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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Alum and alumni interviewer here.  It's a great school, but they are very selective.  I can't really compare it to others like MIT/CalTech but a history/comp sci major would probably love Chicago.  Be aware, though, that the 'stereotype' of student Chicago is trying to attract has changed significantly over the past few years.  It's no longer looking to be the place where fun comes to die.

What do his extra curriculars look like? Sports?[/quote]

Really? He won't be happy to hear that. But, I think he'll be happy as long as the essays are still unusual. That was the first thing that attracted him (that and the architecture).

His extra-curricular are...weird. I have no idea if they'll help him or hurt him. He really likes computers. He built his own, taught himself several programming languages, programs massive and complex projects and games, participates in programming contests (And does well! Unfortunately I can't say more because you'll be able to cross reference who he is - but he managed to get >$1000 in prize money for his school). He also writes modifications for video games, some of which have been downloaded 10,000+ times (or so he tells me, I wouldn't actually know). He also was a CIT at his camp, tutors middle school kids after school, is in his school's environmental club, etc...you know the usual things that most kids have done. The only thing he really does on the history front is read history books, but he's read a LOT of history books. He'll devour 600+ page monsters written by university professors, aimed at...I don't even know, but not high schoolers, in a matter of weeks and come back for more. He also likes watching lectures on history and linguistisc  that various colleges have posted on youtube, but I doubt either actually count as extra-curriculars. The problem is there just doesn't seem to be anything for a history-oriented kid to do besides learning history.

[quote=Anonymous] I went to grad school with a couple of UC CS graduates and I was pretty impressed. I agree, you really can't go wrong with Chicago. I do disagree that MIT etc wouldn't be good with the non-tech majors. They wouldn't be as good as the STEM majors, but any school with kids that smart is going to be decent. [/quote]

Both I and DH went to MIT actually, and we don't think he'd be happy with the humanities there. It just isn't pervasive enough for him; he loves casual conversation about history. Sure, there are some history buffs here and there, but most people were there cause they really liked math. We actually had one friend who got in with a higher verbal than math SAT (practically unheard of there) who majored in linguistics and she would sometimes say that she regretted not going to a school where humanities was more of a focus, even thought MIT's linguistics program is fantastic. [/quote]

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