University of Chicago Top Questions

The Life of the Mind!

I was waiting for a hamburger at the grill yesterday and I overheard what I think is the quintessential Chicago conversation: Guy 1: Hey, what's up? Guy 2: Not much. I didn't go to bed until 4 am last night because I was working on an honors o-chem problem set. Guy 1: Yeah, I didn't get to bed until 6 am. Guy 2: What were you doing? Guy 1: Oh, Johnny and Sally and I were watching Family Guy and talking about cultural relativism. Chicago tends to run hot and cold with students. Some students absolutely know they don't want to be here, and some students are extremely attracted to it. Very few people have no opinion on the school. If you think this school is right for you, there's no better place on earth for you. That's not saying this school is perfect, but it's going to come pretty close.

The students here are querky. Academics is always paramount, and the students here enjoy surrounding themselves with individuals who challenge them intellectually. Even in our spare time, conversations are peppered with bad math jokes or references to dead philosophers. We're strongly motivated and very active. Many students conduct private research during their undergrad years.

I'm really sick of the reputation we have--fun doesn't die here! We have plenty of fun, just sometimes you have to make your own kind of fun. If the school is right for you, you'll know.

This school is very focused on theory- we don't have "practical" majors. In fact, my major is very new because of the fact that it is considered to practical for the school. Despite this, kids get plenty of hands on experience through school sponsered internships with some of the best companies in a student's field of interest: you get one of the best educations in the nation AND you walk out of the University with an extremely well-built resume.

On the Quads at University of Chicago during Summer Breeze Festival 2005. (Ramon, Adam, & Shane)

This school, and the people that attend it, are very academically driven. The University of Chicago is more rigorous than the other schools I considered.

Some students complain about the weather and the campus food, and I complain about them.

The University of Chicago invokes strong emotions. People love it, hate it, are horribly bored with it, passionately want to change it, desperately wish it would stay the same.... the whole gamut. You might be any of these. I myself am very happy here. There are some incredible people, including professors, and it's a lot of fun, when it isn't finals week. The thing is, nobody is going to come after you and make you enjoy yourself-- they're going to assume you're one of those anti-social kids. You make of UChicago what you want, and you get out of it whatever you put in. But I guess that's college.

It's hard but awesome.