UChicago Feedback

[Anonymous]

https://incidentreports.uchicago.edu

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow - so many people describing "cut-throat" environment, or "arbitrarily hard". I have two kids there. Yes, both really love to learn, but they have close sets of friends, go out weekend nights, have lots of activities, and don't describe things this way. They find the faculty really good, and describe most of their classes as really interesting. Different kids, but neither would switch.

I’ve never even seen the campus. I could be wrong. But I picture core UChicago people as being people who, as children, memorized almanacs for fun, wish they’d known Plato, and see familiarity with something like the core as being essential to being an educated person. They’re people who, if they come from an affluent household, with no disabilities or other testing issues, are going to score 780 or higher on the verbal SATs, without prepping, because they’re the kind of people who write the SATs.

My suspicion is that a lot of the people who go to UChicago and are unhappy are bright, well-rounded people who wanted to go to a prestigious school, not the almanac memorizers.

I have been at Northwestern, and I think the situation is the reverse there. That’s a place that makes bright, well-rounded go-getters feel great and the almanac memorizers feel a lot of stress.

An absolutely unbiased opinion

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow - so many people describing "cut-throat" environment, or "arbitrarily hard". I have two kids there. Yes, both really love to learn, but they have close sets of friends, go out weekend nights, have lots of activities, and don't describe things this way. They find the faculty really good, and describe most of their classes as really interesting. Different kids, but neither would switch.

I’ve never even seen the campus. I could be wrong. But I picture core UChicago people as being people who, as children, memorized almanacs for fun, wish they’d known Plato, and see familiarity with something like the core as being essential to being an educated person. They’re people who, if they come from an affluent household, with no disabilities or other testing issues, are going to score 780 or higher on the verbal SATs, without prepping, because they’re the kind of people who write the SATs.

My suspicion is that a lot of the people who go to UChicago and are unhappy are bright, well-rounded people who wanted to go to a prestigious school, not the almanac memorizers.

I have been at Northwestern, and I think the situation is the reverse there. That’s a place that makes bright, well-rounded go-getters feel great and the almanac memorizers feel a lot of stress.

This is such a lazy, uninformed, cliched perspective. Not to mention patronizing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I did a phd there in the 90s-mid 2000s and the undergrads are wickedly smart. It is an oasis of learning and intellectual inquiry and I now teach at a top university which doesn't hold a candle to the over environment of Chicago. The undergrads are, typically, self selecting, but there has been some "normalization" and much better amenities and focus on the undergrad experience in the 2000s and 2010s. Fun no longer comes there to die, but fun still has to work its ass off.

And duck

[Anonymous]

Don’t believe the BS marketing that it’s libertarian or conservative friendly. That is just BS to appeal to the Republican boomer donor class. It’s no different than any of the other top 20s. Turbo woke, Tiger mom conniving striver students, weirdo far left professors. And the location is terrible. Saying it’s “in Chicago” is technically correct but not reality. It takes a half an hour or longer one way to get downtown.

[Anonymous]

Chicago insider.

Most of what was said above by various PPs is true. Challenging school. Extremely competitive faculty (with implications for academic and instructional culture). Student stress. Hyde park unpleasantness. Crime. Far away from downtown or anything interesting in Chicago. Cold. This said, could be the right school for a small minority of students..I would say 50/100 a year for whom the Chicago environment is optimal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow - so many people describing "cut-throat" environment, or "arbitrarily hard". I have two kids there. Yes, both really love to learn, but they have close sets of friends, go out weekend nights, have lots of activities, and don't describe things this way. They find the faculty really good, and describe most of their classes as really interesting. Different kids, but neither would switch.

I’ve never even seen the campus. I could be wrong. But I picture core UChicago people as being people who, as children, memorized almanacs for fun, wish they’d known Plato, and see familiarity with something like the core as being essential to being an educated person. They’re people who, if they come from an affluent household, with no disabilities or other testing issues, are going to score 780 or higher on the verbal SATs, without prepping, because they’re the kind of people who write the SATs.

My suspicion is that a lot of the people who go to UChicago and are unhappy are bright, well-rounded people who wanted to go to a prestigious school, not the almanac memorizers.

