad, but in a different kind of way, as students tend to actively choose to come here, whether or not it was initially their first choice.

2. A lot of high school students (particularly those in the non-CC world) probably think that Harvard is the best school, period, so they apply and are disappointed that they don't get in. Disappointed, sure, but not so disappointed that they carry that resentment with them.

3. Most people don't mention what other schools they did or did not get into in their decision to come here, as a lot of people come to Chicago from different angles. You'll meet kids who applied to mostly small, offbeat, relatively unheard-of schools, and you'll meet kids who applied to mostly well-known schools. You'll meet kids who apply mostly in-region. Among my friends with whom I've discussed their own admissions process, most of them applied to only 4 or 5 schools-- in-state safety, a match, one or two big reaches, and Chicago. Chicago made it onto their very, very small list, so it was certainly one of their top choice schools, if not their #1 choice.

BigAl

UChicago is my first choice, but whenever I tell this to peers or parents or teachers, I always get the same lukewarm reaction and a shrug: "You could aim higher than that."

Frustrating.

Seashore

My D cancelled all her other applications after getting into Chicago early. Like unalove says, she's found there are students that wanted to go somewhere else, but plenty who rejected Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Columbia too.

unalove

BigAl:

I had a similar experience in my neck of the woods, where the University of Chicago was either confused with the University of Illinois, or people would make a face and go, "Gah, why do you want to go there?" (Implying that the goal of college was to get out of the snakepit with the best brand name and the best GPA possible while doing the least amount of work). I definitely felt that applying to Chicago was very against the grain, and I was somewhat proud of that-- I didn't care for "the grain" that much anyway.

glasses

Ditto here-- I'm on the east coast and my son was a very strong "top o' the class" sort of student and everybody looked at him like he had 3 heads when U of C was his school of choice. He's been very happy and his summer research position is quite the thrill.
Good to decide what's best for you-- don't go with everyone else's flavor of the month!

J'adoube

Are there any informal stats on how many admitted students had Chicago as their first choice? And, is that number increasing?

CountingDown

BigAl,
My S (and I) also got some of the same reactions from classmates and parents. He got a huge award senior year and one parent said, "Well, I guess he's aiming higher than Chicago now..." I had to bite my tongue. Said parent's child also got in EA, but wasn't going to let said kid "settle." I did explain why S likes the place so much, and some of S's younger classmates have since put Chicago on their radar.

The teachers who know S well, however, thought Chicago was a perfect match. S is definitely an against-the-grain sort of guy, and Chicago is a great fit for many reasons.

J'adoube, Chicago was S's first choice by the beginning of senior year, followed closely by Mudd (he wrestled with those two for the better part of the last two years; sometimes I think he should've just applied to those two!), and MIT was in third.

veghead

On another website, a review said "...the Chemistry department [at University of Chicago] teaches a Chemistry that is different than what's on the MCAT.", and I think someone mentioned earlier in this thread that a lot of Pre-Med students end up switching majors. Is Chicago a bad choice for Pre-Meds?

JHS

Chicago is a great choice for pre-meds (says my kid the pre-med), but there are a few issues you may want to consider:

-- The Core takes up more space in your personal curriculum that do most other college's distributional or general education requirements. That means that, if you are trying to complete your pre-med requirements by the end of your third year, you are not going to have a lot of slots for anything that isn't the Core or basic science/math courses, especially during your first two years. And, in turn, if you harbored dreams of majoring in something other than Biology, Chemistry, or Physics, you will be down to close to 0 electives.

-- The general institutional personality at Chicago is less admiring of pre-professional students than other colleges' institutional personalities may be. It's not that pre-meds are attacked or hazed, but they are seen as a somewhat lower form of life than people who plan to get science PhDs. And there will be a lot more of the latter in your pre-med classes than you would find at most other colleges. And many of them are smarter than you, which means that getting a gaudy GPA may be difficult. And no one particularly cares about preparing you for the MCAT. I thnk premeds are seen as annoying necessary evils there

-- Students whine about grade deflation a lot. There may even be something to it (but not much). There is a persistent high school myth that it's better to apply to medical school with a 3.8 from, say UTEP, than a 3.7 from Chicago. As far I can tell, that's silly, but I can't tell very far.