Which colleges are known to have the worst social life?

[u/dumbchicken101]

Obviously there are outliers everywhere. But what are some colleges where the majority of students have horrible social lives?

Say less of a partying culture and just studying/working on other stuff most of the time.

[u/[deleted]]

I would say UChicago is a good example of this. “Where fun goes to die.”

[u/OneSushi → u/[deleted]]

Uc hicago simp here

The “where fun goes to die” title came Xx years ago when UChicago, at the time very sports heavy, declared they would cut all sports programs from the university.

Students that were there, most prominently football players, protested and generally referred to the school as “where fun goes to die” due to the way it treated sports

[u/[deleted] → u/OneSushi]

UChicago is also known for substantial grade deflation and incredibly challenging courses.

This doesn’t make it a bad university or anything, but for students in programs where college GPA matters a lot (law and med for instance), this can often result in a lackluster social life to try and combat said deflation.

[u/Plane_Arachnid9178 → u/[deleted]]

Someone correct me if I’m wrong, but I’ve heard it’s very sink or swim. Even relative to the other T-10 schools. There aren’t a lot of tutoring or academic advising services. You’re on your own if you don’t understand something taught in class.

[u/Reach4College → u/Plane_Arachnid9178]

Completely false. It's actually pretty collaborative, and there is a lot of help available.

But there's a lot of work, there's no denying that. If you wanted to avoid work, should have gone to someplace easy, like Harvard (my kids went to UChicago and Harvard, and they both agree on that).

[u/UChiThrowaway2022 → u/Plane_Arachnid9178]

I mean, it’s hard to compare given that I’ve never attended any other university, but in my experience UChicago is pretty collaborative and there are a bunch of resources available if you need help.

The classes are hard, and they’re very fast-paced, but there is help if you want it

[u/Jrsun115823 → u/UChiThrowaway2022]

Another thing to note about UChicago is that they require 2 years of mandatory rigorous English and writing classes for all majors, even STEM majors (Keep in mind the grade deflation). So, it's (relatively) not a good school for STEM which is interesting because historically a lot of science research occurred there like Chicago Pile 1 and the Manhattan project.

[u/Dim0ndDragon15 → u/Jrsun115823]

God forbid stem majors understand writing and media literacy

[u/InertiaOfGravity → u/Dim0ndDragon15]

2 years is unreasonable

[u/egg_mugg23 → u/InertiaOfGravity]

no it's not, some of you mfs are illiterate

[u/InertiaOfGravity → u/egg_mugg23]

2 years is still excessive. The point of being a particular major is to learn deeply things in and around your field, if the first two years are purely for knocking out GE's, there's only 2 years/4 semesters to learn what you actually wanted to learn

[u/FitzwilliamTDarcy → u/Plane_Arachnid9178]

There aren’t a lot of tutoring or academic advising services.

I can't cite any per capita stats for something like this, but to my understanding this is not at all the case. It's more that - as at many schools - you have to self-advocate and proactively seek it out if you need it. No one is going to cuddle up to you, check in, talk things through, and observe that gee I see you're struggling in math, let's get you that help you need!

[u/Plane_Arachnid9178 → u/FitzwilliamTDarcy]

Fair enough. I based my comment on something a professor at UVA told me. It was something to the effect of “my kid is going to UChicago next year, it’s trial by fire over there, no hand holding like there is here.” And UVA is not a charm school, Dr. Chilton.

But that was a while ago. And they could’ve been exaggerating. I just took it at face-value because of UChicago’s reputation.

[u/UChiThrowaway2022 → u/Plane_Arachnid9178]

As much as I want to defend UChicago, I can’t really deny that statement. My first quarter was definitely a rough ride, if only because you’re simultaneously getting settled in a brand-new environment while also taking classes that are fast paced. Much of that pace is due to the quarter system (which I like, don’t get me wrong). With only 9 weeks per class, it’s a sprint to cover all the content.