<p>Hey everyone. I really like U of Chicago and I will be applying EA, but I have a few concerns that I would like someone to address:</p>
<p>-I plan to attend law school after college, and I am worried that the grade deflation at Chicago would make getting into a top law scool more difficult. I notice that there are far less students at Harvard Law (for example) from Chicago (13) than there from comparable schools (Georgetown, for instance has 32). </p>
<p>-Also, I am not a math/science person, and I am concerned about the core requirements. Is it pretty easy to take easier, intro-level classes to fulfill these requirements? </p>
<p>Well, (judging by your screenname), you should definitely consider the core before you apply. No, I really don't think there is any way around taking calculus and whatever logically follows that at UChicago. </p>
<p>I also think that the University has an international reputation for excellence. If you want to go to law school, you can. Keeping up your highschool GPA is probably near impossible, but the knowledge you come out with in the end far outweighs straight-A's. And, everyone knows UChicago is better than Harvard anyways so...</p>
<p>"I also think that the University has an international reputation for excellence. If you want to go to law school, you can. Keeping up your highschool GPA is probably near impossible, but the knowledge you come out with in the end far outweighs straight-A's. And, everyone knows UChicago is better than Harvard anyways so..."</p>
<p>I wish it was that simple for getting into Law Schools.</p>
<p>i have the same concerns about the core... it's not that i hate math, it just hates me. i think the same goes for chemistry...
does anybody have experience that can tell me how bad it is for those non-elite math kids?</p>
<p>1) Chicago emphasizes reading, writing, and critical thinking, all of which come to play in law school. Chicago is an esteemed school, and it's not as hard to do well as you may think. Your GPA will follow suit.</p>
<p>(Your comparison to Georgetown in the Harvard Law School example is unfair-- Chicago has a smaller undergraduate size than Georgetown.)</p>
<p>2) There are many students who are here who would most definitely describe themselves as "not math people" (yes, that means you can be accepted here WITHOUT ever haven taken calculus!!!!) and there are non-calculus courses for non-math people and a four-quarter Natural Sciences sequence for not-science people. These courses are "Rocks for Jocks" UChicago style and are really a lot of fun. Unfortunately, the same is not the case for people who are math/science and not English/history-- there are no "copout" humanities/social sciences courses.</p>
<p>another factor why there might be more gtown students at harvard than uchicago students is the fact that uchicago has such a good law school. its pretty well known that going to the undergrad school helps in getting you into the grad school of the same university. gtown doesnt have nearly as good a law school, and uchicago law school is top 5 in the nation. so people might have the inclination just to go to uchicago</p>
<p>why do people always complain about math? i never got that. people who are good at it dont complain anywhere near as much about taking humanities and sosc and such. are math kids more well-rounded people then? thats what i think.</p>
<p>Another thing to consider is how many UofC students attend with the notion of becoming a lawyer vs. GT? A far higher % of UofC students go directly into grad school rather than attend a professional school.</p>
<p>A friend of mine is taking stats to fulfill his math requirement because he wanted to avoid calculus. Taking pre-calc here, though, will not count toward your core math requirement.</p>
<p>Calc here, at every level, is very theoretical and involves proofs. I like that, personally, but it's a lot of work and quite confusing at times. But everyone is in the same boat (more or less); no one is my class, for instance, entered having taken calc with proofs, though most took calculus in high school. </p>
<p>That said, I don't think it right, when deciding to which schools you want to apply, to figure out how to get out of those areas you don't like by taking the easiest courses available. I understand that one may not want to be masochistic, but it seems that one shouldn't try to get the least out of the core when that is one of the defining aspects of UChicago.</p>
<p>My S feels similarly to Katharos. Among other things he is pre-med. When asked by one of his friends why he was taking courses that were on a more difficult level than those required to meet the pre-med requirement and risk a lower grade, he simply said, because I'm at Chicago.</p>
<p>You can do it... Tucker Max went to a pretty decent law school (joke).</p>
<p>But seriously, it may be slightly tougher (I say slightly just based on what I have heard about the GPA deal), but you can manage. If you want to keep your GPA high at Chicago, you CAN do that, it will just limit your course selection. I mean, you have sign language, rocks for jocks, etc. if you are solely worried about your GPA.</p>
