<p>(got this idea from eliz53 from the JHU forum)
a glimmer of hope for all the waitlisters out there...</p>
<p>please include why you're not going to the most amazing college. ever.</p>
<hr>
<p>I'll start:</p>
<p>financial aid--
givens: aid letter from Chicago and scholarship info from state school</p>
<p>let "A" = total cost for four years at the state school honors program
let "B" = cost for one quarter at Chicago</p>
<p>A=B/2</p>
<p>q.e.d.</p>
<hr>
<p>but.........I look forward to seeing you all at the April Overnight program. I'm still going (maybe it'll convince me to take on a lifetime of debt? eh. probably not.)</p>
<p>best of luck to everyone!</p>
<p>SomethingSilly -- The U of C website says that FA letters aren't going to be sent until early April. My D got accepted some time ago, and is patiently awaiting cost figures.</p>
<p>In the spirit of your thread, I think my D is going to reject Wesleyan. Their FA package was much worse than the other colleges that have accepted her.</p>
<p>I was accepted EA, but I can't go because of financial aid as well. I got m FA package today and it was pretty ugly. Your proof pretty much says it all.</p>
<p>Yeah... when I had to make my decision, it was either a free ride (+$3000/year) for my state school's honors program (which was top 25 nationally in my major) or $20k/year for UChicago (which was top 5 nationally in my major). I chose the latter without even consideration of the former. I was pretty sick of the high school scene and was willing to do anything to get involved in an intellectual environment.</p>
<p>phuriku,</p>
<p>How are you liking UofC? Tell me a little about the area where the school is located. Is it safe? All info is appreciated</p>
<p>I like the U of C a lot, and I can't imagine myself anywhere but here (with the possible exception of Caltech). My mom often asks me if I have ever regretted my decision of picking the U of C over the public honors program, and I've always said no. I doubt this answer will ever change, though I don't know if she'll ever stop asking it.</p>
<p>There are many threads on CC about how safe Hyde Park is. You can search for them if you're interested, but to be brief: It's Safe.</p>
<p>^^ I responded to this question more in-depth on the other thread, guitars. It's a question we hear a lot around here. That, and social life questions.</p>
<p>My in-state school really charmed me for a lot of reasons, and it served as a great safety for me. (Finances worked out in my family, so we're paying for Chicago). It was also my second or third-favorite school I visited.</p>
<p>I'm accepted, but worry about how everyone says that you have to do way more work than every other college.</p>
<p>I can't comment on the volume of work( I'm a parent) but I can tell you that my S is very happy that classes and work for classes do not waste his time. The work is, generally, valuable to him. That may help how one looks Chicago's work load.</p>
<p>That's pretty much the way I see it, glasses. I hate doing busywork, and I also hate studying for tests, and I feel like the work I'm assigned (95% of the time) is interesting and has a purpose. Thus, I like doing it, and it doesn't seem to actually be "work."</p>
<p>If you're admitted, you can do the work here. It'll be hard sometimes, but it won't kill you. Most of the people who say the work here is harder than other schools haven't ever gone to other schools. I've checked out syllabi posted online for courses at other colleges, specifically Williams, Barnard, and Bryn Mawr, and some of those courses seem to require just as much work-- maybe even more work-- than a Chicago class.</p>
<p>Where I think Chicago is different is that there aren't "gut" classes or "gut" majors-- the kind where students show up, get an A, and leave. Most colleges have at least some classes that are gut-ish (maybe not exactly my exaggeration), to appease the crop of students who don't want to invest time and energy into schoolwork. Chicago does not have that option for students who don't want to open a book during their time in college.</p>
<p>This school is not right for people who fear not being successful. From what I've seen in high school in college, the reason a lot of students get great grades (and, from there, get into top schools) is because they don't know what they would do with themselves if they get anything less than an A. You see this attitude on CC all the time, or, what I like to call, "Does this 750 make me look fat?"</p>
<p>That attitude will leave you in an emotional gutter at the U of C. If you scale your expectations and see a B+ or an A- as a goal grade rather than an A, I think you'll be fine. Most students don't talk about their grades anyway, so if you're working hard, you're working hard not to do better than the person down the hall from you, but to do the best that you can do.</p>
<p>I was accepted Early Action, but am inelligible for financial aid, so unfortunately I will not be attending. Good luck to those waitlisted ;)</p>
<p>I don't think I'll go to UChicago either (money). It's not that I can't pay, but there are better deals out there and UChicago wasn't in my top 3 to begin with. Good luck to those UofC fans on the waitlist! I hope you're the ones that get my spot because you'll truly belong.</p>
<p>phuriku, who got to foot the bill? (under similar circumstances, our discrepancy will be almost $30k per year).</p>
<p>chicago expects my parents to pay $2k more than MIT (and 7k more than columbia). also, chicago will not reduce my student contribution even when my outside scholarship is twice as large as my self-help employment amount. so chicago costs twice as much as MIT.
i think thats sufficient to say quid erat demonstrandum.</p>
<p>
[quote]
I'm accepted, but worry about how everyone says that you have to do way more work than every other college.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>The workload kicks your ass, but it's uniqueness is overrated. My friends at (admittedly top-tier) state schools, like UNC-CH and UMich, get worked as hard as I do. Welcome to college.</p>
<p>
[quote]
phuriku, who got to foot the bill? (under similar circumstances, our discrepancy will be almost $30k per year).
[/quote]
</p>
<p>My parents and I (and the U.S. court system) made a deal where my mom will pay 20% of tuition/room/board, my dad 80%. I am paying the estimated $3k/year for books and personal supplies. I will also be paying back my Stafford loans, and I'm taking as much out as I possibly can. This disrupts little of my life, though. I'll probably go on the JET program right after graduation, where I'll get paid about $30k/year in Japan (I'll stay one or two years). This will allow me to pay back all of my Stafford loans. Then I'll enter a PhD program, which will be fully funded. Therefore, I should be pretty much debt-free one year after graduation, which isn't terribly bad at all. It looks like my parents will be able to handle the $10-15k/year that is tuition and room and board. I may also go to Japan my third year and work simultaneously so I can pay my entire tuition for that year. This would give my parents a (perhaps much-needed) temporary break from tuition payments.</p>
<p>Dumb question -- how do you find out the ranking of your major within a given college? </p>
<p>Someone said that UChicago was 5th in his major but State U was 25th. Where do you get that information?</p>
<p>(Sorry to go off topic)</p>
<p>It depends on a lot of factors. Post your major an someone will give you a substantive response here.</p>
<p>cockatiel:</p>
<p>It sounds like the rank system used (by major) is the Gourman Report. Gourman's ranks are designed in such a way that a lot of large schools are favored, because (to my understanding) the Gourman ranks consider faculty size, library size, etc.</p>
<p>Undergraduate ranks by major are, IMO, pretty silly, especially for a school like Chicago, which places within the top 5-10-15 regarding almost every major imaginable. What's the difference in the quality education between Chicago and Decent State? It's going to have a lot more to do with the students and their capabilities than the professors and their capabilities.</p>
<p>Got my financial aid package today and it was about $26k/year vs. Yale's $16k/year vs. state U's full ride + $10k/year. So I won't be going to Chicago.</p>
<p>Waitlist go go go!</p>