<p>As the summer winds down (or has ended for 95% of students) and the admission cycle starts up again, I'm deciding, mostly out of boredom, to answer any questions that people might have about UChicago. I'll be in and out, as I do have a job, but I'll try to get to any and all questions that I can. I warn that I am not in any way affiliated with admissions besides a couple friends who work there, and I will probably stay away from chancing people. But otherwise, ask away.</p>
<p>I guess I should put some background. I am a rising 3rd-year, class of 2013, at the University of Chicago. I'm an economics major, and am hoping to eventually go to graduate school in that field. I lived on campus (Max P.) my first two years, but this summer I have moved into an apartment 5-6 blocks away from campus, and will probably be here for the next two years. My first year I swam on the varsity swimming team, eventually going to conferences. I quit, however, after first-year due to time concerns and lack of motivation, but I'll go more into that if it comes up.</p>
<p>So ask me anything; student life, classes, my experiences, dorms, difficulty, majors, professors, high school, summer, whatever. There are some things about campus that I have a lot more exposure to than others, but I'll answer anything about me or my school to the best of my ability.</p>
I, as well as most people I know, had somewhat of a love-hate relationship with the core. As you probably know, we have a much more involved and extensive core than most schools, and it takes a while to do. After a while, you just want it to be over, and the number of classes means that you are often still taking them 3rd or ever 4th year if you don’t plan well. Some of the classes are also kind of boring, especially the bio and physci requirements, which include some of the most bs/easy classes at the university.</p>
<p>That said, I absolutely loved it and loved the fact that I had to do it. You’re going to spend 8 or so classes on humanities/social sciences/civilization, and you’ll be extremely tired of all the reading and writing that goes with them by the end, but now that I’m done I’m realizing how much it taught me. Being forced to take 3 years of reading/writing classes, all in different styles and genres, has made me an immensely better writer and thinker. And it’s brought me a breadth of knowledge that I never would have had. I’ve already noticed with friends from other schools that I can hold my own in conversations about their specialties or bring up points because I’ve studied something related or some Greek was in a similar situation.</p>
<p>It can be a pain to go through, but it is worth it once you’re through. It’s also a bonding experience, as almost everyone at the school goes through the same classes, putting up with the same things, and reading the same thinkers. If you ever want to let off some steam about Marx’s this or Aristotle’s that, you’ll always find plenty of people to do it with you. Stacking core classes 1st year is also a great way to transition into college, you’re taking generally easier classes than some of the tough major classes, as well as learning basic toolbox skills that will help you in the future.</p>
<p>In terms of the fun, it all depends on the teacher or class. Do your due diligence when picking classes/professors. Once you’re here, uchicago has a very good evaluations site, and I tend to spend a lot of time on it every time we pick classes. Hum/Sosc/Civ classes all depend on the teacher. Math is math, it’ll be fun if you like math. Bio/Physci I highly recommend taking with friends; many of the classes can be boring and easy (though there are some very interesting and some pretty difficult ones), but I enjoyed them because friends were in my classes. And I actually really loved the music-art-drama requirement. There are some good music classes here for people casually interested in classical.</p>
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<p>The atmosphere depends on where you are/who you associate with. Within my friends/circle, it’s pretty relaxed. Everyone enjoys hanging out, we have open wine or beer nights every week (Thursday nights usually) during the school year where all friends of friends are invited to just hang out. People are busy, but can usually make time for other things when they want to.</p>
<p>That said, there are groups of people where stress levels are extremely high. In particular, pre-meds and science majors have some of the more difficult and longest majors and have to take a bunch of labs on top of that. There’s probably a little more of the stress and a little less of the chill here than at many schools. You’ll think it’s a stressful environment if you hang out with stressful people, and vice versa.</p>
