Anonymous wrote:Sounds like an awful place, and the list of alumni is unremarkable.
If people see it as an 'anti ivy', well, all the better.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Chicago

Anonymous wrote:Just goes to show how much "pedigree" and "status" matter to DCUM people.

According to US News, Chicago beats all of them except Princeton, Harvard, and Yale.
According to the number of Nobel laureates produced, it beats all of them except Harvard and Columbia.
According to one Forbes list, it loses to Harvard and Princeton.
According to another Forbes list, it loses to all of them.
According to people who want to hire hoteliers, it loses to Cornell.
According to engineers, it loses to all of them
According to Barack Obama, it loses to Harvard and Columbia.
According to Donald Trump, it loses to Penn.

These threads are so stupid, and the fact that there are like a million every week about which schools have the most "status" as though anyone has the option to choose between all these top schools is just so telling about the DCUM population.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: "If you’re a serious student with true intellectual curiosity, this is probably the best University in the US to attend. You will be pushed, you will be stretched, you will be challenged, and you will wrestle with some of the smartest people on this planet over important issues, 24/7. It is a place that is well aware of its history & celebrates intellectual accomplishment. If you are up to the challenge, U. Chicago is for you. Otherwise, go to Harvard or some other place."

Sounds like what you'll find at most major universities in America. Chicago is not special in this regard.

NP here. As an undergrad, I went to one of the Ivies that this board deems top tier. I then went to Chicago for my doctoral work, and taught a few undergrad courses while I was there. The Chicago kids seemed considerably sharper than the kids at my alma mater. They also seemed considerably more neurotic.

Some of this is probably owed to the fact that they often end up taking classes side-by-side with graduate students, who are neurotic by definition. ?Regardless, it remains a place I would only recommend to students looking for a serious intellectual challenge.

Spot on. Neurotic, grubby, upper middle class / rich kids.

Only anecdotal but I would say neurotic just about personified the kids on most of the elite campuses we met over the course of many tours. They sounded and looked like they had been on a treadmill for years and if you asked them questions outside the canned speech, their responses were centered around career outcomes. We didn't go to all the schools but certainly HYPS and Penn. I will say UChicago, Cornell and Williams did not seem as wired to us.
This is very recently. Perhaps this negative comparison race we participate in as their parents has something to do with it? I think all of these schools have good and not as good facets. If you do a one to one between them there will always be something negative to say. I think it would be more helpful to people looking at colleges to point out the positive. But then again that wouldn't be any fun for the anti-Chicago posters would it?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: "If you’re a serious student with true intellectual curiosity, this is probably the best University in the US to attend. You will be pushed, you will be stretched, you will be challenged, and you will wrestle with some of the smartest people on this planet over important issues, 24/7. It is a place that is well aware of its history & celebrates intellectual accomplishment. If you are up to the challenge, U. Chicago is for you. Otherwise, go to Harvard or some other place."

Sounds like what you'll find at most major universities in America. Chicago is not special in this regard.

NP here. As an undergrad, I went to one of the Ivies that this board deems top tier. I then went to Chicago for my doctoral work, and taught a few undergrad courses while I was there. The Chicago kids seemed considerably sharper than the kids at my alma mater. They also seemed considerably more neurotic.

Some of this is probably owed to the fact that they often end up taking classes side-by-side with graduate students, who are neurotic by definition. ?Regardless, it remains a place I would only recommend to students looking for a serious intellectual challenge.

Spot on. Neurotic, grubby, upper middle class / rich kids.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: "If you’re a serious student with true intellectual curiosity, this is probably the best University in the US to attend. You will be pushed, you will be stretched, you will be challenged, and you will wrestle with some of the smartest people on this planet over important issues, 24/7. It is a place that is well aware of its history & celebrates intellectual accomplishment. If you are up to the challenge, U. Chicago is for you. Otherwise, go to Harvard or some other place."

Sounds like what you'll find at most major universities in America. Chicago is not special in this regard.

NP here. As an undergrad, I went to one of the Ivies that this board deems top tier. I then went to Chicago for my doctoral work, and taught a few undergrad courses while I was there. The Chicago kids seemed considerably sharper than the kids at my alma mater. They also seemed considerably more neurotic.

Some of this is probably owed to the fact that they often end up taking classes side-by-side with graduate students, who are neurotic by definition. ?Regardless, it remains a place I would only recommend to students looking for a serious intellectual challenge.

Spot on. Neurotic, grubby, upper middle class / rich kids.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: "If you’re a serious student with true intellectual curiosity, this is probably the best University in the US to attend. You will be pushed, you will be stretched, you will be challenged, and you will wrestle with some of the smartest people on this planet over important issues, 24/7. It is a place that is well aware of its history & celebrates intellectual accomplishment. If you are up to the challenge, U. Chicago is for you. Otherwise, go to Harvard or some other place."

Sounds like what you'll find at most major universities in America. Chicago is not special in this regard.