I have been at Northwestern, and I think the situation is the reverse there. That’s a place that makes bright, well-rounded go-getters feel great and the almanac memorizers feel a lot of stress.

So you have no idea what you’re talking about wrt to UChicago. Why weigh in then?

[Anonymous]

I've got a first-year there.

1) DC came from a school comparable to your big 3. DC finds it challenging; but DC's surviving academically and thriving socially.

2) I was there a couple of weeks ago, and met DC's boyfriend and two friends. I felt like I was in Big Bang Theory but Sheldon was not there. Just the other guys. They were adorable.

3) Disagree with the PP that says that the free speech thing is BS. It's not. It's engrained in UChicago culture, and it attracts applicants and academics who value this. And this might surprise the above PP, but those kids are often liberals who value it and want to hear conservative viewpoints. It attracts people who are looking to discuss differing points of view.

4) The math classes are hard.

5) I polled my DC's friends who all said they loved the school and would make the same decision again in a heartbeat. They were so enthusiastic when I asked them that question! They all started talking at once.

My DC seems to be the one with some reservation, only because of the safety concerns. To be clear: DC is not scared or living in fear. However, DC doesn't like the feeling of not being able to walk places off campus. So it's more of an "I'm trapped on an island" feeling.

To combat that, we allow DC unlimited Uber. (also the campus has free Lyfts)

All that said, DC comes down on the side of liking the school. And DC is proud to be there.

As to the above PP who has "never seen the campus" and has an impression of the kind of kid that goes there:

My kid has never memorized an almanac or similar for fun, has a vision disability, has ADHD, and is well-rounded. In high school, had friends but didn't date or do drugs. (But who knows how that would have gone had there not been so much Covid-related cloistering during junior and senior year.)

I think what gets confused re UChicago, is that just because the almanac-memorizing type would be fine there doesn't mean that all or most of the kids are that type.

Hope this helps, OP!

[Anonymous]

Has anyone had a kid attend NCS and then Chicago?
My daughter thrives at NCS--does well, does not mind the work-load (maybe 3 hours of homework a night?)
She thinks she may be interested in Chicago. Currently a junior in high school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
3) Disagree with the PP that says that the free speech thing is BS. It's not. It's engrained in UChicago culture, and it attracts applicants and academics who value this. And this might surprise the above PP, but those kids are often liberals who value it and want to hear conservative viewpoints. It attracts people who are looking to discuss differing points of view.

You're just echoing official University of Chicago marketing which has no basis in reality. The literal handful of outspoken Conservative kids are bullied and cyber bullied relentlessly by wacko peers and wacko professors. One of them was even fired from the official student newspaper, which is run by intolerant far left wackos. And the Conservative kids are not anywhere near the obnoxious MAGA strain who you might infer deserve the scorn; they're basically just dorky pro-life Centrist kids i.e. RINO, Conservative Inc. types. UC's actual campus ethos is no different than you'd find at any Ivy and Berkeley and not too far from Oberlin.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Has anyone had a kid attend NCS and then Chicago?
My daughter thrives at NCS--does well, does not mind the work-load (maybe 3 hours of homework a night?)
She thinks she may be interested in Chicago. Currently a junior in high school.

There's plenty of rich Big 5 (or whatever) kids at UC. Your daughter will rush DG or Theta and hang out in her own pseudo Ivy Leaguer bubble with other prep school rich kids from DMV, New England and NYC. Maybe a well-groomed bloke from Deerfield will court her. Or perhaps a striver from Stuyvesant will catch her eye.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
3) Disagree with the PP that says that the free speech thing is BS. It's not. It's engrained in UChicago culture, and it attracts applicants and academics who value this. And this might surprise the above PP, but those kids are often liberals who value it and want to hear conservative viewpoints. It attracts people who are looking to discuss differing points of view.

You're just echoing official University of Chicago marketing which has no basis in reality. The literal handful of outspoken Conservative kids are bullied and cyber bullied relentlessly by wacko peers and wacko professors. One of them was even fired from the official student newspaper, which is run by intolerant far left wackos. And the Conservative kids are not anywhere near the obnoxious MAGA strain who you might infer deserve the scorn; they're basically just dorky pro-life Centrist kids i.e. RINO, Conservative Inc. types. UC's actual campus ethos is no different than you'd find at any Ivy and Berkeley and not too far from Oberlin.

