VandyDone: the OP can go where he wants but I am astonished at how much you are dead wrong about undergraduate education at UChicago. If you would investigate a little you would find “The College” which is the undergraduate center of the University. The academic divisions cut across The College and the Graduate schools. The professional schools stand alone pretty much. But it is The College which is at least co-equal with the Graduate and Professional Schools. Also at UChicago you have The Core, which is an undergraduate thing and one of the things The University is most famous for. Take a look at the current fundraising campaign and see all the money earmarked for undergraduate education. I could go on.
The UChicago campus is not boring. The architecture is amazing. On what other campus can you find Frank Lloyd Wright, Mies Van Der Rohe, Helmut Jahn, and Olmstead creations in close proximity. 2nd City started at Chicago and improv continues to be influential etc. etc. Again, I could go on.
Vanderbilt is a great university and I know it well. Go there if the wind is too strong and the frats are not big enough at UChicago, but certainly certainly not because of its undergraduate education. You should go to UChicago precisely because of its undergraduate education.
I think the posters above who explained how UChicago undergraduates integrate their academic lives into their “leisure” lives came closer to the truth. And after all, isn’t that what we all seek with our lives: to make an integrated existence where your work is your passion?