<p>phuriku, as the parent of a math major who turned down for MIT for Chicago…it ultimately revolved around the Core. </p>
<p>He spent so many years being totally focused on math/CS (and I mean to the exclusion of all else) and later in HS, finally got some history/polisci classes and philosophy that lit his fire. He knows he wants to do grad school in math or CS, depending on where his specialty lives at particular schools, and felt that UG was the time to learn new things in other fields.</p>
<p>The other big factors for him were that 1) he felt he would be challenged to grow more as a person at Chicago and 2) he wanted to hang out with people who were as passionate about literature, philosophy, etc. as he is about math. He knew he’d be very happy in Random Hall, but also knew the perils of staying entirely within one’s comfort zone.</p>
<p>Chicago’s math dept. has such a great reputation…hard to go wrong. DH has been trying to talk S into taking some econ classes…no dice. S is an academic at heart – no desire to be a Master of the Universe! He took MathPhys senior year and liked it a lot – it was just more math to him.</p>