<p>I was accepted EA. I love UChicago (well, as much as one can love it based on one visit to campus). I’m a Chicago native who now lives in the burbs, so another visit and an overnight are likely. </p>
<p>I am in the situation where I can choose UChicago or go to another [slightlylessprestigiousbutawesomenonetheless] university on almost a full ride. So…this brings up the question…WHY CHICAGO? (And I wrote a darn good essay for this prompt.)</p>
<p>What makes me “Chicago material”? Is it the fact that I sat around reading old Scav Hunt lists almost all night last night? Is it the fact that wrote extra essays “for fun”? </p>
<p>Current Chicago students, how did YOU know that Chicago was “the one”?</p>
<p>My son faced pretty much the same dilemma, except in April. In no particular order, the following factors sent him to Chicago:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Scav Hunt lists. Definitely. He only had one, but he read it every couple of days. It was so exactly his sense of humor, it was scary.</p></li>
<li><p>He loved the idea of the Core.</p></li>
<li><p>The first time he visited, he was wearing a Tintin t-shirt, and five girls stopped him to comment on his t-shirt. He had never met a girl not closely related to him who both knew and cared who Tintin was. He had never been hit on by girls who didn’t know who he was. This was a powerful experience.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>4(a). His family could afford it, with difficulty. His father was over-optimistic about how much he would earn in the next few years.</p>
<p>4(b). His parents were in love with the University, too. They also really liked the idea of their kids having the same vacation schedules for two more years.</p>
<p>4(c). His parents had trouble getting themselves to tell him that because he had worked harder and done better than his (more talented, frankly) sister, he had to take a substantial merit scholarship at a first-rate university while she got to go to the only one of his top choices that accepted him.</p>
<p>4(d). His parents, obviously, were morons. But highly educated, elitist, relatively well off morons.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>“I like to party. I’m a little afraid that if I go to [Other University] I will fall down some deep, dark pit like [someone we know who drank himself out of college there his first year]. I’ve seen the bottom of the pit at Chicago – it’s [my sister] and her friends. It’s a pretty shallow pit.” (P.S., This has turned out to be a complete non-factor in his life. He basically outgrew “partying” by the end of the first quarter.)</p></li>
<li><p>“I want to be someplace where I am normal.”</p></li>
<li><p>Family activities included comparing different translations of The Iliad.</p></li>
<li><p>Next door neighbor, a research scientist: “When it comes time to apply to grad school, the University of Chicago really means something.”</p></li>
<li><p>He’s sort of That Kid.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>JHS–Reading through your response, I could see so many parallels with my life. I’ve got the group of friends who enjoy having philosophical debates instead of going to crazy parties. These are the people I can call up if I want to read Shakespeare aloud in the park or discuss Vonnegut. “I want to be someplace where I am normal.” – well said. Thank you. That gives me a lot to think about.</p>
<p>Not a current student, merely an EA potential student who likes to think.</p>
<p>I want to go for many of the reasons JHS outlined. Because it seems like a place where I can sit there debating what the derivative/integral of thought/existence/perception is and actually have input besides “Why are you applying calculus to life? Go GET one!” Where I won’t be the odd one out for the thought I put into my actions, for my desire to learn in school and out of school settings.</p>
<p>My question is – with the recent move towards higher selectivity in admissions, the use of the common app, etc., is UChicago still going to be That Place? Or is it moving more towards prestige than I would like?</p>
<p>I’m trying to sort this out. I think there will be a bunch of people attracted to UChicago for the same reasons I am - I think UChicago will be a place I want to be for these four years. However, will I be looking at the freshmen four years down the line and thinking to myself that they’re not as quirky as the students there ought to be? I sure hope not, but I worry about it.</p>