NP here. As an undergrad, I went to one of the Ivies that this board deems top tier. I then went to Chicago for my doctoral work, and taught a few undergrad courses while I was there. The Chicago kids seemed considerably sharper than the kids at my alma mater. They also seemed considerably more neurotic.

Some of this is probably owed to the fact that they often end up taking classes side-by-side with graduate students, who are neurotic by definition. ?Regardless, it remains a place I would only recommend to students looking for a serious intellectual challenge.

Spot on. Neurotic, grubby, upper middle class / rich kids.

You might want to visit the place or maybe read up on the school stats some before forming opinions.
It appears to be a diverse school with smart kids who like to study a d challenge themselves intellectually a lot.
They seem to produce people who go into things like science research , whereas the Ivy's produce people who might be stockbrokers or Jared Kushner types ( making billions off being an inner city slumlord anyone? Marrying well?). They are not similar environments so why compare? Why so much whining and maligning ?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: "If you’re a serious student with true intellectual curiosity, this is probably the best University in the US to attend. You will be pushed, you will be stretched, you will be challenged, and you will wrestle with some of the smartest people on this planet over important issues, 24/7. It is a place that is well aware of its history & celebrates intellectual accomplishment. If you are up to the challenge, U. Chicago is for you. Otherwise, go to Harvard or some other place."

Sounds like what you'll find at most major universities in America. Chicago is not special in this regard.

NP here. As an undergrad, I went to one of the Ivies that this board deems top tier. I then went to Chicago for my doctoral work, and taught a few undergrad courses while I was there. The Chicago kids seemed considerably sharper than the kids at my alma mater. They also seemed considerably more neurotic.

Some of this is probably owed to the fact that they often end up taking classes side-by-side with graduate students, who are neurotic by definition. ?Regardless, it remains a place I would only recommend to students looking for a serious intellectual challenge.

Spot on. Neurotic, grubby, upper middle class / rich kids.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: "If you’re a serious student with true intellectual curiosity, this is probably the best University in the US to attend. You will be pushed, you will be stretched, you will be challenged, and you will wrestle with some of the smartest people on this planet over important issues, 24/7. It is a place that is well aware of its history & celebrates intellectual accomplishment. If you are up to the challenge, U. Chicago is for you. Otherwise, go to Harvard or some other place."

Sounds like what you'll find at most major universities in America. Chicago is not special in this regard.

NP here. As an undergrad, I went to one of the Ivies that this board deems top tier. I then went to Chicago for my doctoral work, and taught a few undergrad courses while I was there. The Chicago kids seemed considerably sharper than the kids at my alma mater. They also seemed considerably more neurotic.

Some of this is probably owed to the fact that they often end up taking classes side-by-side with graduate students, who are neurotic by definition. ?Regardless, it remains a place I would only recommend to students looking for a serious intellectual challenge.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: "If you’re a serious student with true intellectual curiosity, this is probably the best University in the US to attend. You will be pushed, you will be stretched, you will be challenged, and you will wrestle with some of the smartest people on this planet over important issues, 24/7. It is a place that is well aware of its history & celebrates intellectual accomplishment. If you are up to the challenge, U. Chicago is for you. Otherwise, go to Harvard or some other place."

Sounds like what you'll find at most major universities in America. Chicago is not special in this regard.

NP here. As an undergrad, I went to one of the Ivies that this board deems top tier. I then went to Chicago for my doctoral work, and taught a few undergrad courses while I was there. The Chicago kids seemed considerably sharper than the kids at my alma mater. They also seemed considerably more neurotic.

Some of this is probably owed to the fact that they often end up taking classes side-by-side with graduate students, who are neurotic by definition. ?Regardless, it remains a place I would only recommend to students looking for a serious intellectual challenge.

Anonymous wrote:A lot of pure, sheer and unsubstantiated speculation on this thread.

We will simply never know.

If Chicago is gaming the system to move up through the rankings than it means its students will become as dull and boring as Penn or Cornell students and the school loses its niche personality as a geeky intellectual place. That’s how I look at it. When I remember the Chicago kids from my high school they were all bright kids with a flaw. Outstanding in English but weak in a math or vice versa. A keen passion for the Great Books and who wrote essays that made you think but who can’t get better than a B in biology. I wonder where they go now since the hordes of pre professional pre Wall Street I-bankers and consultants with perfect resumes and a 10 step plan for reaching success have taken over the Chicago campus?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: "If you’re a serious student with true intellectual curiosity, this is probably the best University in the US to attend. You will be pushed, you will be stretched, you will be challenged, and you will wrestle with some of the smartest people on this planet over important issues, 24/7. It is a place that is well aware of its history & celebrates intellectual accomplishment. If you are up to the challenge, U. Chicago is for you. Otherwise, go to Harvard or some other place."

Sounds like what you'll find at most major universities in America. Chicago is not special in this regard.