<p>How many hours of homework do you get in each class?
How many pages of text do you need to read per week?
How many essays do you usually have to write?
How long do those essays usually need to be? (I'm not very good at writing them).</p>
<p>I'm interested in double majoring in history/physics (astronomy) and working towards premed (just in case). I know that's a lot of classes (and I may have to drop the history major if I can't manage it).</p>
<p>I know that the answers vary by professor, but please tell me your about your experience.</p>
<p>I am the Dad of a Chicago student and I can tell you the following. Doesn't matter how many pages are assigned because if you are reading Aristotle or Confessions of St. Augustine 10 pages can take you several hours. But you are loving it while you are reading it. Study hours can vary greatly from what period of quarter you are in and how dedicated you are and what your major is but 2 hours for every class period probably won't do it. Essays probably depends on major you take but for the standard Humanities or social sciences look for 3 or 4 essays at about 5 pages. What surprises many incoming students is amount of class discussion going on. Some take awhile getting used to but most get into flow.</p>
<p>I'm not so sure many people would love every moment of Aristotle!</p>
<p>Some people accuse him of being a bad writer. This is unfair-- most of what has come down to us are his lecture notes. Imagine reading lecture notes for several hours straight... dry, not many examples, for personal use instead of widespread. It's not always fun!</p>
<p>I've had experience reading him (and Plato). He's very difficult to translate. However, reading the germans Hegel and Kant is even more difficult. My term paper on Hegel was a nightmare.</p>
<p>grasslands, thank you for the response.</p>
<p>So that's over six hours per class per week?</p>
<p>I thought I had it was a depressing (and I don't use the word very lightly) when I had to read 100 pages a week for US History, 50-75 pages a week in Bio, and 40 pages every two days when we were reading books (not very often) and hour long essays when we weren't in AP English. And of course math and french homework on top of that (which I didn't do). I got booted from the english class for getting a C and got low Bs in the biology and history classes. I did get a 4 and 5 respectively on the AP though.</p>
<p>So Chicago has much more work than this?</p>
<p>wait, I'm thinking about majoring in physics and complaining about lots of work. wow.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, they didn't shape western thought (at least not until the Beatles). Of course, the western world is not as important as it used to be. I think they offer courses in Eastern Philosophy.</p>
<p>I feel the same way about history that you do about philosophy.</p>
<p>it is not good for a nation like America to have eurocentric paradigms. i can attest by talking to many of my friends that the world is a very very very small place for them.</p>
<p>j10cpc5000, if you peruse the Chicago course catalog, you will see that you have ample opportunity to learn about all cultures starting day one of the core curriculum. I for one hope to take South Asian culture to fulfill one of my requirements, specifically because I've already had a fair amount of US and European history. It is important to note, however, that most liberal arts colleges in doing what you say and attempting some sort of pluralism often skip non-Western classics like the Quran or the Tale of the Genji because such works don't fit with their political agendas. I HIGHLY recommend the book "The Closing of the American Mind" by Allan Bloom, the late great UChicago prof and acclaimed translator of Plato's Republic for a brilliant take on the subject.</p>
<p>I'm currently reading that book Sarahbara. It's outstanding. Have you read Leo Strauss's "Natural Right and History?" It is great too. Most of Bloom's ideas are taken directly from Strauss. God, I hope I get into Chicago so that I will be able to talk to others (besides my father) who actually know who these thinkers are.</p>
<p>if i do major in history and I get accepted into Chicago and I can convince my parents to pay for it, I'll concentrate either in East Asia or South Asia.</p>
<p>About the workload question, all I can really offer is what my personal workload has been at Chicago. I'm planning on majoring in physics. My first quarter, I only took three classes: Honors Calc (which really isn't as much calculus as an intro to analysis), Honors Physics, and Readings in World Lit (for the Humanities requirement). I later found out that Readings in World Lit is the "********" hum class, but that wasn't the reason I originally took it. Each quarter, I've had to write 4 papers for this class, and each one is only about 4 pgs. Friends of mine have definitely had a more intense humanities workload in terms of pages, but I don't think anyone has more than 4 papers a quarter for any particular class (at least not any particular core hum class). Along with that was the reading of a lot of novels, which varied from 200 pgs of dense Nietzsche and Heart of Darkness to a light reading load of the comic book Maus. About Honors Physics, I really only work one day a week, Thursday, the day before homework is due. But I work all night. I'll be up until 7 in the morning often on Thurday nights, and it would take longer if I didn't have a 6 person study group of very intelligent guys. Many people originally discouraged me from taking two honors classes (Calc and Physics) b/c of the workload, but I have found calc to be my easiest class with the lightest workload. I really only work one day a week (the day before hw is due) for about 4 or 5 hrs. All in all, especially with only three classes (students usually take 3 half the time and 4 half the time), the workload is bearable, and yes, even fun at times (you wouldn't be coming to Chicago if you couldn't have academic fun). I remember hearing ridiculous rumors that Chicago kids have to work 70 hrs/week, and this just isn't true - think about it, that's 10 hrs a day, including weekends! And of course it depends on majors and professors; typically science majors have more work, but then again, we write less, so it all evens out. I'd say don't be discouraged from coming to Chicago just because of the workload; from what I've heard from my friends, the burden is equal if not more at most other top tier schools.</p>
<p>I think that Chicago is a bit overrated in terms of difficulty, just because it is quite a bit harder than people would expect by just looking at its acceptance %. I know someone at Chicago, and he said the first year was the toughest just because he never did anything in high school - after that it wasn't too hard. It sounds like Chicago is a bit more rigourous than some elite schools, but not quite as hard as an MIT or CalTech in terms of sheer hours of work (although obviously Chicago has more humanities majors, and no engineering students, so there are fewer people taking "hard" majors).</p>