Anyone know anything about University of Chicago?

[Anonymous]

I think, based on what you mentioned about his History, CS and philosophizing interests he will like it.
I had a couple majors in college and met U of Chi grads on my Kyoto study abroad (linguistics, Japanese, and East Asian history majors) and on Wall Street (econ majors). They were all quite bright, went on to grad school, enjoyed Chicago, and liked academics. There is zero grade inflation at U of Chicago, but everyone (recruiters, grad schools) knows it so no real effect.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:U. of Chicago is the home of the "Chicago School" of economics. This is a school of thought most famously promulgated by Milton Friedman, who espoused a purely lassez-faire approach to economic policy that approached social darwinism, and has been a favorite touchstone of oligarchs everywhere.

The dictatorship of the bloody-handed murderer Augusto Pinochet in Chile explicitly looked to the Chicago School for its economic policies, regardless of the human and social costs that followed.

Yes, and the Chicago School has also heavily influenced U.S. economic and legal thinking. See, for example, current Supreme Court.

I'm a liberal economist without any affiliation to U Chicago. You sound nuts when you write things like, "Milton Friedman... make that the entire U Chicago ... have single-handedly ruined our economy ... and our judicial system! It's a conspiracy!"

Please stop urging OP to deny her son a fine education at U Chicago, just because some Chilean students in the 1970s attended grad school there. Newsflash: the University of Chicago is more than just a single graduate school in economics. Yes, the economics department there is conservative. But there are plenty of other schools there. They are really pushing the arts these days, for example. OP's kid can get the great education in humanities and CS he wants there, without having to interact with the Econ department for a single second.

Just want to add that you shouldn't avoid economics classes there because it has, like, the top econ program in the entire country. Why would anyone be embarrassed by this?

agree, top econ department and profs in the country, cutting edge econometrics and behavioral economics/finance.

[Anonymous]

Good school for snobby crunchy white kids who think they are special, grounded and accepting.

[Anonymous]

Hi, it's OP again. I thought I might as well update since this thread was very useful. My son will be attending UChicago this coming fall!

Thanks for the advice everyone, it was spot on. He absolutely loved the school, the other admitted students, and Hyde Park when he visited. He sat in on some classes, including a CS and history class, and in both he went up to the professors after and they were both very interested in chatting with a random high schooler about their subjects. The CS one even telling him to come back to get a job doing computational linguistics.

Mudd ended up being too constraining - you had to take required humanities classes at Mudd, and it wasn't as easy to cross register as he was expecting. When he talked to students they weren't interested in anything outside of math/science/CS, while at Chicago everyone seemed to be interested in everything.

[Anonymous]

University of Chicago sounds perfect for your DS. Everyone there is nerdy and brilliant. Great campus.

[Anonymous]

Cool -- my DD is a year behind your DS, but has a similar science and humanities mindset and is attracted to the school for some of the same reasons (loves the nerdy mailers and fun essay questions too).

Congrats to your DS -- hope he loves U of C!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hi, it's OP again. I thought I might as well update since this thread was very useful. My son will be attending UChicago this coming fall!

Thanks for the advice everyone, it was spot on. He absolutely loved the school, the other admitted students, and Hyde Park when he visited. He sat in on some classes, including a CS and history class, and in both he went up to the professors after and they were both very interested in chatting with a random high schooler about their subjects. The CS one even telling him to come back to get a job doing computational linguistics.

Mudd ended up being too constraining - you had to take required humanities classes at Mudd, and it wasn't as easy to cross register as he was expecting. When he talked to students they weren't interested in anything outside of math/science/CS, while at Chicago everyone seemed to be interested in everything.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I loved Chicago. But the school is rather Jewish.

Most of the top schools are, pal. So what?

[Anonymous]

Congratulations, OP, to you and your son! One of my high school teachers left me with the following words of wisdom: study hard and you will succeed at Chicago. Good luck to him!

[Anonymous]

Very impressive bunch of undergrads. Very intellectual place. I wouldn't worry that they aren't known for comp SCSI. They are strong in many places and the core will serve your kid well.

I know the reputation, but I know a lot of people who really loved it there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I loved Chicago. But the school is rather Jewish.

Most of the top schools are, pal. So what?

I'm not the PP you quoted, but I agree that Chicago's culture leans more Jewish than many of its peer schools. One example: the annual latkes v. hamantash debate.

[Anonymous]

Wish it was in a different city. Chicago kind of sucks. Imagine if it was in San Francisco, the acceptance rate would be like 3%

[Anonymous]

Chicago's awesome -- great food, live music, interesting theater, Art Institute, nice parks, independent bookstores, decent transit. I spent a couple of years there during grad school and loved it.

The challenge at U of C will be to get out of Hyde Park and see other parts of the city. It's almost like Berkeley to SF which is more of a schlep than Cambridge to Boston.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Chicago's awesome -- great food, live music, interesting theater, Art Institute, nice parks, independent bookstores, decent transit. I spent a couple of years there during grad school and loved it.

The challenge at U of C will be to get out of Hyde Park and see other parts of the city. It's almost like Berkeley to SF which is more of a schlep than Cambridge to Boston.

Except that Berkeley is a terrific city unto itself (much like Cambridge 30 years ago before it became a mall with Harvard Yard in the middle of it). Hyde Park is an endearing academic boho enclave, but has very little to offer in the way of entertainment.

[Anonymous]

I think that in the 2000s UofC has become more invested in making it easy for students to get out of the neighborhood-so there's more direct bus service to downtown and the northside and more frequent bus service to the El. And the University puts more effort into making sure that students actually know how to use public transit to get around. You do need to be more intrepid if you are in Hyde Park and really want to enjoy all of Chicago, but to me that's a benefit.