Weird people at UChicago and Kzoo????

Colleges & Universities University of Chicago
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<p>First off, you should recognize that the standard form of elite private research university – around 1,500 students/class, residential, non-professional education, almost all students full-time – is in many ways more like what we call LACs than like megauniversities like Berkeley or Michigan. You wouldn’t know everyone in your class at Chicago, and you would know practically everyone at a place like Beloit. But you would know a huge percentage of the people in your class at Chicago, and just like at Beloit you would see people you know everywhere you went. And you would have a stable advisor (at least most people do).</p>

<p>I have always been a research-uni guy. That’s what my wife and I had wanted for ourselves, and that’s what we encouraged our kids to want for themselves. I LIKED being taught (some) by graduate students – they were a great bridge between me and world-class faculty. Grad student TAs who were important for me wound up as department chairs at Yale, Harvard, and Michigan. They weren’t second-rate at all. And I liked being able to get close to the cutting edge of my field, and to have a huge selection of courses and a wide variety of potential mentors, and stuff happening everywhere all the time, more than I could possibly take advantage of. I was very good at getting attention from famous professors, worming my way into their good graces, so that I got whatever benefit there was in actually knowing them and learning from them.</p>

<p>But over time I have realized that I would have done fine at a LAC, too. Only four or five professors really mattered to the core of my education. At a research university, I chose those four or five from a list of dozens in relevant fields. At a LAC, I would have chosen the four or five from a list of seven or eight, but it still would have only been four or five who mattered, and just like at my university, in the end what I would have studied was what the faculty I liked wanted to teach. I might not have gotten quite as sophisticated an education in my chosen field, but I might have gotten a more balanced one, with better fundamentals. And I probably would have wound up in a PhD program for a few years, instead of knowing that it wasn’t for me before I left college, but that wouldn’t have been such a bad thing. </p>

<p>At an LAC, I would have gone to about the same number of freestanding lectures or cultural things that I did at my university. Instead of that being about 5% of what was being offered, maybe it would be 75% of what was being offered. So what? I would have chosen less, but maybe learned more.</p>

<p>LACs are just a slightly different way to get to the same place, and they work fine. Depending on the person, maybe a little better or a little worse, but generally fine. The recent graduate I know who is most sensationally fulfilling her dreams went to Amherst. A kid I know about at Swarthmore beat out a kid I know coming from Chicago for a spot in a graduate program they both wanted, with similar interests – and it was clear that the kid from Swarthmore had done more interesting, creative research than the kid at Chicago, despite the fact that Chicago is the center of the world in their field and Swarthmore isn’t. That one example doesn’t mean Swarthmore is better than Chicago – objectively, in that field, Chicago is much better – but it shows that Chicago’s “betterness” doesn’t necessarily make a difference on the individual student level.</p>

<p>Kids tend to get tired of LACs after a while, but then they take a semester or two abroad. Nothing wrong with that, and a lot right.</p>

<p>It’s a little funny that you were worrying about weird people at Chicago, but you are thinking about Beloit. At Chicago, if you don’t like the people around you, you can find other people, and you can go off and do stuff all over the city if you want. At Beloit, and places like it, you are kind of stuck with whomever is there; you have to learn to love them (and you will). It’s much tougher to get away, and it’s much tougher to hide, so you have to deal.</p>

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<p>Hm…there are 193 kids in my class and I don’t even know all of their names. I only have one super close friend.</p>

<p>My favorite thing about school is that I get to sit in the front row in Spanish and listen to my teacher speak. And I can contribute all I want. She’s so awesome I love her! That class has 15 kids and I love it because I sit up front and it just seems like a party although the rest of the kids hate it. I love Spanish because, hey, in how many other classes do you get to talk about the end of the world, the reality of texting, and food in foreign language? It’s so awesome!!! I love the intimacy of a small class like that. This week we get to make a cooking show in Spanish!! I’m making magdalenas, which are little cupcakes, or “pasteles de hadas.” Don’t forget Pan’s Labyrinth!!!</p>

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<p>My Spanish class here has 16 students and my Arabic class has 8. My other classes have similar numbers (Philosophical Perspectives has 19 and Calculus is a lecture with 35). The only classes that get really high number are lectures - some of the econ and science lectures break 150.</p>

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<p>Hm that’s not bad. I think my interview went ok, but I don’t see how it could keep me from being denied…not that I should care.</p>