They're not talking about dopey kid politics, they are talking about whether there are deep conservative theoretical frameworks guiding some traditions of faculty scholarship at Chicago. Which there are in a number of disciplines. Economics and Sociology in particular. Serious liberal students want to hear those conservative perspectives. They don't want to hear some dopey 18 year old guy going off about whether women have a right to make choices about their own bodies. Just because you think that's "Centrist" doesn't make it not grossly oppressive to any woman who believes they have a right to bodily autonomy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow - so many people describing "cut-throat" environment, or "arbitrarily hard". I have two kids there. Yes, both really love to learn, but they have close sets of friends, go out weekend nights, have lots of activities, and don't describe things this way. They find the faculty really good, and describe most of their classes as really interesting. Different kids, but neither would switch.

I’ve never even seen the campus. I could be wrong. But I picture core UChicago people as being people who, as children, memorized almanacs for fun, wish they’d known Plato, and see familiarity with something like the core as being essential to being an educated person. They’re people who, if they come from an affluent household, with no disabilities or other testing issues, are going to score 780 or higher on the verbal SATs, without prepping, because they’re the kind of people who write the SATs.

My suspicion is that a lot of the people who go to UChicago and are unhappy are bright, well-rounded people who wanted to go to a prestigious school, not the almanac memorizers.

I have been at Northwestern, and I think the situation is the reverse there. That’s a place that makes bright, well-rounded go-getters feel great and the almanac memorizers feel a lot of stress.

This is such a lazy, uninformed, cliched perspective. Not to mention patronizing.

My kid is the almanac memorizer. He actually did that. Deciding if it would be a good place for him or not....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
3) Disagree with the PP that says that the free speech thing is BS. It's not. It's engrained in UChicago culture, and it attracts applicants and academics who value this. And this might surprise the above PP, but those kids are often liberals who value it and want to hear conservative viewpoints. It attracts people who are looking to discuss differing points of view.

You're just echoing official University of Chicago marketing which has no basis in reality. The literal handful of outspoken Conservative kids are bullied and cyber bullied relentlessly by wacko peers and wacko professors. One of them was even fired from the official student newspaper, which is run by intolerant far left wackos. And the Conservative kids are not anywhere near the obnoxious MAGA strain who you might infer deserve the scorn; they're basically just dorky pro-life Centrist kids i.e. RINO, Conservative Inc. types. UC's actual campus ethos is no different than you'd find at any Ivy and Berkeley and not too far from Oberlin.

They're not talking about dopey kid politics, they are talking about whether there are deep conservative theoretical frameworks guiding some traditions of faculty scholarship at Chicago. Which there are in a number of disciplines. Economics and Sociology in particular. Serious liberal students want to hear those conservative perspectives. They don't want to hear some dopey 18 year old guy going off about whether women have a right to make choices about their own bodies. Just because you think that's "Centrist" doesn't make it not grossly oppressive to any woman who believes they have a right to bodily autonomy.

So we went from the campus is this magical tolerant ethos to....... a handful of dorky Conservative Inc. / Federalist / RINO trickle down professors are tenured in billionaire investment banker Ken Griffin's econ dept. Got it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
3) Disagree with the PP that says that the free speech thing is BS. It's not. It's engrained in UChicago culture, and it attracts applicants and academics who value this. And this might surprise the above PP, but those kids are often liberals who value it and want to hear conservative viewpoints. It attracts people who are looking to discuss differing points of view.

You're just echoing official University of Chicago marketing which has no basis in reality. The literal handful of outspoken Conservative kids are bullied and cyber bullied relentlessly by wacko peers and wacko professors. One of them was even fired from the official student newspaper, which is run by intolerant far left wackos. And the Conservative kids are not anywhere near the obnoxious MAGA strain who you might infer deserve the scorn; they're basically just dorky pro-life Centrist kids i.e. RINO, Conservative Inc. types. UC's actual campus ethos is no different than you'd find at any Ivy and Berkeley and not too far from Oberlin.

College kids who aspire to be right wing apparatus grifters e.g. Candace Owens deserve to be bullied.