The Pros and Cons of UChicago

What is UChicago’s reputation?

“intellectually rigorous” “quirky and weird” “bootcamp for the brain” “supportive of free speech” “geeks and nerds” “dissident culture” “world-class economics program with Nobel Prize-winning professors” “total grind school” “brutal weather” “one of the highest violent crime rates in America” “most of your time will be studying in the library” “no social life” “zero party scene” “for eccentric brainiacs who like to geek-out on obscure subjects” “radically progressive” “where fun goes to die” “well-respected by those who matter”

University of Chicago (aka UC or UChicago) is a top-ranked private university of 7,500 undergraduates located on the south side of Chicago in Hyde Park. It is both renowned and feared for its extremely rigorous academics, and its quirky, “nerdy” student body. It runs on a fast paced, 9-week quarter system (instead of the traditional fall/spring semester system), which allows students to take more courses for a shorter period of time. And unlike many other Top 20 schools, there’s a strong de-emphasis on sports and community; the student culture revolves more around hardcore studying than socializing or partying. It definitely attracts a certain breed of serious intellectuals who like to engage in theoretical debates about anything and everything, and many of them pursue advanced careers in academia as PhD students and professors.

The Common Core.

UChicago is infamous for its demanding core curriculum. All students need to complete a fairly substantial curriculum of specific courses, and while students have some say in which particular courses they take, there’s not a lot of wiggle room. Like the notorious Core Curriculum at Columbia, students at UChicago have a love-hate relationship with it; while they appreciate how it expands their minds and vastly improves their critical thinking and writing ability, it also takes up about one-third of their time on campus and can be academically grueling.

The Pros of UChicago…

#1: For students looking to study economics, perhaps for a career in business, UChicago offers one of the best undergraduate programs in the country, and it’s the most popular major on campus. Your professors not only teach MBA students at UChicago’s #1-ranked Booth School of Business, but at last count they had eight different Nobel Prize-winning economists on their faculty. They even have the guy who wrote Freakonomics, Steven Levitt. You won’t find a better economics program anywhere in the country, putting it on-par with the elite programs at Stanford, Harvard and UPenn.

#2: Because the academic workload at UChicago is so time-intensive and demanding, many students say that when they get to med school or law school, the workload is comparably easy. Students at UChicago work extremely hard, the same way they do at other “grind” schools such as Princeton, Columbia, Cornell, Swarthmore and Johns Hopkins.

#3: The city of Chicago is rich with many cultural attractions, leading corporations, and rewarding internship opportunities. More and more, students are looking to supplement their undergraduate education with strategic research experiences and networking events and all of these are easily accessible with public transportation from campus. A bus ride to downtown Chicago takes about 20 minutes from campus.

#4: UChicago is one of those places where half the value of your education comes from learning from those around you. Your roommates, your dormmates, the people you eat with at the dining hall — they will all relentlessly challenge you to articulate your thoughts and defend your viewpoints. If this is the type of intense intellectual stimulation you’re looking for, you’ve come to the right place.

#5: UChicago has a “house system” that feels a bit like Harry Potter. When you enroll as a freshmen, you’re randomly assigned to one of 48 (!) different “houses” that are situated in the seven different residential halls. Each house has about 80 students and its own traditions, and students compete against other houses in intramural events and can eat together under their house banner in one of the four dining halls. It’s not quite like Yale where each storied residential house has its own dorm, gym, dining hall and study areas, but it does provide you with a small sense of community.

#6: UChicago is regularly applauded for its commitment to free speech on campus. While the student body itself skews heavily liberal, the university has demonstrated a commitment to the free exchange of ideas, even when it involves controversial opinions from guest speakers or faculty. The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) is a nonprofit that regularly surveys colleges and ranks them according to their commitment to free speech. While UChicago consistently ranks among the very best in the nation (and has even ranked #1 multiple times), the schools that rank near the very bottom for free speech include Harvard, Georgetown, and UPenn.

The Cons of UChicago…

#1: The courseload at UChicago is punishing, and even the best students who got nothing but straight A’s in high school will quickly discover that B’s and C’s are the norm. Not only is there a ton of homework, but there’s rampant grade deflation, which means that only a small number of top students in each class with earn A’s. This varies from professor to professor, but compare this with Yale and Harvard where 80% of the grades handed out are in the A-range. Those schools don’t want you camping out in the library 24/7; they want you out and about achieving other things. At UChicago, coursework is king. And if you’re looking to apply to a graduate program like med school, you’d better find a way to get straight A’s.

