<p>My kids were not varsity athletes at Chicago, but they knew some athletes (and so do I). Other students there don’t look down on athletes, but they don’t necessarily care about athletes as such, either.</p>
<p>I think the athletes who are happy at Chicago are the ones who really value what the university is off the field. I know one kid who was seriously recruited by various D-1 schools in his fairly important team sport (but not places like Stanford). He shocked his parents by deciding all on his own that he was probably never going to have a pro career, and that he should go to the University of Chicago (which would have been beyond a reach for him without the sport) and focus on trading his athletic skill for a high quality degree. He is very happy with his choice. He is a big deal in his sport – the best player on the team since he was a first-year, eventual holder of several school records – but hardly recognized for that anywhere else around the university. And that’s OK with him. He is an economics major looking for a financial industry job, like many of his teammates, and they have all had pretty good success. He thinks the university has made him a serious person.</p>
<p>Another athlete I know was never really happy there. He was a football starter but not a star, and always felt resentful that there wasn’t the same sort of sports-and-party culture that his friends and relatives enjoyed elsewhere. (He had a two-year-older cousin who was all-conference at a big-deal national football power.) He was very involved with his fraternity, and loved that, but really tried to limit his contact with anyone else at the university. His attitude was that everyone was full of it, and they should just chill. That wasn’t ever going to win him lots of friends at Chicago.</p>
<p>The University of Chicago is more broad-spectrum than it used to be, but it still isn’t for everyone. I think an athlete, like any prospective student, has to look in the mirror and decide what kind of person he really is, and whether that is a University of Chicago kind of person.</p>
<p>One of my kids was on a very serious club team, one that practiced every day, paid a coach, and travelled a lot to compete against other college clubs. It included a few people who had national rankings (but not ultra-high ones) in the sport. The club was really important to the kids in it, they spent a lot of time on it, they were proud and had a lot of spirit, and if you really wanted to get them talking you would ask about their senior theses.</p>