<p>The trend to increased marketing and even the common app came while Mr. O’Neill was Dean. He did a great deal to grow the college and the current Dean is continuing and amplifying that effort. What made, and hopefully makes, Chicago special was it’s unique atmosphere as a school where the primary concern was/is inquiry and ideas first and formost. Many colleagues who have spent time at Chicago who were on the faculties of Yale and Harvard never failed to recount stories of being challenged by Chicago students as they never were at their home institutions. Such an experience was recounted by Harvard psychologist B. F. Skinner in his autobiography (his wife was a U of C grad). For those who have through the years taught at Chicago and the top Ivies, the claim of a historically weaker Chicago student body woud not square with their experience.</p>