#2: While many students love the city of Chicago, it has also solidified a reputation as one of the most dangerous cities in America. The area surrounding campus, known as Hyde Park, is known for frequent shootings, muggings, sexual assaults, and robberies. Most students say that they feel safe on campus, in part because the university employs one of the largest private police forces in America, with about 100 officers. But the second you step foot off campus, you must exercise extreme caution. It’s important to note that back in 2021 when two UChicago students were killed by gunfire, some students lobbied for more police protection, while others sought to dismantle the police force altogether, blaming their “racist” policies for city violence.

#3: UChicago lacks a strong sense of community or school spirit. It’s largely comprised of individualists, and while there are fraternities and sororities, they’re not a focal point of campus life. Students by and large create their own fun. UChicago does not offer a traditional “fun” college experience with big sports games and a rah-rah sense of class spirit like UMichigan, or even Northwestern, which is less than an hour away.

#4: UChicago doesn’t have the same name recognition as many of the other top-ranked universities, including those in the Ivy League. While graduate schools and top recruiters are well aware of the school’s excellent reputation, many average Americans (or internationals) may not be familiar with it. This typically won’t impair your career prospects, but it’s just something to know.

#5: The stereotypical “knock” against UChicago is that it’s full of socially-awkward, aesthetically-challenged (unattractive), nerdy weirdos who spend all their time studying in the library or arguing with each other about who’s more politically correct. And the classic joke is that the only thing that will go down on you at UChicago is your GPA. All jokes aside, it’s full of really bright, ambitious, “heady” intellectuals, and that’s either what you’re looking for or it’s not.

If you like UChicago, you might also like…

UChicago is similar to a number of other top-tier schools that you might want to consider. It’s probably most similar to Columbia University in New York, which is also known for its gritty city, hyper-intellectual climate, grueling academics, and prominent core curriculum. It’s also one of those places where you have to make your own fun.

UChicago’s quirky intellectualism and grind culture is also reminiscent of Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania, though Swarthmore is a much smaller liberal arts college with only about 1,500 students. Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, NY is like this as well, though perhaps a bit more bohemian and artsy.

Finally, if you’re keen on staying near Chicago, Northwestern University is just 45 minutes up the road. Northwestern is equally prestigious, roughly the same size, and also runs on the quarter system, but its students aren’t as eccentrically intellectual and the coursework isn’t as demanding. You also have much more freedom over which courses you take at Northwestern since there’s no core curriculum; you just have to complete some distribution requirements. Overall, Northwestern has more of a pre-professional “hustle culture” whereas UChicago is more about “learning for the pure sake of learning.”

How to get in? ED… EA… SSEN?

There are a variety of familiar ways to apply to UChicago, including: Regular Decision (January), Early Decision I (November), Early Decision II (January), and Early Action (November). The Regular Decision admissions rate at UChicago is 5%, but the school no longer provides admissions data on Early Decision. Based on previous years, it’s likely the school’s ED I rate is currently about 10%, and the ED II rate is about 8%. Both options increase your likelihood of getting admitted, but you do have to sign a binding agreement.

Generally speaking, applying Early Action (which is non-binding), as opposed to Early Decision (which is binding), will not boost your admissions odds at all. So if you know that UChicago is your first choice, you should consider applying ED I or ED II instead. And though we don’t have the data to support it, we believe that the vast majority of students who get accepted to UChicago get in through either ED I or ED II, which is supported by their sky-high yield rate of about 90%.

Starting in fall of 2024, UChicago introduced a new, first-of-its-kind admission option called SSEN (Summer Student Early Notification). If you participated in one of UChicago’s Pre-College Summer Programs during high school (either in-person or online), you’re eligible to apply Early Decision before everyone else (anywhere between September 1st and October 15th), and you’ll get a decision back within three weeks! If you’re accepted, you’re obligated to attend, since this is a binding commitment. But if you apply early enough and get deferred or rejected, you still have time to apply Early Decision somewhere else. Since this is a new program, we have no data on what the admissions advantage will be, but it’s likely on-par with Early Decision.

Those application essays.

When you apply to UChicago, you have to write several supplemental essays, and they are quite long and difficult. These are not essays that you can simply “copy and paste” from another application. They are highly specific, and quite quirky, so they are looking for students who fit that mold. This is your chance to show how you “geek-out” with giddy enthusiasm over intellectual topics, and how you “love learning for the sake of learning.” Those are precisely the students they are looking for. Many students decide that the essays aren’t worth it and never end up applying to UChicago. The school is absolutely fine with that; it helps weed out candidates who don’t belong there.

In summary.

The students who want to go to UChicago really want to go to there, and they’re willing to commit through ED I or ED II. No one “sort of” wants to go there; you either love it or hate it, since it’s such a strong flavor, like cilantro or jazz. That’s why UChicago has one of the highest (if not the highest) “yield rates” in the nation, which is the percentage of accepted students who decide to enroll there. It’s about 90%, which is more than Harvard, Stanford, and pretty much everywhere else.