@lastone03 I know that you posted an ‘incredulous’ comment toward a poster whose pretty knowledge, that’s what I know. Mic drop.
Now you keep walking.
Ok, now we can all kiss and make up.
Hey I threw the first shade at UChicago, LOL and it was strictly about their incessant mailing - especially to unqualified kids. I have never been there, and my daughter did not apply so my feelings are not born from that. I save THOSE feelings for MIT (which I still love, hate, love).
But you know what I really hate? Parents who say stuff like “you don’t like XXX because you/your kid didn’t get in.” That’s stupid. Because if you think your kid got into a school like University of Chicago because they were smarter or worked harder than every other applicant - you’d be wrong. I know this because my kid got rejections from every prestigious school she applied to and I’d put her stats, her ECs and her athletics up against anyone’s. And YES, I’m completely bitter because the only truth about the college application process is that it’s completely subjective My introverted, sweet kid did everything she could to go to her dream school and they still said no thank you. She is no less deserving than the kids who were offered a place. Thankfully she ended up at a school that wanted her and let her know, and she returned the favor by making Dean’s list and going to NCAA’s as a Freshman. God, people like you tick me off.
@uocparent, now I see what your username means. We parents all have the instinct to protect our young. …still kissing. 
@cleoforshort, congratulations on having a fabulous daughter!
@bopambo Thanks, I think I’ll keep her!
Hm. Every peer I know currently at Chicago is pretty status obsessed, money hungry and has somewhat of a chip on their shoulder after being rejected from Ivies, Duke, MIT and Stanford. I don’t know what historical version of Chicago some of the windbags in this thread are fantasizing about, but it’s certainly not “The College” in 2018. Hyde Park is full of unhappy overworked pretentious rich kids in Canada Goose and Moncler jackets doubting if it was all worth it.
er nothing bothers me more than seeing people with substantially lower stats than me get into a college I got wait listed at.
“As a Chicago alumnus I am sometimes sorry to see the rise in popularity of the old school. Previously it was only known to kids who were really serious about intellectual achievement and really contemptuous of all the middlebrow fluff and unearned prestige on offer elsewhere.”
You should come hang out with my parents, BA '61 and BA '63/MD '67. They view the college today as watered down and mainstream when it used to offer a contrasting alternative to the Yales of the world.
Can I say this is what I hate the most about all colleges and this process? Does it qualify for hate in this thread? The causalities of this system are the kids who do work as hard as they possible can, and are working as hard as the hardest workers, make sacrifices throughout high school, hit the scores and the grades and the ECs and the leadership and demonstrate passion - and yet, yes, they still get rejected from schools they were certainly qualified to attend. I understand it, but they do not and I hate the devastation it causes on their confidence and hearts. Then having to try to explain that working hard really does pay off, when apparently, it really didn’t over these impressionable four years.
I have seen it in many kids and read it in threads here - about kids being absolutely devastated and feeling hopeless because the process crushes them. Whether their expectations are naive or just wrong, it is still painful to see. And while they recover eventually, for some it takes a very long time for their confidence and self worth to come back to where it once was.
Just a reminder with all the decisions rolling out that it can be a really painful time for some, so we should tread lightly on their young little souls when we post or speak with them about their choice(s).
Hate the colleges, but love the kids, I guess is what I am saying.
Whew, had that bottled up I suppose.
@CADREAMIN My daughter cried so hard on Ivy night last year that her eyes swelled shut. I had to ice them. An hour later she was at her desk studying for Science Olympiad and then 36 hours later, she was a multiple medal winner and helped her team qualify for Nationals.
These kids are devastated and it doesn’t make sense, but these kids are also resilient, and smart and pragmatic (more than their mothers, LOL). They will be fine, and those loopy, ridiculous schools that said no are the poorer for doing so.
Concentrate on the schools that said yes, it’s nice to be wanted.
Go Eagles!
Yeah, I am also consumed with hatred just now. The process changed from a pressure cooker to a bloodbath and it’s impossible not to resent a situation where a student who has done everything right since kindergarten is turned down by the schools that courted most assiduously.
We will all get over it, I suppose.
@cleoforshort couldn’t agree with you more about loopy schools that said no. On this note S was rejected from Carleton - long shot - but they sent in the post (very nice touch - international) a letter saying I quote, “As thorough and fair as we attempt to make our selection process, we may at times suffer from shortsightedness. Your fine achievement to date and in future college endeavors may well prove just how shortsighted we can be.”
This for us sums up what S is going to achieve and give back to the college he has chosen.
Classy rejection letter. Not surprised from Carleton.
@lizzy1234 Generalities are ALWAYS inaccurate and put the speaker in an inferior intellectual position.
Do you really believe what you are saying? UChicago students are miserable, wear Canada Goose and were rejected from the Ivies? I know many, and none of them are related to these categories. My daughter and friends are the opposite; smart, funny, charming, with strong personalities that let them chose the place where they really wanted to be, instead of following the trend of going to a college for its brand name, or their parents’ preferences, My daughter was accepted to Columbia, Duke, Cornell, UPenn, Vanderbilt, but she always wanted to go to UChicago and loves everything about it. Her best friend was admitted to Stanford and Yale and chose UChicago because she wanted to enjoy the culture of a big city. UChicago kids are intellectual high achievers that love learning for the sake of learning; most of them have that in common and that makes the social life enriching and very rewarding; the competition is not cut-throat. They spend most of their time studying, but during their free time instead of partying, they go to a nice restaurant, a concert or a museum. My D has enjoyed every second there (a little less during mid and finals, though ). I have not met any miserable kid in UChicago so far.
I began the year with good impressions of the UofC but now I’m really beginning to hate it. Despite an overabundance of professors with comb-overs and way too many puns in Sumerian, I always thought that it would have been a great place to study. Now I have been convinced by the comments in support of the college that I would have hated every waking, pompous moment. UofC alumni and boosters please find the appropriate forum to trade love notes in Akadian cuneiforn and leave the rest of us to our petty/crass dissection of your and other fine colleges. I am now certain that your fond memories of the UofC are caused by either Stockholm Syndrome or an over consumption of what the locals call pizza. Oh and Happy Good Friday/Passover.
Damn…I wish I had read all this in the evening with some popcorn in hand. This is much better than the awful remake of Dynasty that is on TV right now.
We loved Chicago on our visit. Nice kids, gorgeous school. The kids were definitely intellectual but not in a snobby way at all. (And trust me…I’m originally from NW Pennsylvania and acknowledge that I am a smart but not intellectual guy at all.) Our one big disappointment is that we had to walk through a fairly sketchy park to get to the subway. I would not have been comfortable walking through that park in the dark.
In terms of their mailings…the one that opens up into a big post of the City of Chicago…that is still hanging in my son’s room. Gorgeous.
I just don’t get the intellectuals @ Chicago thing. All the kids I know who go there are grinds. They all work hard but intellectual they are not.
This thread is specifically set aside for insulting colleges. If you don’t want to read anything mean about your college, don’t read this thread. People do not have to justify their emotional reactions, and are allowed to hate an institution for the pettiest reason. That’s how I read this thread, and I hope most other people also use it that way.
@Whistlingal Annnnd now I like Carleton! That’s how to write a rejection letter, whoever heads their Admissions office gets it. These kids still have so much to do, time does not stop for them at the point of college admissions. I’m glad Carleton sees that.
Good luck to your son!
U of Chicago was the “hot” school last year at my D17’s school. I’m not sure how many kids applied/got in/attended. The matriculation list was not published because college admissions was a bloodbath and the parents refused to have the list made public. LOL