University of Chicago Top Questions

There isn't much tension between groups on campus, its more town-gown tension. The kind of student who would feel out of place at UChicago is someone who doesn't work their ass off.

Students who would feel out of place are the apathetic. Not caring does not cut it academically or socially here. If you have a passion for something, there are others that share it, but this is not the place for people who have a sole interest in napping or alcohol (these are certainly popular extra-curriculars, though). Students can mainly be divided into the hipsters, the division 12 jocks, the international kids (mostly Asian) and all the grades in between, but social groups are very nebulous and everyone knows everyone. Everyone's a nerd. If you took the nerdy table at high school, threw in a few punks and a few jocks for flavor, you'd have the population of UChicago. Predominantly liberal, intelligent, and planning on grad school.

I'm sick of most of the people here already. I'm tired of weird people. I'm tired of 19 year old libertarians. I'm tired of econ majors wearing suits and loafers to class everyday.

I find that while students are pretty accepting of the *idea* of diversity in the student body, actual opportunities to act upon that acceptance are a little rare. People tend to clump with people like them--whether that's the Asian econ kids or the sorority girls or the arty kids--even though I've never heard of anyone being explicitly rejected from a social group (formal or otherwise) because of race, orientation, etc. What I have found frustrating is that we have a disproportionate population of upper-middle-class, urban or suburban northerners whose parents all have college educations. This means that I periodically get into discussion about politics with peers only to discover that they have a completely stereotyped sense of religious Christian conservatism or rural, southern societies.

UGLY

Lots of smart motivated and talented people go there. I have friends who I met there who are from all over the country and around the world. I’m not sure on the gender and ethnic breakdown, but it felt pretty diverse. The Core classes make sure that all types of students get to interact with eachother. Fairly liberal student body. The campus has a great divinity school and Rockefeller Church so religion isn't entirely absent from the school. The students are not cutthroat.

I dont know, I coudn't say, clothes, yes, huh?, from new york or boston, rich people, yes, right and left and center, no

A student who didn't appreciate the value of a good book and didn't enjoy the feeling of triumph after staying up all night to do a paper wouldln't fit in here. We work for what we get, and unless you can appreciate that, don't apply here. What do we wear to class?? I'v seen men in ballgowns and gorilla suits, girls in bikinis, more pajamas than I can count. Formal, informal, whatever we want. Its the mind that's important... Students interact a lot. I have some wealthy friends, some rich ones, some middle class and lower. Pre-med, econ, poly sci, humanities, you name it and I have a friend. I have friends who are grad students and TAs and professors. We all interact, and don't discriminate like in high school. Sure, there are still cliques, but at the same time, these are the kind of cliques that you could acclimate yourself into easily - we all share common things, you just have to find out what they are.

People don't really talk about money here, other than to say a. how they can't afford dinner and b. how much debt they'll be in after they graduate. Yet many wouldn't trade it for the world, because they're getting a college experience only possible at the U of C. Sitting down at dinner always yields interesting conversations, since houses (dorm divisions) typically sit with one another. This leads to a mixture of your typical labels, with jocks, frat boys, geeks, musicians, and raving lunatics all sharing the same breathing space, which makes the conversation rather frenetic, to say the least. For example: tonight, the concept of the turducken was expanded past all logical rational, and the mathematical and logistical implications of cooking it were analyzed, along with the proper side dishes. Let's just say that eating the sheep layer might not be the best bet. As for feeling out of place, it's hard, because everyone here is utterly bizarre in one regard or another-you just have to find it.

Its hard to make a general ruling about the types of inter-culturals relationships that form or dont form at this school. On the south side fo Chicago, there is a pretty heavy divide between black people and white people, especially coupled with the fact that you are a university student. You arent targeted or bullied as a student, but most people in the community tend to look right past you or dismiss you as a tourist and a foreigner. A lot of the east asian students tend to band together, but it think this has a strong relationship to the econ program because some asian students are here for math classes and dont have a firm grasp of english, so they feel more comfortable staying with people from their part of the world. There are a lot of Indian student who, generally speaking, are pretty affluent and accustomed to the American lifestyle so they blend in nicely with other groups of upper class students. Within one's own house, however, I think you have the ability to cross a lot of barrier and get to know people from different cultures. The problems presented here though are 1) you have 30 people in your house, maybe. The chance of even 7 of those people being worth getting to know are pretty slim. and 2) People dont really freely associate outside of houses/activities/classes, so you just dont have a chance to meet some minority groups.