What kind of kids go to University of Chicago now?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The actual campus is pretty safe. You do not want to be any where south of Woodlawn dorm.
Hyde park is very cute and pretty safe neighborhood.
In my opinion with the gun violence you are not truly safe any where.

-1. My friend’s son is there and has reported multiple muggings at gunpoint on campus over the past several months.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No horse in this race, but previous posters made me curious: What are Chicago’s weird essay questions? Could someone please give us an example?

what's so odd about odd numbers?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No horse in this race, but previous posters made me curious: What are Chicago’s weird essay questions? Could someone please give us an example?

what's so odd about odd numbers?

Find x

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Years and years ago when I was there as a grad student, the undergrads were brilliant and quirky, and didn’t seem Uber wealthy or private school types.

I have the feeling that’s changed now. The College is much larger, and there seems to be a lot of emphasis on ED, which means wealth to me. I also hear of kids attending who just would NEVER have chosen Chicago back in the day- they are normal and smart but not brilliant, well rounded etc.

Does someone on here know OLD Chicago and NEW Chicago? Has it changed? Is it still a good, friendly, dorky place, life of the mind? It is it like lots of other schools now?

Thanks in advance.

I went to Chicago back in the day My DC (similar to me in many of the traits you mentioned) goes to Swarthmore which still has those types.

Twenty plus years ago, my wife and I were both at the UC and it was blissful. All the kids were geeky, social misfits, decidedly not wealthy, raw intellectuals who studied in the tunnels (remember the tunnels) because it was warm down there. Today, our children attend grammer school and Mathnasium in Hyde Park, and all the undergrads look like LL Bean models. The U of C really did itself a disservice by trying to appeal to a broader audience. The jocks and sorority sisters will always pick Northwestern, so the U of C will just get HYP rejects and lose its culture. It makes me sad that my children won't have someplace like the old U of C (or does someplace like this still exist outside the LSE)?

Can’t speak to old UChicago, but DS is there now. What you describe as geeky misfits is what DS reports and is loving it. His house lounge is packed full of kids who prefer watching movies and playing poker and board games to parties. I’d say DS is happy being social for the first time in his life.

Of course, I think he’s also a good looking guy and looks nice in LL Beam clothes. Don’t give up hope that UChicago still has this vibe!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The actual campus is pretty safe. You do not want to be any where south of Woodlawn dorm.
Hyde park is very cute and pretty safe neighborhood.
In my opinion with the gun violence you are not truly safe any where.

-1. My friend’s son is there and has reported multiple muggings at gunpoint on campus over the past several months.

Not on campus but near enough to pay attention.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Years and years ago when I was there as a grad student, the undergrads were brilliant and quirky, and didn’t seem Uber wealthy or private school types.

I have the feeling that’s changed now. The College is much larger, and there seems to be a lot of emphasis on ED, which means wealth to me. I also hear of kids attending who just would NEVER have chosen Chicago back in the day- they are normal and smart but not brilliant, well rounded etc.

Does someone on here know OLD Chicago and NEW Chicago? Has it changed? Is it still a good, friendly, dorky place, life of the mind? It is it like lots of other schools now?

Thanks in advance.

I went to Chicago back in the day My DC (similar to me in many of the traits you mentioned) goes to Swarthmore which still has those types.

Twenty plus years ago, my wife and I were both at the UC and it was blissful. All the kids were geeky, social misfits, decidedly not wealthy, raw intellectuals who studied in the tunnels (remember the tunnels) because it was warm down there. Today, our children attend grammer school and Mathnasium in Hyde Park, and all the undergrads look like LL Bean models. The U of C really did itself a disservice by trying to appeal to a broader audience. The jocks and sorority sisters will always pick Northwestern, so the U of C will just get HYP rejects and lose its culture. It makes me sad that my children won't have someplace like the old U of C (or does someplace like this still exist outside the LSE)?

Can’t speak to old UChicago, but DS is there now. What you describe as geeky misfits is what DS reports and is loving it. His house lounge is packed full of kids who prefer watching movies and playing poker and board games to parties. I’d say DS is happy being social for the first time in his life.

Of course, I think he’s also a good looking guy and looks nice in LL Beam clothes. Don’t give up hope that UChicago still has this vibe!

Still quirky, still insanely driven!! My kid is a recent grad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No horse in this race, but previous posters made me curious: What are Chicago’s weird essay questions? Could someone please give us an example?

what's so odd about odd numbers?

Find x

where is waldo really?

what wisdom does a wisdom tooth have?

[Anonymous]

My son is there now and he goes to more parties that i thought possible, he does play poker weekly and go to the gym often.
pretty much like any other student at any other university.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:100 percent agree on Brown and Cornell

Totally. Chicago is a completely different league.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Chicago takes kids who can do the work. More schools should be like that. They have a decent graduation rate. A kid with a 3.7 from a top school and a 1530 can probably do the work anywhere.

What they don’t take is a million athletes. They’re not filling 30% or more of their seats with kids who had a lot of private athletic coaches. They use their own weird essays to weed people out.

I’d take HYP over Chicago bcs of prestige. Penn depending on kid. But Cornell? No. Dartmouth? No. Brown? No. Schools like Williams or Amherst or swat? No.

The type of kid who likes Cornell or Dartmouth probably wouldn’t like Chicago. Less brilliant perhaps but higher emotional intelligence. Works hard but also enjoys social stuff. Not better or worse in the big picture way of looking at things but different. Also rural environment vs. city.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The actual campus is pretty safe. You do not want to be any where south of Woodlawn dorm.
Hyde park is very cute and pretty safe neighborhood.
In my opinion with the gun violence you are not truly safe any where.

-1. My friend’s son is there and has reported multiple muggings at gunpoint on campus over the past several months.

Shocking- said no one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:100 percent agree on Brown and Cornell

Totally. Chicago is a completely different league.

You guys are nuts. We hire from all of these top schools including Chicago and the Chicago kids don’t stand out from Brown, Yale, Cornell, Harvard, etc. They are all mostly bright and hardworking. We look for the special something that would be a good fit for our company and it is impossible to predict which kid will have it. Chicago students are really not all that special as some of you parents would like to believe.

[Anonymous]

Why do people think Chicago is so great for undergrad? It has given undergrad more attention, which is great, but it had an outlier rank on USNWR for years and is even back to being the 2nd best Chicago area school there. There has long been a significant quality difference between their undergrad and best grad schools, which are mostly professional. A Chicago undergrad isn't like a Booth or law school grad, which businesses and grad schools know.

[Anonymous]

The influence of rankings on kids over the last decade is kind of crazy though. The people hiring them don't think of Chicago as being like Harvard or Yale or Stanford but the kids do because USNWR said so!

[Anonymous]

Why do Chicago students have a chip on their shoulder about being tougher than the ivies?
I feel like anyone I meet from Chicago always brings that up? And the fact that they debate Plato in their free time. It makes me wonder if they are insecure. Not sure why they would be insecure because it is a great school