Ask a Current Student!

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Chicago ✅
41

<p>According to my reading of the course catalog, undergrad econ majors do not have to write a senior thesis unless they want to earn honors in the department, in which case they must have “sole authorship of an independent research paper on a topic in economics” along with a “faculty sponsor’s letter evaluating this independent research paper”. The program can also accept a BA paper or project used for another major if “certain conditions are met” (probably needs to be related to econ). </p>

<p>Hope this helps.</p>

42

<p>I will not lie to you and say that we have the same crazy sports spirit as, say, a large state school. Some varsity sports are quite popular and respected, and people generally will go to athletic events in which friends are participating (IE I go to my roommate’s xc/track meets occasionally). The biggest sports engagements, I think, are actually in intramurals. Intramurals may be more or less popular depending on which house you’re in, but if they’re super important to you, you can say that when applying for housing–in the “anything else we should know about your housing needs” section, it’s totally cool to say “sports are a big part of my life and I want a house that is hardcore about intramurals.” Most houses have a few sports that they’re hardcore about; for my house it’s volleyball, dodgeball, soccer, and ultimate frisbee. Other houses are hardcore about every single sport. In terms of competition, anyone can play on an intramural team, except for single sex intramural teams (many sports have leagues for men-only teams as well as coed teams). The men’s league teams seem to be very competitive in terms of being skilled, but some of the coed teams are certainly forces to be reckoned with (my house volleyball team got 2nd place). Even if a team is very good in your house, though, less skilled players (read: me) can still participate. They get about equal playing time as a matter of respect, although they (again, read: me) will often understand when to switch out and let someone skilled play (as in, the last 5 minutes of the championship game). Whew. That’s a lot about stuff. But intramural are awesome and fun! Yay.</p>

<p>Law school: there is a student group with a name probably something like “chicago careers in law” or something, as well as a huge amount of support from CAPS–Career Advising and Planning Services. They are awesome because you can walk into their office any day of the week and they will help you with your future and stuff. Also, your college advisor will certainly be huge resource. Plus the law school is very close (in my case, next to my dorm) and there are always lots of lectures and such that undergrads are free to attend.</p>

<p>Special Amenities: Really depends on the dorms. I, personally, gasp, jump AND squeal when I see my house children–that is, the Resident Heads’ kids and pets–because they are super duper adorable. New Dorm (South Campus) is chock full of awesome features like massive glassy windows with gorgeous views, reading rooms full of natural light, lots of kitchens and apartment-style rooms, etc. My dorm (BJ) has several Steinway pianos, whereas the Max Palevsky pianos are extremely pathetic, out of tune uprights. It’s also insanely pretty. Sometimes when I’m walking home I just stop short and sort of gaze at it with a dopey look on my face at the ridiculousness of me living in this huge castle-ey building. We have pool tables and ping pong tables in the basement too. Also, each house will have its own special amenities. The house next to me, for instance, has a very awesome fancy television and two or three game systems available in the house lounge. If you have more specific questions about amenities, I can try to help, but I unfortunately am mostly familiar with only a few houses.</p>

<p>Sorry for the super long reply. Hopefully I’ve conveyed a bit of helpful information! Good luck wherever you end up.</p>

43

<p>Hi Antonia, i just turned in my housing deposits, but i still have a few questions!</p>

<p>I applied for BJ, but i was wondering, if i don’t end up with a double, would it still be easy to make friends?? I’m so scared of being at a school without knowing anyone! how exactly do you get to know ppl at BJ when it’s practically all singles? basically, i’m not a partier, but i do love to have fun and hang out with friends. does a room in BJ sound right for me? what other dorms are similar to BJ? thanks so much!!</p>

44

<p>Hi Me.Antonia. Thanks for your helpful reply!</p>

45

<p>Within BJ, I think that room type really doesn’t determine how social you are. I’m in a double and will be moving into a single. Most of the very social people in our house are actually in singles. My experience was that I asked for a double because I thought that without one, I wouldn’t be social at all. Now I wish I had gotten a single, because it really much better suits my lifestyle (my roommate and I are not especially well matched unfortunately), and I know that next year, when I have one, I’ll still be a super social person. So I would say unless you won’t feel comfortable without a roommate, a single is actually a great idea. It’s very lucky that it’s so easy to get a single here as a first year!</p>

<p>Sorry for the delay; I sort of forgot that I had this thread >.<</p>

46

<p>I just realized I didn’t answer all of your questions. In BJ you end up making friends by spending time in the house lounge and going to house events like study break, house meeting, house trips, and eating at the house table at the dining hall. The house lounge is right near the entrance to the house, so everyone hangs out there or at least steps in to say hello. Because there’s no work during O-week, that’s a very good time to bond with your housemates (in fact, that’s one of the main purposes of O-week–to give you time to make friends and get used to the environment before classes start.) And if you’re worried about being in a totally new environment, well, pretty much everyone else will be in the same boat and eager to make friends as well! (except for the upperclassmen who are there during o week to help facilitate, and they’re chosen for those jobs because they’re awesome and friendly and helpful).</p>

<p>Other dorms that have mad bonding and are friendly but still have singles are places like Breckenridge (they have the craziest house spirit, for real) and Broadview. South Campus will be a bit different because it will be an amalgam of the old Shoreland houses and a bunch of people moving in because of the super sweet amenities. Pierce has only doubles but is the most social (tiny rooms+massive house lounge=everyone spending time in the lounge together).</p>

