<p>chocoholic: to note, that may be more because of Chicago's focus than, necessarily, their excellence. After all, as everyone keeps saying, Chicago is the place for the "life of the mind," and they have a high, high percentage of students who go on to become teachers. A lot of people go to Chicago because they love to learn, and people that love to learn often find themselves in academia, something which requires a graduate degree. </p>
<p>The school is not very pre-professional, so they groom students for higher higher learning more than they groom students to enter the workforce upon receipt of their B.A./B.S. (Think of it this way: if you're going to be an auto mechanic and that's all you want from school, are you doing to go to Harvard or Auto Tech College?)</p>
<p>Most people nowdays need a graduate degree or a professional degree to get a decent paying job in the workplace or in academia. There are a lot of Chicago grads who do economics though and they get jobs right out of college at very competitive firms.</p>
<p>"One of the curious things my D heard at Chicago was that 40% of the students go on to grad school, and 40% into the workplace......."</p>
<p>If 40% of the graduating class go on to grad/prof school, then why is it that only 6-7% of the graduating class go to the top 15 grad/prof programs??</p>
<p>Actually, my D had many many students tell her that she would have no choice but to go on to a Master's degree, right after her undergrad, as not too many of the undergrads were able to secure jobs. </p>
<p>Is that also based on grade deflation?</p>
<p>Come on chicagograd and Hanna1, please give us some facts and numbers from your graduating class. What % of students ended up in different sectors. What's the career placement service like, and how much is up to the student. What are the best and worst stories from your friends.</p>
<p>HuskySky: You haven't been reading the WSJ very carefully, have you?</p>
<p>That is-- okay, are you reading this? Read this next bit here, this is the important bit-- *WSJ is ONLY the top 5 BUSINESS, LAW, AND MEDICAL SCHOOL PROGRAMS. *</p>
<p>So, if 6-7% are going to the 5 best business, law, and medical school programs...</p>
<p>that in no translates into "6-7% go to top 15 professional and grad school programs".</p>
<p>In fact, it makes that ("6-7% go to top 15 professional and grad school programs") incredibly, incredibly, INCREDIBLY unlikely, and practically guarantees that many, many more manage-- especially since UChicago would be more likely to send students to Grad School programs, NOT to Law, Business, or Medical school. </p>
<p>sorry, i was out last night, so I didn't see the new posts until this morning, I am not entirely sure what the over all statistics for our graduating class are, that is information that a current senior would be most likely to know, as they are given information on the class that graduated ahead of them. I do think that chicago places the best in academic grad programs and law school and probably does the worst in med school placement. I know many more people going to top grad programs or top law programs from my graduating class, but this is really in line with national trends, in that it is significantly more difficult to achieve a admission to a top med school than any other grad program.</p>
<p>what is the wsj data everyone is refering to?
CAPS is not that great, I don't think, I didn't really use it because I waited a year to apply to grad school and found my job independent of the school, ( I actually met my boss because his son plays travel soccer with my brother) but most people don't really use CAPS which to me signifies a failure in its system of some sort.</p>
<p>if CAPS is so bad, how do students work through applying to graduate school/etc? is there another service available, or are we just left to our own devices?</p>
<p>I mean, I don't think that I am the ideal person to ask about this, because I was 500 miles away from campus while applying to grad school, but I did use my advisior to some extend, and he was pretty helpful, he always responded immediately, despite the fact that I was no longer a current student, Also, I spoke to professors in y department, who I actually think are the best resource for applying to grad school, because they are going to know the programs that you are looking at better than anyone else, and have experience with graduate students. Honestly, I didn't hang out with the econ type kids at all, most of my friends were in the humanities, social sciences, art, etc.. and these people tend to be at a bit of a lost as to what to do immediately after graduation regardless of what school they went to. (This is of course biased by the fact that I am in biology, where you have to get a phd or md)</p>
<p>What are the best houses? Or, rather, what are each of the houses like? Are they significantly different? Which have the best location, etc? What makes them different from each other?</p>
<p>Basically, I'm asking for a run-down of houses, and which I should ask for. Oh-- I'm a transfer, second or third quarter sophomore. So I think that makes a difference in where I can ask for?</p>