<p>No, almost no competition. Most tough classes see more of a camaraderie develop, with people helping each other.</p>
<p>This one’s hard. I’d probably say what I think makes UChicago so unique, the classes. Not do the core and many of the basic classes push you hard to learn, but this school offers you unlimited opportunities to learn more and try harder things. The difficulty floor is higher than most schools due to the expansive core, but the ceiling is unlimited as well. There will always be more difficult classes offered, and it is my opinion that this school offers a higher level of difficulty and rigor than any other school. We use a lot of first-year graduate textbooks even in the more difficult intro classes. Of course, I’m also an econ major, so take that for what you will.</p>
<p>I’ve never really been a person to go into office hours much, so I don’t know this as well. Every time I’ve ever needed to go in the professor has been welcoming and helpful, but I just haven’t done it as much as many others. Though from what I hear from my friends, faculty are generally very welcoming.</p>
<p>Thank you so much for the reply! I have another question…does the quarter system make the classes feel rushed? Or make it seem like there are too many quizzes/tests?</p>
I am a huge fan of the quarter system, and think that every school should be one it. It takes a bit of an adjustment - finals really sneak up on you first quarter of rist year - but after that it’s the perfect pace of work. Classes generally move at just the right pace (obviously dependent to the professor), and you rarely get the feeling of stagnation or boredom that comes near the end of semesters. Also, classes that need more time than a quarter are spread out into sequences that span 2-3 quarters. For instance, Intermediate Micro/Macro are each 2 quarter sequences. Calculus and Real Analysis are both 3 quarters. I’m pretty sure one of the standard bio sequences is like 5 quarters. So the system offers flexibility for classes, to find the right length, rather than having every class forced into semesters.</p>
<p>Generally classes range from 0 to 3 midterms. Quizzes and other examinations are rare, and are usually token completions if they exist. The quarter system is perfect for 1-midterm classes, where you’ll have a midterm around 5-6th week (Note: 10 weeks of classes, 11th week is finals week). It’s also very nice for 2-midterm classes, with midterms around 3rd-4th and 7th-8th week. A couple of classes, most notably general chemistry, try to stuff in 3 midterms, which is pretty horrible. 3-midterm classes are pretty rare, but if you’re a science major be ready for genchem (which will screw you over in all kinds of other ways as well).</p>
<p>I want to major in biology, I hope I can get AP credit for chem…thanks for all the information…it is really helpful to know a student perspective on things</p>
<p>Do you remember how long your Optional “Favorite Things” Essay and your Why UChicago were? The site says 1-2 paragraphs…but mine swelled into a little more than that (about a page/4 paragraphs for the Fav. Things & 3 Paragraphs/half a page with the UChicago essay). Should I do some extensive cutting or does their vagueness (no word count) express flexibility regarding length? </p>
It’s one of the harder classes in the premed/bio track (along with biochem). It is also probably harder here than at any other college from what I’ve heard. I didn’t take it, but I’d say work hard and make sure that you have a group of people that you can work with. Going solo is not really a good option for that class.</p>
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No shot at that. I think AP Chem will give you an elective credit or a core physci credit. Won’t even be close to genchem. No matter what AP’s you have, as a bio major you’re looking at 3-5 quarters of the bio sequence and 3 quarters of genchem, along with ochem and biochem and some other stuff. Also, if you are really interested in bio, you should take a look at the AP5 sequence. As the name suggests, it’s a alternate bio sequence that only admits students who got 5s on the AP Bio test that has a heavy focus on learning from actual research papers rather than textbooks. It’s supposedly very difficult, but is extremely rewarding and useful.</p>
