University of Chicago Top Questions

they can be. Studying does take up a good portion of your time, sometimes all of it and then some, but there are a lot of opportunities to get out and take a break from all that. If you want to go out you can and if you don’t then you can always find people in the library with you. This applies to the students as well. Some people here spend a majority of their time in the library or in their dorms doing work while others tend to spend more time going out and then still there are people on every level between those. You can find people that want to do the same things as you, you simply have to look for them.

Pretty much.

To a certain extent these stereotypes are accurate. It depends on the people you meet, but I wouldn't generalize the student population one way or the other. Also, this school is very intense, but there's always ways to have fun! Plus, Chicago is a huge city - there's always something to get into.

Now that I am here I am miserable, cold, usually bored, annoyed by and hostile to most of the students I know, and seriously considering transferring. I never would have come here if I had known the details.

Partially - we are generally pretty nerdy kids and some people don't have too many social skills. But there are also lots of people who are fun and have fun and we live in Chicago - there are three million ways to have a good time, you just have to leave Hyde Park sometimes. I've had some of the most fun of my life sitting around the dining hall being a dork with my friends! The quarter system is more work because we have more midterms and more finals, but the classes are also shorter which can be good or bad depending on the class. Hyde Park is not the ghetto and it isn't scary. Other parts of the South Side aren't as nice but you don't have to go there. It's a city, be smart.

Yes. Oh god yes.

To a certain degree they are true. It is a pretty nerdy student population, but not in a bad way necessarily. I mean, everyone in your classes is there because they want to, which makes for a great dynamic. There are some downsides. I'll never forget one of the first parties I went to where a fist fight almost broke out that was started by "Tolstoy's Christianity is anti-fundamentalist! Read War and Peace asshole!" So you get some really pretentious people, and a lot of "That-Kid"s, but overall we aren't as bad as we're made out to be.

As far as a stereotype goes, yes.

Pretty much, yes. However, the good stereotypes have downsides (brilliance can bring with it the pain of pretentions) and the bad ones have upsides (awkward people are hilarious, and there's collectivity in the pain). Actually UChicago kids are all just regular kids: often smart, often friendly, often socially confused, often partying, often studying, usually a little odd.

Yes. But it's an annoying self-fulfilling prophecy. Half the time I think these creeps act this way because they know they should. It's weird for the sake of being weird, not interesting or sincerely thoughtful.