If you’re on campus today as a prospective member of the Class of 2014, you’re probably not familiar with the Maroon’s Viewpoints page. Usually we reserve this space for carping about the dining plan and other pressing issues, but today we want to take a break from the usual complaints and tell you about something we like: the University of Chicago. As much as we gripe, the fact is we couldn’t recommend this University any more highly, and we’re convinced that you should come here.

There are plenty of reasons why, many of them having to do with exceptional academics, world-class facilities, great placement in grad schools and the workforce, and so on. We trust you’ve been told about all that. What you may not have heard so often—but which is more to the point, we think—is that Chicago students are really happy, because this is a great place.

We’re not happy every minute, of course. College can be stressful, but that’s true everywhere. Classes and extracurriculars can be a lot of work, but if you’re the type of student who applied and got in here—especially now, since getting admitted was way easier in our day—then you’ll work hard no matter where you go.

So go here. Look around: The campus is gorgeous, the neighborhood is filled with restaurants and parks and coffee shops, and it’s just a short trip to the center of one of the world’s great cities. It’s enough to make a person stop and marvel at how lucky he is to be here, but mostly we don’t because we’re too engrossed in other things. Some of us pour our energies into one of the academic departments, which are superb without exception. Some of us perform with University Theater or play in the University Symphony Orchestra, both of which boast long lists of distinctions. Some write for one of the many campus publications, or participate in campus activism. Some of us play on the varsity sports teams, which are among the best in DIII and once were among the best in the nation. (If you visit any other elite schools, save for Yale and Princeton, be sure to ask where they keep their Heisman Trophies. Ours is in the rotunda at Ratner.) Some of us just like to party.

That’s what sets the University of Chicago apart: It’s a can’t-miss school. We’ve never even met you, but we know that whoever you are, there is something here that will catch your eye, draw you in, and make you as happy as we are. Maybe you already know what that thing will be; if not, it’s only a matter of looking around and finding it.

See you in the fall.

— The Maroon Editorial Board consists of the Editor-in-Chief and Viewpoints Editors.