Been cultivating your inferiority complex lately? If not, it’s time to recall the day you received the thin envelope from the University of Chicago. Or at least pretend you did.
According to one Web address, Northwestern ‘Cats are University of Chicago throwaways. This weekend, the URL www.uchicagorejects.com appeared on the Web. The link redirects to Northwestern University’s main Web page.
An Internet search revealed that the domain belongs to Emily Chen, a freshman at the University of Chicago. Chen and her roommate bought the domain name on Thursday for $6.99 a year.
Chen said in an email that she and her roommate were inspired by the addresses mitrejects.com, stanfordrejects.com and uwrejects.com. The URLs link to California Institute of Technology, University of California at Berkeley and Washington State University.
She and other students in her dorm debated linking to University of Illinois at Chicago, DePaul University and Washington University in St. Louis. They chose Northwestern because they wanted to link to a Chicagoland school ranked as high as the University of Chicago. “It would be more obviously a joke if it were redirected to a school that is just as prestigious,” she said.
News of the URL spread quickly among University of Chicago students. Gulrana Syed, a University of Chicago sophomore, saw the URL in a friend’s Gchat status. Syed said she and her friends were laughing about it via video chat. “I thought it was hilarious,” she said. “And I really hope all Northwestern sees this.”
The big question now: how will Northwestern students respond? Write indignant blog posts? Paint the Rock in anger? “I’m surprised northwesternrejects.com hasn’t been purchased yet and redirected to uchicago.edu,” Chen said.
Additional reporting by Matthew Zellner.
Update, 3/1/10: The URL www.northwesternrejects.com appeared on the Web earlier today. It redirects to the University of Chicago’s main site. Thanks to commenter Northwestern “Reject” for the tip.
Update: Story amended to correct a misspelling. Thanks to commenter Olga for pointing out the error. Also, Chen bought the domain name on Thursday, not Friday, as was originally reported.