Very interesting recent comments of a UChicago student

marlowe1
Sun, 21 Jan 2024 17:49:21 +0000

We hear a lot in this forum about rankings, prestige, and the happiness quotient of student life. At Chicago the emphasis has always been elsewhere. This was confirmed to me in the comments made to a question on reddit posed by an admit who self-described as “a low income student coming from an underfunded public high school.” The questions were the perennial anxiety-making ones: What is student life like, will I fit in, will I be able to do the work? This produced a bonanza of interesting answers both as to the class-demographic aspect of the question and to UChicago culture generally. In effect answering the latter question answers the first one: Wealth and class aren’t the significant features of student life; learning is an equal-opportunity challenge to everyone. The answers were the same as might have been given at almost any time in Chicago’s history. Here’s an excerpt from an especially fiery and cogent one, very expressive of the ethos I as an old alum well remember and proudly embraced:

"So the choice you have is this:

You can embrace the challenge and enroll, because you want to get your ass kicked, because getting your ass kicked is good, getting your ass kicked is the whole point. You can embrace the suck, because against all odds, you have earned the opportunity to feel like an idiot in the presence of some of the brightest minds on the planet. You won’t be the best! You will feel good if you can hold on to the middle of the pack, because the pack is excellent.

Or you can take the more cautious route, which better preserves your ego and your current sense of self. You will be the exact same teenager with whatever mix of sloppy received wisdom and half-baked ideas in your head on your first day at Chicago as on your first day at Easy University. At the end of Chicago, you will be a very different person. At the end of EasyU, you may not be."

The writer admits to overstatement and makes some of the usual caveats. However, he or she was pretty clearly speaking from the heart, and I was cheered by the many other commenters who seconded these thoughts. And most of all by the response of the student who asked the question: “Your comment made me shed a tear. I want to get my ass kicked!” That’s the whole UChicago spirit summed up in a single phrase.

reddit.com/r/uchicago/comments/190hoos/what_is_the_student_body_like_at_uchicago