<p>If I could recommend one thing to do before getting here if you are worried about workload and the like, test out of the language requirement! Seriously, almost every language is tough and you will have a significant workload, esp. if you are just starting a language. I have been maintaining my A in spanish so far (we have quizzes every single class that make up a significant portion of the grade overall--though I have the big midterm this upcoming week), but it requires almost daily attention and a fair amount of grunt work. Non-asians taking languages like Chinese, Japanese, etc. have a really hard time usually (unless they have prior experience) and they have a hefty workload as well.</p>
<p>How tough are the humanities classes, for kids stronger in math, let's say. Traditionally, people (at least among the kids I've talked to/know) consider humanities classes easier to do well in, but does that hold true at Chicago as well? Considering the quirks of Chicago I wouldn't be suprised if it doesn't.</p>
<p>Well a lot depends on your professor, but I would say it isn't that bad. If you are plain awful with writing, there are people that can help you out. I don't think most hume classes are that tough (some are harder than others, but not super difficult on the whole), but sosc CAN be tough if you get behind on your work. The papers are typically longer and it is common for them to sometimes be more frequent as well. I take human being and citizen and this quarter we read 3 texts (The Apology, The Iliad, and Genesis) and we have 3 main assignments--2 4-5 page max papers and a take home final--along with a once a week response to the reading for the week. It is only a paragraph or so long, very informal and graded for completion, that we e-mail to our professor.</p>
<p>Some classes are much different, but this is how my professor does it and I know some others are the same way. My roommate is in media aesthetics and typically has a bit more work/time consumed (going to films and such), but that sequence is SUPPOSEDLY easier (key word, supposedly).</p>
<p>Your humanities sequence, for better or worse, will resemble your English class, and your civ sequence your history class. Each teacher here seems to have his own grading scale-- A's are not plentiful with even the most lenient professors, but that doesn't mean they're impossible--</p>
<p>Sosc is probably the hardest sequence, just by virtue of its being different from what you're used to taking in high school. Many wait until second year to take it, though.</p>
<p>So yes-- there are THREE full-year courses that stress reading and writing, (though you can opt out of the third quarter of either sosc or civ), but they're not horrific. If anything, they'll make you into a more well-rounded math/science person.</p>
<p>Interesting to hear what you have to do in HBC. I also am taking that course, though my assignments are slightly different; my class has to write two 3-5 page essays and then a longer one (at least 7 pages). No short responses.</p>
<p>There are tutors at Harper Library (and at some dorms, though limited tutors and days/hours) during the week to help students with their introductory-level subjects (i.e., writing, math, chem, econ, physics). I do not know how good all of them are, though, as I only went once for math help -- and the guy was terrible (some Slavic grad student who barely spoke English and was quite apathetic about the fact that I needed help; I now go solely to office hours, as my math teacher is very helpful. Perhaps there are good tutors and bad ones, though...</p>
<p>I'm taking a sosc, humanities, math, and language this year. I've just have to say that it's a hard courseload. I have friends who are taking the chem 101, and it's swaying them away from being mat and science majors. However, you have to realize that you don't have to take Chemistry or Biology, the introductory classes, for your science credit because there are other science credits that fulfill your science requirement, that are specifically for non-math and science majors. Don't worry about the requirements for science.</p>
<p>I have friends who are taking pre-calc and they are fulfilling their math credits that way. You can also test into Calc 152, which is second quarter calc, or Calc 153, which is third quarter calc. Then you can just take it to the end of the sequence, which would be quarter 3, and then you get credit for all three quarters. Not that hard.</p>
<p>The SOSC and HUME classes here are generally harder for me, as a rule, even though I'm a huge sosc and hume person, because there's simply so much reading for each class. But if you make a schedule for yourself and keep to it, you'll be fine. Don't spaz out, and just chill once in a while.</p>
<p>i heard from some kids that chicago stifles creativity, is this true? i'm starting to have some concerns about the community aspect of chicago after visiting (and loving) a small LAC.</p>
<p>Have you visited UChicago (Breck or BJ vs Max for example)? If so, where did you stay and when did you visit (day of the week and what week in the quarter is huge)?</p>
<p>Stifles creativity?? What gives you this idea?
I am going to say that this isn't true based on the fact that it is a leader in research in various facets, which requires creativity in some form, at a minimum. I would be interested to hear what you mean by that statement.</p>