<p>Further questions? Just ask :)</p>

47

<p>thank you so much!!! you have calmed my nerves…somewhat. =) i hadn’t realized that BJ had so many group activities. i submitted the housing form april 8, do you think i’ve got a good chance for BJ? thanks again!</p>

48

<p>Does Chicago offer any kind of funding for unpaid internships?</p>

49

<p>I was admitted EA, submitted my acceptance April 20th, and got BJ. Other people submitted earlier but were RD. While I know that NO ONE (literally no one; they checked) in Snitchcock is RD, BJ contains a mix. So go for it :)</p>

50

<p>It depends. There are certain grants you can apply for–the Metcalf grants (for summer internships) spring to mind–but they won’t just fund anything. Sorry I can’t be more specific. Do you mean internships during the school year or ones during the summer?</p>

51

<p>Every question has been answered here except for the two most vital ones around:</p>

<p>How is the pizza?</p>

<p>AND</p>

<p>Do people get laid? <a href=“Please%20don’t%20say%20no.”>size=-2</a>[/size]</p>

52

<p>Pizza is excellent. The dining hall pizza is decent, but within Hyde Park it gets even better. Edwardo’s, Giordano’s…etc. Delicious.</p>

<p>As for the second, personal experience says yes ;-)</p>

53

<p>My laptop’s pretty old and used, and I only really use it for word documents, but I have a decent desktop computer that I us a lot for everything else computer-wise. Would it be a good idea to bring the desktop computer? Have other students tried it? Would it take up too much space?</p>

<p>Thanks in advance!</p>

54

<p>Yes, I was mainly talking about summer internships- I’m an international studies major, so I want to be interning in DC during the summers, but the majority of internships are unpaid, and I have to earn 2K for my education, plus housing in DC. So I was wondering if Chicago has any grants for internships, and it seems like the Metcalf are for specific programs, right?</p>

55

<p>To be honest, I’m not completely sure about the structure of the Metcalfs. But the website for them is here:</p>

<p><a href=“Home”>Home;

<p>and there are probably people in CAPS you can email to ask more questions. They won’t mind that you’re not in school yet, so go for it.</p>

56

<p>How long does it take to get to Northwestern? (My sister goes school)</p>

<p>Are there really two Joy Yee’s? One near Northwestern and one near UChicago?</p>

<p>Is there a lot of school spirit? I know UChicago students think of their school as very unique, but does it show in a kind of esprit de corps way?</p>

57

<p>It takes between an hour and two hours to get to Northwestern on the CTA depending on the time of day and how backed up the trains are. </p>

<p>I don’t know what Joy Yee’s is so I can’t help with that question. </p>

<p>I think there is school spirit for sure. I for one absolutely LOVE this school, so I have loads of school spirit. There seems to be a considerable amount of enthusiasm regarding the course offerings, faculty, etc among the members of the student body. We don’t have the type of school spirit you’d find at sports-heavy schools though. We have a different kind of spirit…</p>

58

<p>I just wanted to say thank you to the current UChicago students who are taking the time to answer questions for prospective students. I have learned a lot about UC by reading this thread. Me.Antonia, you have made me want to come to UC. Well done!</p>

59

<p>How heavy is the reading & writing workload in the Core Curriculum? Does the quarter system make it totally crazy? Approximately how many books do you have to read for core, and how many papers do you need to write per quarter? Will it be too much of a grind for someone whose real talent is in math & science?</p>

60

<p>Hum and Sosc are totally doable. At least, we seem to graduate a lot of science majors, so I’d assume it’s doable. I have friends who are into math and science, and some of them really liked their core classes. Others didn’t. Similarly, some Humanities/Social sciences majors enjoy dabbling a bit in the sciences for the Core. Others don’t.</p>

<p>In terms of workload, I can only speak for the sequence I took, but for Human Being and Citizen, my workload was as follows:</p>

<p>Fall: The Iliad, Genesis, 3 Platonic dialogues (including the Apology). Of these, only the Iliad is actually long. I had 3 papers (one each), 5-7 pages apiece. We also had writing seminars to teach us how to write for college. I found mine very useful because I had an awesome writing intern. All in all, a pretty light reading load and reasonable amount of paper-age.</p>

<p>Winter: Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, Augustine’s Confessions, Dante’s Inferno. These were more dense, but we went decently slowly and I didn’t feel like the reading load was disproportionate in comparison to the work for my other classes. Same number of papers, along with a revision (our final assignment was to hand in one of our previous papers, substantially revised, as academic writing is all about revision)</p>

<p>Spring (optional quarter; mandatory if you are pre-med and highly recommended if you are pre-law): The Tempest (Shakespeare), a little little bit of Kant, Heart of Darkness, Romantic and modern poetry. The only really dense thing is Kant (Heart of Darkness is a walk in the park, especially if you read it in high school). The Shakespeare isn’t that long. I actually enjoyed all of these readings. Two papers; one was 5-7, the final is 8-10.</p>

<p>That might have all been really boring. But I think that it’s pretty intermediate for amount/denseness of reading. The workload is comparable to that of other classes. If you don’t enjoy reading or are worried about being able to complete it all on time, then you can take Hum first year and Sosc second year, which are the heaviest classes reading-wise. You might want to do that anyway so that first year you can take the intro science courses you need.</p>

<p>Hope I was somewhat helpful! Sorry about the late reply–finals week is this week :/</p>