UChicago receives package for Indiana Jones

[jmharvey]

I sometimes wonder how effective stunts like this are.

About 10 years ago, I had a job opening the mail in an MBA admissions office. Most of the application was required to be filed online; the only exceptions were a transcript and two letters of reference. My job was to open the mail, file the allowable papers, and throw out everything else.

Easily 80% of the mail that came through the door went into the trash. People submitted all kinds of things, from hard copies of their entire application to photographs to fancy art portfolios. The first day was heartbreaking as I felt like I was throwing away people's life's work, but when I asked my boss for advice, she said it was a conscious decision on the part of the admissions committee: they didn't want to unfairly disadvantage people who followed their instructions.

After a while, this system made sense. More people tried stunts to bypass the regular admissions process than there were slots in the admitted class. Submitting banned supplemental material was less an indicator that someone was a creative thinker than that they'd read a book that said admissions stunts work.

[enraged_camel]

Well, this explains why MBA types are so bad at creative thinking: they are not selected for it!

[SoftwarePatent]

That may have worked well there, but this stunt is well-targeted to the culture at UChicago. We love this kind of quirky stuff.

[stfu]

they didn't want to unfairly disadvantage people who followed their instructions.

I can see the point if they were running the section process for a government department, lets say homeland security.

But MBA programs rarely promote themselves as trying to produce the most conformist, bureaucratic-procedure loving graduates.

[gtani]

Here's another UofC admissions package

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4726157

I liked the UofC, but I think I liked Harold's chicken more.

[Jun8]

Two small details that makes this truly fantastic: That it was addressed to the actual building (Rosenwald Hall) that Indiana would have worked (a lesser fanboy would have addressed it to the Oriental Museum) and that it has no ZIP code, since those would not be in use at that time (adopted starting from 1963).

Amazing.

[pondababa]

Rosenwald is also the admissions building. It may very well be a fanboy applicant to the University.

[timdiggerm]

On the other hand, it looks like they used a modern mailing envelope instead of brown paper as the string would indicate was appropriate.

[moioci]

Wouldn't the pre-ZIP code address look something like Chicago 37, Ill?

[gecko]

Sadly, the author of this package was unaware that Dr. Jones was denied tenure, and is no longer on faculty.

http://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/back-from-yet-another-glo...

[up_and_up]

Here's a jewel from that document (I partly can't believe that this is authentic):

"There are a plethora of international criminal charges against Dr. Jones, which include but are not limited to: bringing unregistered weapons into and out of the country; property damage; desecration of national and historical landmarks; impersonating officials; arson; grand theft (automobiles, motorcycles, aircraft, and watercraft in just a one week span last year); excavating without a permit; countless antiquities violations; public endangerment; voluntary and involuntary manslaughter; and, allegedly, murder."

[ChuckMcM]

This is fun, I wish the notebook had a hand drawn picture of a Stargate in it :-) (I know I know, don't cross your franchises, always thought it would be an interesting in an Aliens Vs Predators sort of way to squeeze out another movie).

That this has happened now though, at a time when my college age daughter is being deluged with colleges trying to get her attention, suggests to me an attempt at a viral campaign by the admissions department to raise UChicago on the radar of prospective students.

[benbataille]

I kind of doubt the econ department of UChicago needs this kind of advertisement. It's probably the most famous in the world. They have the record for econ Nobel prizes as a university. If I had to take a guess, they are probably overwhelmed by applications rather than lacking some.

Anyway, if it is, it's a cool one. :-)

[lazerwalker]

I'd like to think this is the start of a particularly awesome admissions application.

[waterlesscloud]

The application will have top men working on it. Top. Men.

[secabeen]

Unfortunately, the consensus at this point is that it's actually the product from this ebay auction: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Indiana-Jones-and-the-Raiders-of-the...?

What likely happened is that this item was shipped but somehow came loose of its modern packaging, and the USPS delivered the themed mailer to UChicago per the address label.