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<p>Best of luck. If you are accepted, carefully consider the decision to come here. As others have said, if you are studying constantly to thrive in a high school environment, you may have trouble adjusting to the workload. Visit and talk to upperclassmen (not first years!) in your major to assess the difficulty of the classes; I, for one, was shocked at how much my workload changed from first year to second year (granted, I am taking two math classes and TA-ing a third in addition to CIV and a hollow shell of a social life).</p>

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<p>Yes, objectiveperson, he was clearly encouraged to do this by his instructor, his classmates and the university. You make a convincing case that there are no jerks or dorks at any other school in the United States.</p>

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<p>“Everyone at UofC has made the same Faustian Bargain”</p>

<p>You lost me there. 5,000 students, a large number of Rhodes Scholars, varsity swimmers, basketball and football players…</p>

<p>It seems like YOU’RE the person with the problem, objectiveperson.</p>

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<p>“Have you ever actually talked to some UofC students? They are extraordinarily insecure. The rivalry with Northwestern is a one-sided affair. Students in Evanston don’t care whether they beat Chicago because Northwestern students are too busy living and ENJOYING their lives.” – OP</p>

<p>Welcome back, weird dude who used to post as “IhateUofC”. Why haven’t you transferred yet? Actually, I have long thought that you were actually a Northwestern student and your unsolicited reference to NU reinforces my suspicions. No one at UChicago gives a rutz butz about NU so go ■■■■■ somewhere else (or study harder and bring up your grades and stop complaining).</p>

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<p>If anything, there’s great insecurity among NU students, as seen everywhere on CC. How often have you seen the reverse sentiment here, though, especially in the last few years? Not often. Chicago students don’t care about NU. And why would they be? Chicago is ranked higher in virtually every ranking, and is almost ubiquitously regarded as a more prestigious institution.</p>

<p>And if it were such a miserable place, why does Chicago have one of the highest donation rates in the nation (37%), ahead of almost all Ivy Leagues, and why does it have a freshman retention rate of 98.5%?</p>

<p>I think you’re projecting onto the student body. Just because you’re bitter about your life choices doesn’t mean that the people at your university are as well. Your failures are your own - not your university’s. Without comprehension of such a basic fact, you probably shouldn’t have been admitted in the first place.</p>

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<p>be careful when you say something like this. did you run a scientific survey to draw this conclusion scientifically? No? I thought so. While we are talking about unscientific stuff - unscientific, anecdotal personal observation, let me add my own observation. </p>

<p>My son is a third year. he is so deliriously happy he keeps saying he should send a thank you note to Harvard for having rejected him. All of his friends seem very happy and well adjusted. Bunch of them visited us during a break so I had a chance to talk to them all. My son is a very well rounded, bright, motivated, very social, confident, and overall very well adjusted kid who is VERY SECURE, and every time we talk, he talks about how happy he is there, and grateful that we let him turn down a $55K/year worth of a full ride merit scholarship to somewhere else and attend U Chicago instead. </p>

<p>Until I read this thread, the thought of NU did not even enter into any of our thinking. My kid or none of his friends seem to even consider NU as a competitor. For that matter, my son told me that he never heard any of the students “pining” over any school: I know this because I specifically asked him once “Given that U Chicago does not seem to have the same brand strength as the like of HYP, do students talk about other such schools and such, wishing to be there instead?” His answer was, “what? It never occurs to us. nobody talks about it. we all ***** about how hard some of the courses are, and how we enjoy some other courses. Comparing U Chicago to others schools never came up during conversation”</p>

<p>Of course, I am giving you an anecdotal observation that may or may not apply to a majority of students, but since we are all talking about unscientific personal opinion data, I may as well supply this bit of data to the pool.</p>

<p>I think you are making an error or thinking your experience to be representative experience of all students at U Chicago. Birds of a feather gather together. So your friends may be just like you in orientation and regrets. That does not mean that you and your close associates’ experience is shared by the majority of the students, just like my son and his cohorts’ experience should not be paraded as a completely representative experience for everyone in U Chicago. Though, I suspect my son’s experience represents a larger % of the student body than yours given all the objective stats (like return rate, etc). </p>

<p>By the way, an interesting observation. A close friend of my son’, who is at an Ivy like school is not happy at his school because he has a really hard time finding a thoughtful, intellectually oriented group of friends. Everybody drinks and goes to the game. He would have been much happier at U Chicago. That does not mean that the other school is a miserable place. It was not a good match for him. Likewise, I think you would have been happier at NU. U Chicago is not a good match for you. That does not mean that U Chicago is a miserable place for others. Don’t over generalize your personal feelings to other people.</p>