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No idea. I think your intuition is probably correct though, they would rather you give them quality and honesty than word counts. I would focus on the UChicago essay though. There’s a reason they give you crazy and creative prompts, they want to know how you respond to them and force you to go outside the cookie-cutter application essays.</p>
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It was great. I lived in Max P., one of the newer dorms. Though near the middle-end of my second year I was really ready to move out, as most people are at that point. Anything in particular you want to know about them?</p>
<p>And I’m not sure I’d change anything. Maybe the neighborhood, Hyde Park isn’t terrible, but it’s extremely inconvenient to get to downtown proper and there isn’t a ton of activity around. It’s fine, but after a couple of years you start to want to branch out of Hyde Park, and it’s kind of a pain to go downtown/to the north side more than once in a while. And I miss having real grocery stores sometimes. Hyde Park Produce actually has very cheap produce, but packaged goods are expensive. I usually try to get downtown to Target once a month or so and stock up. Of course, you won’t have to deal with that until you move out.</p>
<p>@YellowDaisies, I am a current student as well in 2014, and for my favorite things essay, it was a very short, one-paragraph, 250 ish word essay. However, I totally missed the part where they said “one to two paragraphs” for why UChicago and wrote about two full pages…oops haha. But I think you are correct, and word counts are somewhat artificial and UChicago is looking more for creativity and skilled writing than meeting a 2 paragraph limit.</p>
<p>I am a father of a senior/daughter who is very interested in UC. However, I know Hyde Park can be a little “dicey.” In addition to the crime issues, I’m concerned that UC doesn’t have a strong sense of community among students and faculty. Apart from parties, do you think UC has a good sense of community? Stuff to do when you aren’t studying?</p>
Hmmm, that’s an awfully confusing question from a University of Chicago perspective. What could you be thinking about? Sleeping? Bathroom breaks? I’m sure there are bathrooms in all the libraries.</p>
<p>(Just kidding, of course.)</p>
<p>Kidding aside, I am interested in where boatlift gets the idea that Chicago doesn’t have a strong sense of community among students and faculty? It’s not that Chicago doesn’t have some flaws, but I don’t think that’s one of them. (A lack of stuff to do when you aren’t studying is also not one of them.)</p>
Hyde Park gets somewhat of a bad rep, but it’s not an unsafe place at all. Basic common sense will keep you safe. Every summer there’s a handful of apartment robberies, and there have been a couple of muggings, but that’s it, and that’s not much worse than any other campus. Security has recently been beefed up a bit too, there’s now security officers (I think 24/7) around the main quad along with the very good police force.</p>
<p>For the other things, yes and yes. I’m very strongly of the opinion that college will always be what you want it to be. There isn’t much of an athletic or sports connection in the general population here (though sports teams themselves are very close), but there is a strong sense of community. The Core and difficulty of courses also helps this, providing a common experience many places don’t have. And there’s always stuff to do as long as you go out and do stuff. Find friends, find clubs, find interests.</p>
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I don’t think that you can take intermediate econ before finishing calc (APs will not help you), but either way, don’t bother. It’s not worth it. Econ does not work here like most schools, and there’s a reason why everyone takes it second year.</p>
<p>I did take 160s, and I absolutely loved it. It’s a pretty difficult class, especially at the beginning, simply because it’s such a different way of thinking about and doing math. But it’s phenomenal at what it does, which is basically a year-long proofs class. You will be very good at doing proofs by the end of that class, along with having a much deeper level of understanding of calculus and math in general. It also has an extended drop period, so there’s very little risk in taking it for 3 weeks.</p>