<p>Wow. So much negativity. I have no idea where those stats come from about placement into top grad schools (if they are real) but I have found the opposite from my personal experience. If you do well at Chicago, you will have all doors open to you, any program, anywhere. I was lucky enough to have a good GPA at Chicago so I was able to interivew at most top med programs that I was interested in. However, the fact that Chicago is not known for grade inflation helps you even if you dont have a high GPA. Grad programs understand this, believe me. In terms of law schools or business schools, i have friends who have had no problems. Obviously, it is still a numbers game and a lot of it involves the individual but schools have formulas that add points to gpas from certain schools ( i know they do this at MIT as well). I found my advisors extremely helpful. Because of the small nature of Chicago, you can get a lot of personal attention but it is still up to you to seek it out. In terms of CAPs, i didnt use it that much but do know people who found it very helpful to find potential employers. You only use CAPs to find jobs; advisors in each field are used for grad/professional school placement. If you are interested in economics, all of the best firms come and recruit. In short, it is no different at chicago than at many other schoosl in the country. You get what you put into it. No one is going to a hand a top job or top grad school placement to you on a silver platter.</p>
<p>Good grad school placement is based on recommendations and achievements other than GPA (though this counts somewhat). In the sciences, history of lab work is important. Publishing as an undergrad is a big help as well. While at Chicago, I saw many undergrads accepted into top programs. Remember at the graduate level, it's the faculty and program that is more important than a particular school. For example, UC San Francisco has the #1 ranked neurosciences program, but in a poll of students admitted to top-tier universities, how would that be counted? The Univ. of Washington has the #1 ranked family medicine program, etc. In the business area this may be a little easier to pin point, but at the graduate level what is a top program is not always identified with a known "prestigious" university.</p>
<p>maybe I am just the most amazingly lucky, probability defying person in the world, but when I visited and spoke with chem major seniors, all 4 were going to Caltech grad for chemistry.</p>
<p>Random question...I was wondering if any current students know people that participate in University Theater and a varsity sport? Could this endevor be a possiblity? Obviously, the two cannot happen while the sport is in season, but are there quarters where the two wouldn't overlap? Also, how much of a time commitment is a UT show? Just throwing all that out there...</p>
<p>Chicagograd, I am hoping that your reply was so brief:
either because you were in a hurry, or my question was so vague.......and not because that was the answer :)</p>
<p>Did any of you do summer internships during your 3 summers at Chicago, and if you did, how did you go about obtaining these positions. If Chicago is so focused on "life of the mind", aren't they basically steering you towards grad school? Would their CAPS services therefore leave more than a little to be desired?</p>
<p>Hanna, if most people don't use CAPS, are they able to find internships on their own? I would expect employees to contact the University for summer student workers. Would you say that most companies don't really go to the job fairs at UC? Are they not welcomed.....I am bewildered...</p>
<p>Hanna you were fortunate to find a job through a connection, but in your 4 years at Chicago, surely you had a few hundred acquaintances and friends, and have a vague idea of where they ended up, and why? Just like our graduating seniors can tell us the sagas of many of their friends college applications.
I am just curious, but I think I am coming across as paranoid.</p>
<p>certainly, people who are involved in the type of majors that would want internships and jobs in business are recruited through job fairs on campus, and the job network for econ majors in perticularly strong. Being in biology everyone that I knew was headed for grad or med school but that is the reality of the hard sciences, one must obtain a higher degree than a ba. This said, I was unusual in that I chose to get my research experience off campus, most people in the sciences work at on campus labs. ( I think that we were second in the country for NIH spending in medical research last year, so you can imagine that the labs are very good.) I decided to not do research during the school year and spend the summers near home, working in a lab at a equivalent research university/institute.</p>
<p>I echo what hanna has said. Just because Chicago is marketed as a "life of the mind" environment doesn't mean that everyone goes onto grad school. In particular, the econ department is very strong and many firms come and recruit undergrads for jobs right out of school. There are job fairs, potential internship emails from CAPs, and listings available for all different types of interests. I wouldn't worry so much; you're daughter will be able to find something that suits her interests at Chicago.</p>