I’m very interested in UChicago from what I’ve heard of it, but I’m confused about the Core curriculum. I’ve taken many APs and local college courses, so I don’t know whether it’d be a good fit for me. For example, I’ll be taking Linear Algebra my senior year… UChicago wouldn’t make me repeat that, would they? What are your experiences with transferring credit?
Or would it be better for me to go somewhere like Brown, where there’s the open curriculum? (I know the two schools are very different.)
You misunderstand what an open curriculum means. Brown has no distributional requirements. The only classes you must take are classes your major requires you to take. It has nothing to do with transferring credit. Just like at Brown, at UChicago the college does not require you to take linear algebra but several majors do.
You could probably get credit for linear algebra if you could prove unequivocally to John Boller, the head of the math department, that you have learned linear algebra to the level and depth that you would learn it taking linear algebra at UChicago. This probably won’t happen, unless your local community college made you prove almost every assertion they made for your homework. Nor would you be repeating much material if you didn’t get credit for it, UChicago Math focuses far more on a deep understanding of the material, i.e “why?” more than “how?”
You can’t use your AP credit to get out of your Gen-ed requirements at UChicago. So if you are required to take two physical science courses as part of the core. You can place into advanced courses, but you would still have to take two physical science courses. You can’t also use your AP history and other social studies courses to skip the Civilization or humanities requirements. You can only use your AP courses you get elective credit. That’s the way I understand it.
Actually, I think that’s wrong about the core science requirements. I think you can use AP credit to satisfy some of the core physical science/math and biological science requirements. What you can’t do is use AP credit to satisfy any of the Humanities/Social Science/Arts/Civilization requirements.
Most AP courses only lead to elective credits at UChicago and there is a maximum of 6 elective credits. There are a few exceptions with AP Chem/Physics, AP Calc, AP Stat, AP Econ and AP foreign language tests which can clear the 1 year foreign language requirement. But all of these possible credits or ability to move ahead depend on major. Transfer credit is exceptionally hard to get. The college classes you have taken have to be from a 4 year college not a community college, not be online, and not be for high school students. They also can not have been used to meet HS grad requirements. If all of those caveats are met it also has to be a course that is offered at UChicago and they have to be sure the specific content was worthy. Most of the competitive private schools tend not give as much credit as public schools. I don’t think Brown gives any AP credits just lets you take higher level courses. If you want to maximize your AP credits and college credits you might want to target some of the better public schools. My son is going to UChicago with 2 years of college math, 1 year of college comp sci, and 1 year of college science. He expects to get no transfer credit at all. The math doesn’t sync up exactly with their classes and was not proof based like UChicago. The comp sci doesn’t match the class at all at UChicago. The science he feels like the labs were not worthy and he wouldn’t want to continue in that area without a more robust lab experience. If he had opted to go to VA Tech he would have started his first year as a junior with transfer and AP credits. UChicago is about the learning experience while you are there not about using prior credits.