Niece just finished her freshman year at University of Chicago. She hates it.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I am waiting to see how many kids who got into high profile college from DD's class find out they hate the school (or can't keep up) and decide to transfer after the first year. These places all look great on paper, but you get the real vibe once you are there, I guess.

U of Chicago certainly isn't in the middle of nowhere.

Campus is in the middle of nowhere to millions who live in Chicago who literally NEVER venture down there. No reason to, there’s nothing there. So of course it’s in the middle of nowhere to wealthy teens from the coasts, especially when most of their friends are at colleges clustered on the costs. Just getting to the airport from campus is a two hour affair.

It's a half hour drive. I think there's even a school shuttle, but it's a half hour in an uber. If you're talking public transportation, then a hell of a lot of colleges are a 2 hour public bus ride from the airport. I live in NYC and NYU or Columbia could easily be a 2 hour bus ride from an airport.

I feel like you people have never been to chicago?

Well, Moscow and Beijing and wherever the troll came in Africa are might be a lot like Chicago.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:She earned very high marks and she does not wish to return. And not just for known reasons like violent crime, weather, and its isolated location in the Midwest, and more specifically, on the deep south side of Chicago. We had a long lunch and here are her words in quotes: Her classmates are "repulsively obnoxious" and "insufferable," her professors were "checked out" or "barely spoke English," the university seems "unprofessional" and in "disarray," and most of the staff she encountered were "useless" and "incompetent." "It looks like a serious university but it does not operate like a serious university."

It was not her first choice but she was so excited when we met for lunch late last summer. It is sad to see her so unhappy after a year.

You realize it is hard to take you seriously when you lead with “the violent crime” and the “isolated location”.

First, the area around the school has crime, but the school itself is fine.

2nd… a city of 5 million people is hardly an isolated location.

Why even mention those two points…doesn’t sound like they had anything to do with your niece liking or not liking the school.

The location, weather, and crime is why the campus ethos is lacking, from faculty and administrators to low-level staff. If you were a high-flying researcher or administrator, would you prefer the coasts, the warm Sun Belt — or south side Chicago crime and cold weather? If you were a nurse or a random service worker, would you want to work downtown or the wealthy north and western suburbs of Chicago (for more pay!) — or commute down to the dangerous and isolated south side Chicago island the campus is in?

honestly LOL

Why is that funny? You think UChicago has an easy time recruiting the most talented faculty and administrators? They lose most of the battles. Why? Because the location sucks and the university is a wobbly house of cards.

I haven’t ever seen UChicago. I did spend a year at Northwestern. I really hated the place, but it’s a fine school with a great faculty, and Chicago is a fun, gorgeous city. The people trying to trash the place must be applicants on the UChicago waitlist.

[Anonymous]

It has a relatively small endowment for a "prestigious" school

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Sometimes this happens when you choose a college based solely on it being your highest US News ranked option.

She is really well traveled with best friends and an older brother at Ivies, UVA, Vanderbilt, Boston College, and Duke. Her senior year of high school and over the last year she has spent weekends or longer at like a dozen universities. She has a good handle on what she believes is lacking at Chicago.

Yes, weekend visits are the best way to discover how universities are run.

During her dozen of university weekend visits did she sit in many classes to see if the professors were checked out?

DP, but this is a thing, it's just really hard to know what is and isn't a good fit until you're there and have your experience. I went to Chicago and had a great time. None of what's described by some here is familiar to me at all, my social circle was down to earth and friendly, my professors were great (and all English speakers), but that's my experience. I had no way of knowing what experience I would have until I had it, really.

Maybe socially, but the rant about weekend visits to other schools means the niece knows that U Chicago is pooy run by comparison is ridiculous. The weekend visits were for socializing or partying-not to investigate the skills of the administration.

A teen spending several days socializing with current students on campus is the best way to learn about a school. It makes her far more knowledgeable than 99.9% of applicants, who maybe do a brief tour in the summer, if that. And far more informed than most message board boomer know it alls who act like they have a handle of all 25 of the top 25 US News list. Or if they attended even one of them (big if!) it was likely decades ago.

Socially sure. But she's not spending the weekend surveying the current student population on their satisfaction with their TAs.

[Anonymous]

Their endowment is pretty large for a medium to small size school

[Anonymous]

I went to the U of Chicago for Law School in the late 90's. I found it to be a serious place, and I had very smart classmates and professors. I found the people very likeable. I liked the campus, but OK, it was not ideal to live on the South Side of Chicago, as it is a bleak place. It was not a particularly fun stage of life, but I am glad that I went there because it gave me a lot of opportunities career-wise.

Is your niece normally a relatively positive/neutral person, or does she tend to be a complainer / kind of paint with a broad brush? If the former, then perhaps she should transfer if it was really that bad. (Granted, I kind of doubt it's that bad as she's describing?) If she tends to be a slightly negative person anyway, then perhaps she will not particularly enjoy any college.

