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<p>If by “fun” you mean the trappings of the traditional American college experience (intercollegiate sports rivalries, cheer leading, fraternity hazings and black-balling, cotillions, etc.) then yes it does. More precisely speaking, it goes there to get murdered.</p>
<p>Football was banned at Chicago for decades. For most of its history, there were no sororities. A legend arose to explain why, but for all practical purposes, they were banned too. In place of these activities, Chicago students for years developed their own traditions of poking fun at college traditions. Second City humor, the Kazoo Marching Band, the Lascivious Costume Ball, the college “fight song” (“X-squared, Y-squared, H2SO4 … Thucydides, Themistocles, the Peloponnesian War …”) were all part of it.</p>
<p>More recently, Chicago students developed a new, more positive tradition that has nothing to do with poking fun at other people’s traditions. It’s called “Scav Hunt”. Scav Hunt strikes me as celebrating the shared discovery of arcane knowledge. So I suppose it’s a metaphor for what Chicago people think a university really is all about. Or simply a different take on “fun”. [University</a> of Chicago Scavenger Hunt - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Chicago_Scavenger_Hunt]University”>University of Chicago Scavenger Hunt - Wikipedia)</p>
<p>A good (not ironclad) argument can be made that, academically, Chicago is the best school on the OP’s list. Maybe Amherst has a better English department, or Duke has a better Environmental Science program. Still, for breadth and depth of excellence across the arts and sciences, combined with its distinct academic culture, Chicago is a stand-out (definitely among the top 3 or 4 on that list). Nevertheless, to be content there (not necessarily “happy”), you really have to appreciate and want what it has to offer and be willing to let go of what it doesn’t.</p>