@JHS - the best summary for your post is, at some universities, many students view academics as sport - the performance and results matter the most.
That’s not the uniform case at Chicago, although I think the contingent of students who take a performance/result-oriented approach is growing.
Related question - can we agree that the College is pretty much done changing? Yes, there will be more low SES students in the future, and maybe some minor modulations, but is the general reform complete? This is now a done deal, right?