[kqr2]

Slightly off topic...however, the University of Chicago is also known for its quirky Scav Hunt (or Scavenger Hunt). So an Indiana Jones package is not altogether out of place.

http://www.uchicago.edu/features/20110501_scav/

  On what other campus could students be summoned to 
  assemble (in various iterations) a live elephant, a 
  nuclear breeder reactor, a life-sized battleship, a bust 
  of Abraham Lincoln made out of pennies, a book printed in 
  the American colonies before 1776, and the official 
  exorcist of the Archdiocese of Chicago?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Chicago_Scavenger...

There was even a documentary on it:

http://www.periphrastic.com/about.html

[jimduehr]

For your information, one of the Former Head Judges of this Scavenger Hunt posted this to the Admissions tumblr!

[moskie]

My first instinct was that this is the start of a viral game for a new Indiana Jones movie.

[asfdfdasfafdsss]

This is a good guess. Disney just bought LucasArts, and they pulled a similar stunt for Tron Legacy: they setup a website flynnlives.com and provided hints to a location in San Diego where they had recreated a Flynn's arcade that people had to find.

However, considering the last Indiana Jones film was a miserable flop (spoiler ahead: was it the hiding in the refrigerator or the UFO that nailed that coffin), they would have to fully recreate the old Harrison Ford in CGI PERFECTLY with a great plot to get me interested, and btw Disney I expect the same for the new star wars final trilogy or the remake of the first three after removing all of the Jar Jar sequences and replacing the obi wan with a younger CGI version of Alec Guiness and getting rid of the lame Jabba, etc. bad CGI crap they added to New Hope, etc. People should learn a lesson from LucasArts; when you have customers for life, continue to cater to them as they age. Also what about some Biggs Darklighter in a new series? For the kids, how about an Ewok that learns to kick ass in a tie fighter?

[timdiggerm]

It belongs in a museum!

I'm not kidding. Or at least, mostly. They should put it on display.

[swohns]

When people ask why I chose UofC, I tell them it's because Indiana Jones went there.

[rayiner]

I had assumed people just went to U Chicago for the naked parties.

[draq]

Wow, nice calligraphy, I think its written using a soft nib pen. Also: Who is the "Guardian of the Ark"?

[polyfractal]

It is very nice penmanship. Nice to see skills like this still around.

Tangentially related, everyone should switch to fountain pens. I made the switch about two years ago and my handwriting has improved immensely. More aesthetically pleasing and sooo much easier to write. Your hand won't cramp anymore because you don't have to press nearly as hard. You'll find yourself naturally adding embellishments to characters, smoothly transitioning between letters and words.

In short, handwriting becomes enjoyable again.

[ryanhuff]

The individual characters repeated through the letter look exactly the same as each other. It appears computer generated to me.

[mdanger]

The description makes it sound like he was visiting the supposed location of the Ark in Ethiopia (to me, at least):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_Our_Lady_Mary_of_Zion http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ark_of_the_Covenant#Ethiopia

[a1k0n]

They went to all that trouble, and spelled Illinois wrong on the address label?

[simonholroyd]

This stuck out to me too, but some googling of "Illonois" brings up a lot of census records from 1930 using that spelling. I can't find any concrete confirmation but maybe it's intentional and accurate?

[arscan]

There are some websites out there that detail exactly how to make replica grail diaries. I think that answers the "How" question. Why they would do this though? I have no idea ;-)

[ChuckMcM]

Wow, there really are. This guy http://www.indyprops.com/pp-gdiary1.htm has way too much time on his hands :-)

[mathattack]

I can't wait to find out if this was part of an application, or some other prank.

[kaonashi]

They should have mailed it to the Marx brothers.

…I'll see myself out.

[mintplant]

So, the beginnings of an Alternate Reality Game, perhaps?

[codeonfire]

Or viral marketing for a movie.

[kitkerner]

Paul T. Wall. Check it out!