University of Chicago Top Questions

My class mates were very determined and unique.

Everyone here is really engaged with their learning , and you will a spectrum of students ranging from the laid back to the extremely studious with everything in between; regardless of the intensity with which they study though, almost everyone you'll meet at the University of Chicago is extremely nice, if not genuine.

Weird

They are either extremely science/math minded or social science minded, and they all care very much about whatever they have chosen to study, some times to the point of obsession; many are people who were very sucessful in high school but are humbled by the difficulty of our school once they come here and earn C's and D's for the first time.

University of Chicago students are self-selecting in that they are ready to enter an intense learning environment and become a resident of the city of Chicago; if you think you belong there, then you probably do.

Not everyone knows where they want to end up in life, but everyone has something that they feel passionately about.

Competetive and intellectual

My classmates are smart, academically competitive, and generally interesting.

There are no real words I can put to the student body that describes them as a whole. The school is a lot more geographically and socioeconomically diverse than I thought it would be, similarly racially diverse as I thought it would be, and a lot less politically diverse than I thought it would be. (As in, the vast majority of students are liberal, and it seems like the only place where non-traditional liberal viewpoints pop up is the Maroon). I do think this is a school where anybody can feel comfortable in their own skin. You will see about as many students who look like J. Crew ads as students who are wearing their ratty t-shirts inside out. You will see about as many students at Bar Night on Wednesdays as you will pulling all-nighters in Crerar. The one thing I haven't seen is a flashy culture here-- no students driving their BMW's around or downing expensive champagne to prove how awesome they are. Or if they are students who do that, they go over to the North Side, where people might dig that sort of thing. Another thing I'll point out is that Chicago students are incredibly active in extracurriculars, research, etc. It seems like everybody I know is doing crazy amazing things at the same time that they're taking four courses and keeping up with them.

Many of them are very quirky, in a way that can only be descrided as a 'U of C' thing, generally liberal, upper middle class backgrounds and also a bit elitist.