<p>I don’t think anything really surprised me about it. Maybe the macro classes I’ve taken so far (I’m in the accelerated sequence, so I’m not sure how applicable this is to the standard one). We do a lot more math- and theory-heavy stuff than any other school. Most intermediate macro classes include a lot of quasi-keynesian ideas, which we didn’t do any of. Instead, our class started with Solow growth, quickly moved into basic neoclassical models, and hopefully by next year we’ll do same basic dynamic stochastic general equilibrium models. Lots of first-year graduate school material rather than the stuff they normally teach in undergrad.</p>
<p>Hi, you mentioned that you were a competitive swimmer but ended up quitting. I’m passionate about swimming, but I can’t decide if I want to swim in college. My main concern is that I will not have enough time to balance academics as well as explore my many other interests. In high school, my swim and school schedules are so crazy that it is not possible to do any other activities. What are your thoughts on this and on the swimming at U Chicago? Thank you in advance.</p>
<p>Sorry guys, I thought this thread had died. Back to answering.</p>
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I loved swimming, we had a great team and coaches, and I improved far beyond what I thought I could have done before college. That said, the time commitment is incredibly hard. We trained a bit over 20 hours a week and had meets most weekends during the main part of the season. Total combined time at the pool/gym could hit 30 hours some weeks, which is really hard when you’re balancing more difficult academics and trying to have friends outside of the team.</p>
<p>That said, I managed to do it for one year. I got good grades, took 4 classes a quarter, and made a bunch of friends outside of the team. But if you aren’t going to sacrifice something, then sleep is going to be hard to come by. I was up plenty of times at 2 am doing problem sets with practice at 6, and I am not a guy who enjoys getting less than my 7-8 hours. Plenty of sleeping in class as well.</p>
<p>It’s hard, but if you really love swimming I highly recommend giving it a shot for a year. This is just me personally, but it was a great experience getting to train that hard and improve that much, and my performances at conferences put a great high note to the end of my swimming career.</p>
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<p>Not sure if all of these are exactly right, but something like:</p>
<p>Background: Asian, Virginia, Public HS
SAT: 800 Reading, 800 Math, 760 Writing
SAT IIs: 800 Math, something else maybe?
GPA: 4.0
APs: Calc BC, Macro, Micro, Language, Lit, World Hist, US Hist, Gov, Stats. Think that’s it. All 5’s.
Classes: Took Multivar calc, Differential Equations, and Linear Algebra from community college/UVA.
Other: National Merit Scholar, Math Honor Society VP, some community service, lots of swimming, band (clarinet), couple honor societies, math contests (made it to whatever the round after the AMC12 is)</p>
<p>Though, I’ve found among my friends that on the “stats” side I’m on the high end. Most people I know are closer to a 2100-2200 SAT, though most of my friends come from before the acceptance rate drop.</p>
<p>Hyde Park is pretty dull to be honest. Most of the stuff you’re doing is going to be on campus or you’re going to make a trip downtown. There’s a handful of bars, some restaurants, a bowling alley, but nothing really special. Most of my social life is/was spent hanging out at people’s apartments/dorm rooms, going to frats, or going downtown when I can get time.</p>
<p>I am from India. I came to America 3 months ago.</p>
<p>I am preparing for sat and subject sat (2 subjects) and TOEFL</p>
<p>I have learnt 4 languages - ENGLISH,SANSKRIT,HINDI and GUJARATI… English - 4 yrs, Sanskrit - 2 yrs,Hindi -2 yrs and Gujarati - 4 yrs.</p>
<p>I AM FLUENT IN ALL 4 LANGUAGES…</p>
<p>World history and indian history for 3 years </p>
<p>2 years of physics,biology and chemistry . < 1 year with lab ></p>
<p>2 years of accountancy,economics,statistics and business administration .</p>
<p>I have completed my math up to algebra 2 ,trigonometry and statistics 1 and 2. </p>
<p>I was leader in 2 clubs and completed my national cadet corp course (military course for 2 yrs ) in sophomore year …</p>
<p>1 year of art </p>
<p>1 year of music</p>
<p>I WAS LECTURER FOR 1 YEAR IN TUTORING CLASSES FOR ACCOUNTANCY AND MICRO - ECONOMICS</p>
<p>I HAVE 610 hours of volunteering in nursing home in INDIA …</p>
<p>Now here in 12 grade … i am taking AP biology,us history honors 1 and 2 , DRUGS AND HUMAN BEHAVIOR, English 4 (A) and ASTRONOMY … and planning to join 2 or more clubs …</p>
<p>MY GPA IS 3.7</p>
<p>WHAT ARE MY CHANCES FOR UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO ?</p>
I like hearing different perspectives of these questions.</p>