<p>Based on my visit, (frosh next fall) which is as badly representative a sample as your trip is, it doesn’t live up to that slogan. I had a mini hangover in the morning and a couple of the girls I ate lunch with did as well. Two unrelated girls the night before were the best at beer pong I’d ever seen and a high school friend of mine has a sister @ uchicago who parties a lot, like a lot. Not in a position to say anything about pot from first experience but second hand it’s widely available and if you get the right RA it’s not an issue unless your smell from your room seeps into the hallway on a daily basis. Not gonna comment on other substances on this forum.</p>
<p>Some dorms party more than others, if you end up getting in and going I would suggest Max P and that’d be enough, no need to join a frat or anything to have fun. </p>
<p>Core-wise I mean that can be a deal breaker but it honestly shouldn’t. You can go to brown for like full freedoms (yay!) but the individual requirements of the core classes can be met by different things on the spectrum, like one of them can be either a 2/3 course series that reads plato-like-stuff or one that reads science journals. Like actually go to the syllabus online and plan out a four year schedule of 42-8 credits and see if in the end there are actually classes that you wouldn’t be self-motivated about.</p>
<p>Lastly, about the parent-pressure aspect like that’s total crap that you must overcome. If you’re a self-motivated person, the only important thing is which college will motivate you to be the best, not which is abstractly ‘better’ from their perspective. My folks preferred I didn’t say yes to uchicago but I did because I felt I fit in with the students I met there (they in no way met the stereotypes btw). Anyway good luck on getting into those colleges.</p>