<p>For the life of me, I don’t understand why some people seem to regard intellectual drive & rigor and worldly successes in a field other than academia mutually exclusive. </p>
<p>Granted, AVERAGE die hard careerists in general may possess lower intensity when it comes the “intellectual zeal” than die hard future professors in some esoteric field like ancient Mesopotamian creation myth do. However, we are talking about putting together a class of 1300 out of the whole world, not filling a giant football stadium out of a mid sized city. </p>
<p>There are more than enough students with tippy top competitive academic edge AND ferocious intellectual drive, and YES, some of them may become professors and some of them may become captains of the industry. The problem thus far with Chicago is NOT that the world does not have 1300 students that can fulfill the intellectual mission of the school, and hence it had to lower its admission standard and competitiveness as a trade off between the perfect U Chicago type intellectual students and the dreaded careerists. The problem with U Chicago thus far is the fact that way too many potential perfect fit U Chicago students are not considering it as a top choice for whatever reason. As such, any marketing drive Nondorf is leading to cast the net wider, and to “poach” that perfect U Chicago student away from other top schools is a step in the right direction.</p>
<p>S1 chose U Chicago because of its famed econ department that will get him into the Wall Street (eeeeeeeewwwwwwwwww, the dreaded careerist). I am paying full pay for U Chicago for S1 because of the intellectual drive the school instills in its student, and I will be royally miffed if it dilutes its intellectual standard. By the way, S1 will never admit it (not cool enough), but he is one of the most intellectually driven and gifted individuals I have seen in my career. </p>
<p>I am not worried at all with the direction of the current admission administration, because I believe with the kind of reputation and academic excellence, U Chicago will not have to dilute its intellectual mission to attract the very best in the world. The so called “intellectually driven young people” are not such an endangered species to the degree we can’t find 1300 of them regardless of their career ambition. </p>
<p>Besides, for the good of the nation and our future grandchildren, I would rather see someone educated with the highest level of intellectual rigor at U Chicago to become a leader of the free world than a twit who went to Harvard or Yale as a development case because of his/her daddy’s political and financial prowess and graduated with a gentleman’s (lady’s) C, and would go on to preach that the global warming is a hoax in spite of the mounting irrefutable scientific evidence.</p>
<p>As long as U Chicago has its core, very muted Athletic scene, world class faculty who won’t give inflated grades right left and center, and darned cold weather, don’t worry: it won’t attract a horde of trust fund twits. So, don’t worry, and be happy.</p>