<p>I agree with the earlier poster who said their personal definition of “nerd” didn’t include intellectualism. While I’m certain I am not as intelligent as some on this thread, nor as intellectual, the discussion made me think of the many “nerds and geeks” I have lived around all my life.</p>
<p>Some smart people are drawn to fields whose principles can be proven in the natural world, like math and science. These are my nerd friends and relatives. Some of them get uncomfortable, impatient or bored with discussions that don’t involve facts. MIT, Caltech, Harvey Mudd, etc., are places where you can find some of these people.</p>
<p>Others, also smart, may be drawn to fields like art, philosophy, religion, literature, where you learn plenty of facts to be sure, but much of what you are studying involves unprovable ideas, concepts, shades of gray, interpretations of reality. These can be discussed and argued forever. Some of these people are intellectuals. </p>
<p>I like to be around a good mix of these people.</p>
<p>^And then some people study physics and philosophy simultaneously. They’re pretty close fields in some ways. (I accidentally typed ‘fiends’ at first. I suppose both can be considered fiendish as well!)</p>
<p>Fun fact: Swarthmore offers a formal minor in hermeneutics, a word that I had to reference Wikipedia to spell. Except they call it “interpretation theory” and approximately half of the students I met had no idea what the field actually was; the other half mostly consisted of enthusiastic interpretation theory minors.</p>
<p>If there was ever an omen for the return of the infamous thread about Chicago and its pseudo-intellectuals, THIS must be it!</p>
<p>This said, I am wondering if there are new developments on this issue that might bring someone who is intimately involved with the University of Chicago and a parent of a Chicago student to … find a “terrain d’entente.” Or will someone emerge with the title of “I am more right”?</p>
<p>PS Oh, before I forget, and to please the SJ intellectuals who take those French classes, I know that there should be a couple accents on D</p>
<p>Keilexandra: Wherever you had decided to go to college, you would have known how to spell hermeneutics (and to use it in a sentence) by Christmas of your freshman year. That would not be true, necessarily, of engineering students, etc., in general, but it would have been true of you. It’s nice that Swarthmore offers a minor in it, but that’s a little bit of flash, not a real difference between Swarthmore and anywhere else people study humanities seriously.</p>
<p>EDIT: Man, I wish I knew how to get those accents on when I show off my French, too. It’s sooooo annoying to have to leave them off and look dumb.</p>
<p>Well, Marite found it difficult to use accents as well. Or better stated, not really worth her time to master the keys that yield the accents. And we all know, that nobody knew French better than she did. Oops, now I can expect a PM from Cellardweller. :)</p>
<p>JHS, my comment was purely based on what came to mind when I Wiki’ed hermeneutics–about which I AM going to college to study, since I love the idea of interpretation theory. I found it amusing that my chosen college (Swarthmore) wouldn’t just call it hermeneutics, given how it is stereotyped.</p>
<p>I always have Character Map–on Windows, buried in the Accessories menu–handy as a taskbar icon for accents. Type accents on a laptop, without the number pad!</p>
<p>rocket - While I have great respect for the Seven Sisters, I don’t know why belonging to them automatically qualifies one of said schools for a “most intellectual” list. Bryn Mawr is perhaps known for being the most intellectual of the Seven Sisters, but that is a relative comparison. (Yep, I am one of those oh-so-superior Swatties who doesn’t think Mawrters are as intellectual as us, as a generalization.)</p>
<p>"It’s a matter of knowing your audience and adjusting your vocabulary accordingly.</p>
<p>It’s the smart thing to do. "</p>
<p>The audience here is quite diverse. The person who used “historicist” and “positivist” may not have been concerned to reach all of it. I mean really, whats the pay off in convincing a lot of strangers of the relative value of St John’s, or which are the 5 most intellectual schools? I mean sometimes we are here to ask and give practical info, and sometimes we making conversation. When making conversation, one can make it at whatever level one feels comfortable, without regard to the diversity of the audience.</p>
<p>I might have phrased it differently myself, but I see no problem with someone using the correct terms of art. Particularly ironic in this thread.</p>
<p>Actually, I included as many of them as I could remember on my list. </p>
<p>Berkeley
Michigan
Duke
Chicago
One of Barnard, Bryn Mawr, Smith or Wellesley </p>
<p>For some reason, I find it hard to to arrive at the magical number seven. I know, I know there is Maia, Electra, Taygete, Alcyone, Celaeno, Sterope, and Merope, but I could not find the CDS forms for those schools. I can remember the seven dwarves cum Snow White. But that makes eight! Then the four musketeers were only three plus D’Artagnan. Is this a case of the seven sisters actually being six, or even five because of that hybrid one. Darn, where is Lisa Simpson when you need her! Here you go … there is the girl with the beret, the one who plans to marry a Harvard men, and … three more. Darn, darn, I can only get to five! </p>
<p>Oh well, enough sarcasm (and that, if it was not clear, included the list I posted) for one day!</p>