<p>That said, U Chicago is not for everyone. If you are looking for a school with a massively sports based school spirit, it’s not for you (Oopppssss, that did not work out too well for Penn State, did it?). If you are looking for exciting frat life, it’s not for you. If you don’t like a lot of your classmates waxing poetic about metaphysical/abstract stuff, it’s not for you. If it’s been a struggle throughout high school to dissect complex concepts and absorb massive amount of reading, it is not for you since you will have to measure up against your class mates for whom this comes easy and natural. some of my son’s papers in foundation course give me headache just dissecting the abstract concepts (occasionally he shares his papers with us if they are in the area we frequently talk about. (And both I and my husband have Ph.D.)</p>

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<p>objectiveperson:</p>

<p>I am very glad that you are no longer at UChicago. It’s people like you that made Hyde Park so difficult for so many people. The place has changed drastically in the past few years and I’m pretty sure that you would no longer be accepted there, either by the adcom or the student body. So since you’ve graduated and no longer have any ties to Hyde Park, please stop trolling the pages here and get on with your adult life.</p>

<p>It’s more than creepy that you’re still here complaining about a place that has moved on and long since forgotten you. Get a life.</p>

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<p>objectiveperson: </p>

<p>You are the definition of a ■■■■■. You contribute nothing positive to the discussions here. You were at one time posting under the username, 'IHateUofC", then you went away. Now, for whatever personal reasons you may have, you have come back to spread more of your nonsense.</p>

<p>If, as you claim, you were once a student at UChicago, I suggest that you stop wasting people’s time here and go back to building a happy life for yourself. There is life after college and you should start living it.</p>

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<p>Your credentials notwithstanding, I think that your flippant and gratuitous comments re: ivy envy, John Corzine, Northwestern and Harold’s pretty much discredits any contribution that you may have to this forum.</p>

<p>You are a ■■■■■ whose main purpose is not to help answer questions here but to entertain yourself and air your adolescent grievances against a school that you should have transferred out of after your first year, if you were as unhappy as you claim to have been.</p>

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<p>Nice try, objectiveperson. Go back to 4Chan where your trolling might be appreciated. Don’t waste people’s time here.</p>

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<p>OP, No you don’t. If you are still thinking about Chicago, try to visit. You could also try to speak to an alum. I have 2 brothers, 2 sister-in-laws and a niece and a nephew who went to Chicago and none of them are too weird.</p>

<p>There are some, let’s say, “different” individuals there, but with intelligence, that comes with the territory.</p>

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<p>“The rivalry with Northwestern is a one-sided affair.”</p>

<p>This is quite amusing!</p>

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<p>No, I disagree with you. That’s what I found amusing. Sorry, no offense. You are entitled to your opinion.</p>

<p>OP, just saw you have an interview. Good luck!</p>

<p>Ooops, you had it already. Trying to catch up on the thread.</p>

<p>“UofC students and faculty are especially paranoid with keeping up the impression that they are “different,” “quirky,” or “nerdy” because that is literally all they have. It might comes as a shock, but it is possible to smart AND well rounded”</p>

<p>Objective, this may be true for a few, but I would not generalize. I know well-rounded UofC grads. Don’t let your perception be skewed by a few.</p>

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<p>objectiveperson, you know that only a relatively few students actually take part in that. A small fraction of the 5,000 undergrads, actually. </p>

<p>Please stop psoting if you can’t stop generalizing and drawing blanket statements.</p>

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<p>objectiveperson:</p>

<p>You so clearly have an axe to grind with the school I don’t understand how you managed to stay there for 4 years. Regardless, the fact that you stayed at UChicago for 4 years in spite of your obvious contempt for the place shows a lamentable lack of good judgement.</p>

<p>But you are out now and you really should start living the rest of your life. Go out, smell the roses, etc. Just stop working out your adolescent anger issues on this forum.</p>

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<p>^^No, with all the relatives and others I’ve met from U of C, I’ve never heard of it. Doubt they paid much attention to it, from what I read on the link above.</p>

<p>I will say not all I’ve heard from the alum I know has been good and you are again entitled to your opinion. I have heard various gripes, although on the whole, positive things.</p>

<p>I went to the U of Michigan and looking back there are things I’m not 100% happy about, but I’ve got a degree. </p>

<p>On the bright side you have a degree from a prominent and well-respected University. Frankly, it’s one of best in the country. But, I’m sure you know that.</p>