[Anonymous]

Admittedly I don’t know the campus, but I just used google maps bc I can see one of my kids liking the school and was disheartened by this post. BUT the Bean (in a perfectly lovely touristy Chicago area) shows at an 18 minute drive and 30 minutes by transit. That seems pretty connected to the city to me?

[Anonymous]

Our private college counselor says fun goes to die and U of Chicago. He says it is a miserable environment for most students.

[Anonymous]

U of C is hardly located in the "deep south side" of Chicago. It's near the lake and a 15 minute el ride to downtown. It's fine your niece didn't like it. Happens everywhere. But your hyperbole just shows how much you don't know Chicago. At all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our private college counselor says fun goes to die and U of Chicago. He says it is a miserable environment for most students.

If this and previous posts portraying UChicago as a miserable place full of unahppy students are even remotely true, then why does the school have an extremely high freshmen retention rate? College kids transfer all the time no one's forcing these kids to stay at a place they intensely dislike. Even if they're hung up on rankings, they could always transfer to a more or less equally prestigious univeresity.

https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-universities/freshmen-least-most-likely-return

[Anonymous]

U Chicago is of course a great school but not a fit for everyone. With those grades, she can transfer to another top school and sounds like be much happier.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:She earned very high marks and she does not wish to return. And not just for known reasons like violent crime, weather, and its isolated location in the Midwest, and more specifically, on the deep south side of Chicago. We had a long lunch and here are her words in quotes: Her classmates are "repulsively obnoxious" and "insufferable," her professors were "checked out" or "barely spoke English," the university seems "unprofessional" and in "disarray," and most of the staff she encountered were "useless" and "incompetent." "It looks like a serious university but it does not operate like a serious university."

It was not her first choice but she was so excited when we met for lunch late last summer. It is sad to see her so unhappy after a year.

can't tell if this is a troll but definitely MAGA. I'd recommend Liberty University for your niece. Seems more her kind of people

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I went to the U of Chicago for Law School in the late 90's. I found it to be a serious place, and I had very smart classmates and professors. I found the people very likeable. I liked the campus, but OK, it was not ideal to live on the South Side of Chicago, as it is a bleak place. It was not a particularly fun stage of life, but I am glad that I went there because it gave me a lot of opportunities career-wise.

Is your niece normally a relatively positive/neutral person, or does she tend to be a complainer / kind of paint with a broad brush? If the former, then perhaps she should transfer if it was really that bad. (Granted, I kind of doubt it's that bad as she's describing?) If she tends to be a slightly negative person anyway, then perhaps she will not particularly enjoy any college.

Law school is generally going to be a different environment than undergrad. Not sure how you got in without the brains to realize that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our private college counselor says fun goes to die and U of Chicago. He says it is a miserable environment for most students.

If this and previous posts portraying UChicago as a miserable place full of unhappy students are even remotely true, then why does the school have an extremely high freshmen retention rate? College kids transfer all the time no one's forcing these kids to stay at a place they intensely dislike. Even if they're hung up on rankings, they could always transfer to a more or less equally prestigious university.

https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-universities/freshmen-least-most-likely-return

This is easily explained. (i) Very few kids at top colleges transfer in general. (ii) Chicago is on the tricky quarter system, which makes transferring all of your credits extremely difficult and the school year calendar makes the process and timeline more challenging. (iii) UChicago classes are hard, which means your college GPA is likely going to be lower if not much lower than someone who went to a degree mill and coasted to a 4.0 their freshman year. (iv) It is technically ranked in the top 15, right, and it's not exactly easy to transfer to another top 15 college. The top 15, outside of maybe Chicago and Cornell, admit very few transfers. Some don't even really take transfers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I went to the U of Chicago for Law School in the late 90's. I found it to be a serious place, and I had very smart classmates and professors. I found the people very likeable. I liked the campus, but OK, it was not ideal to live on the South Side of Chicago, as it is a bleak place. It was not a particularly fun stage of life, but I am glad that I went there because it gave me a lot of opportunities career-wise.

Is your niece normally a relatively positive/neutral person, or does she tend to be a complainer / kind of paint with a broad brush? If the former, then perhaps she should transfer if it was really that bad. (Granted, I kind of doubt it's that bad as she's describing?) If she tends to be a slightly negative person anyway, then perhaps she will not particularly enjoy any college.

Law school is generally going to be a different environment than undergrad. Not sure how you got in without the brains to realize that.

Law student or undergraduate, the south side is bleak. Poverty, blight, litter, being tense everywhere because of crime, and constant sirens, speeding cars, and car horns. And for most of the school year, quarter system is September through May, the weather is pretty crummy. Chicago summers are gorgeous. Its long winters are awful. Bleak.