University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is best-known as the university "where fun goes to die". Students even wear T-shirts proclaiming this sad fact. In fact, the university has such a scary reputation that few apply, and thus almost half get in. Students take pride in the so-called "Uncommon Application," since there is little else about which to be proud.
U of C is located in Hyde Park of the South Side of Chicago. Otherwise, the most GHETTO area of the entire city. Students usually do not travel after dark for fear of getting jacked. Furthermore, the fact that University of Chicago's Police is second in size to the Chicago Police Department does not quench these fears. Lastly, the streets in and around the university's campus are extremely narrow to begin with and it doesn't help when people park their cars on either side of the roads.
Chicago claims to have either an older or more rigorous Core Curriculum than Columbia. According to a WikiCU contributor from Chicago[1] (I wonder which university he/she went to), "the University of Chicago's Core Cirriculum is generally recognized as superior to Columbia's in both depth and difficulty". Such assertions are dubious. In fact, Chicago's Core was inspired by Columbia's; it was founded on the teachings of lifelong Columbian and Core advocate Mortimer Adler. We can agree, though, that our schools are superior to those institutions which don't believe any such rigor is required.
However, Columbia did plagiarize the concept for its Committee on Global Thought from Chicago's prestigious Committee on Social Thought.
Chicago advocates also often claim that economist Milton Friedman belongs to their own "Chicago school of economics". This claim is also flawed, since, as everyone at Columbia knows, Friedman was both a student and professor at our great institution.
Finally, the University of Chicago calls itself the Maroons. A lame color that the university chose because it was incapable of choosing a real animal. Unofficially, the university uses the Phoenix which is present on its shield. The University of Chicago chose this mythical creature to represent the rebirth of the city of Chicago and the original university that burnt down with it. That's what you get when you build a city mostly out of wood.
