Anonymous wrote:U of C grad here, 20-ish years ago (eeek!). Your son sounds awesome and exactly like the kind of kid I would have gone to school with. I had a great social life, partly because finding people who were like me in important ways made for a great social scene. I would have felt out of place and had a poorer social life somewhere with a big Greek culture, for example.

I hope all the claims that U of C is no longer so dorky don't mean that it has lost its special identity. Definitely visit!

I think it still has a "special identity" in that the students tend to me serious about academics, but what has been lost over the last decade or so as the admissions numbers have plummeted and the school has switched to the common app, thus attracting all the same students who routinely apply to the "top ten" schools is a feeling that the students who are there self-select specifically for the things that (used to) make Chicago unique, e.g., the Common Core, the "life of the mind," etc. Nowadays it's a lot more like you're standard top Ivy or Stanford/MIT -- super smart, accomplished kids who bask in their "less than 10 percent acceptance rate" rather than basking in being a nerd.

None of this matters as much as the fact that it's a universally renowned institution, has vast resources and well-known faculty, phenomenal graduate programs (which bolster the undergraduate's reputation and expand the reach of faculty), and excellent recruiting opportunities. While it doesn't have the cache of Harvard to, say, a grocery store clerk, it is certainly considered in the same leagues as H-Y-P-S in the rarified circles of business (finance, consulting, etc), law, politics, and academics. In other words, if your son gets in, he should enjoy himself more than "regular" kids did 20 years ago there, but should still get a top-flight education, and have vast opportunities once he graduates. Good luck!

U of C grad here, 20-ish years ago (eeek!). Your son sounds awesome and exactly like the kind of kid I would have gone to school with. I had a great social life, partly because finding people who were like me in important ways made for a great social scene. I would have felt out of place and had a poorer social life somewhere with a big Greek culture, for example.

I hope all the claims that U of C is no longer so dorky don't mean that it has lost its special identity. Definitely visit!

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?

Not well known to Joe Q. public (i.e., the same people that get Penn and Penn State confused), but very prestigious and highly regarded in the elite circles. The big consulting and investment banking firms all recruit there. Their Rhodes and Fulbright scholarship numbers are through the roof. And their graduate and research programs are second to none. A phenomenal undergraduate institution, albeit considered serious and intense by most who attend.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:University if Chicago: where fun goes to die.

My friend who went to U of C always said that U of C was her definition of fun. They are a pretty intense, intellectual, driven group of students. It's not for everybody, but for the right students, it's awesome.

The campus is gorgeous. The neighborhood around the campus can be dicey, but on campus is okay for a big, urban university.

Metra train stops on campus, so it's easy to get down to the Loop or to an El stop. Chicago itself is fabulous.

(Pack a coat, though. Chicago winters are cold.)

PP is being so kind. Chicago winters are BRUTAL. Take it from a native.....don't half-step with the winter gear!

Anonymous wrote:University if Chicago: where fun goes to die.

My friend who went to U of C always said that U of C was her definition of fun. They are a pretty intense, intellectual, driven group of students. It's not for everybody, but for the right students, it's awesome.

The campus is gorgeous. The neighborhood around the campus can be dicey, but on campus is okay for a big, urban university.

Metra train stops on campus, so it's easy to get down to the Loop or to an El stop. Chicago itself is fabulous.

(Pack a coat, though. Chicago winters are cold.)

You know the University of Chicago's motto?

UBI JOCUS, AD MORTEM

(Where fun goes to die)

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Oh, we aren't worried about Columbia as a reach because his stats are out of range. He's towards the 75th percentile for reading and math, 25th percentile for writing, and his GPA is fine. Plus he's taking a ridiculous amount of AP classes (5 right now; he's taken 3 already and gotten 5s; he's signed up for 5 more next year), and doing great in them. I don't think they'll reject him for stats, they'll reject him because it's just so competitive these days. Everyone's applying and it's really a bit of a crap-shoot.

Wait-that sounds like he won't have a shot at any of the above mentioned schools. What am I missing.

Why would that mean he has no shot? His scores are >750 in Reading and Math, his only weakness is Writing (700...), which is the least important part. I seriously doubt another 50 points or whatever would help him that much.

Anonymous wrote:What school does your DS go to that you can say that Chicago's EA rate is 50%? Their overall acceptance rate this year was NINE percent. EA rate would have to be hire, of course, but not significantly so -- 20%-ish? I just don't believe your stats.

W School at MCPS.



Granted, this is commutative over a number of years. I don't know what the stats were this year.

Anonymous wrote:OP, your child sounds wonderfully gifted and driven towards his interests. I do not know why you assume that he should not reach for some of his other reach-y (Chicago being one, of course) schools as well.

Don't worry, he's applying other places too. We were just wondering specifically about Chicago - both I and DH have a lot more experience with reach-y schools closer to home.

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.

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.

OP, your child sounds wonderfully gifted and driven towards his interests. I do not know why you assume that he should not reach for some of his other reach-y (Chicago being one, of course) schools as well.

Husband and I met while attendng grad school there. I always thought the undergrads looked stressed out and sad compared with my ivy undergrad. Great academics, maybe too few ways to relax.

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.

Oh, and by "social darwinism" I meant sociopathy.

WTF is wrong with you? Are you the freak show who thinks that all Ivy Leagers are sociopaths, too?

I'm as left as they come. But Pinochet was in the 1970s and 1980s. During the 1990s I worked closely with several members of Chile's finance ministry and, news flash, even Bachelet's people are more right wing than most advisors elsewhere in Latin America.

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.

Oh, and by "social darwinism" I meant sociopathy.

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

WTF is the matter with you?