Difficulty of UChicago to other schools

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Chicago ✅
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<p>Everyone talks about the difficulty of UChicago classes. What exactly makes them so hard? Is it amount of reading? Tough professors? Lots of papers? Lots of "busy work"? What is the real difference between high school and college that makes UChicago so darn hard?</p>

<p>And you can't just say, The amount of time you need to put into the work. What does that mean anyway? What kind of work do you do that is different or more difficult than high school or an AP class?</p>

<p>Please give examples of rubrics, reading lists, examples of notes, explanations of tests or papers, etc. </p>

<p>What is a student's study habit at UChicago? What do students do to prepare for classes? </p>

<p>Basically, what the bloody heck can we expect in our first year of classes?</p>

<p>Thank you. Go Maroons!</p>

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<p>i have the exact same question mwbashful
what IS the student's study habit anyway? i think i need to have new study habits. -_- or... maybe i just NEED a study habit, period. yoinks!</p>

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<p>I'm curious to know what we should expect. If we only have three classes a quarter, how difficult can it be? What are most of the classes like?</p>

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<p>Prepare to Die. You will have NO TIME for a social life at all.</p>

<p>Kidding...there is plenty of time. It's not an easy school but yuo were smart enough to get in right? Take somebody from your high school who barely made it into a state college or something...now maybe they would have trouble here but you shouldnt. </p>

<p>Now, let me clarify a few things: First, you could only ahve 3 classes a quarter but then you wouldnt graduate. You are going to need to do 4 sometimes and first year is a good time to do 4 every quarter (also when you are taking 4, you can drop one if they get too hard and still be a full time student).
Second, the work really depends on your classes. I know people taking both hum and sosc and they have a fair amount of papers and reading but they are taking two core reading/writing courses at the same time. There really isnt much busy work, its all work that matters which is going to be harder than the busy work but at least you wont have to do both (and it will take you less time than spending all your time on useless stuff).</p>

<p>I cant really compare it to your high school since I dont know what it was like. In my high school, the "normal" classes did more work than my AP/IB classes most of the time but it was a lot easier...there was just so MUCH of it.</p>

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<p>I addressed what to expect in terms of work loads in the other version of this thread. In terms of study habits, well, it varies. Depending on the person and the course of study, it is very diverse. Generally, though, everyone does the work. I don't know of too many cases where people just blow stuff off completely. Weeknights are generally spent working on stuff (but not constantly, IM sports, other activites, or just being social happen, too, but at least some time will get spent on some classwork). From Friday afternoon through Sunday morning, work becomes rare, expecially at night. Sunday is often the day people spend getting stuff done, especially things that require a long block of time.</p>

<p>These are just general trends. Very few people study all night Monday-Thursday, and then all day Sunday. But very few people don't touch a book during those times either. It's about balance, basically. It is pretty rare for someone to completely blow off their work. It's also rare for someone to get stuff done way ahead of time. </p>

<p>Also, Four classes is very manageable. I've known a lot of people who've taken three and been bored.</p>

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<p>My high school was the same. The normal classes gave really easy work at regular intervals: Read three chapters by Friday (assigned on Tuesday) of To Kill A Mockingbird. Ode poem is due Thursday (assigned last Thursday and will be graded based on credit rather than ability or quality). Social Studies means listen to the teacher talk all hour and then do a bunch of worksheets and define ten words of the week. </p>

<p>AP classes meant more work but nevertheless are easier. It would be assigned like this: read 300 pages of East of Eden by the Wednesday after next (maybe two weeks to read). US History would be like this: read two chapters (long ones, like 35 pages each), do three timelines (10 events) for three separate presidents, and a 1-page thesis paper on a 15-page packet about the Black Codes, and all this is done outside of school, because in class we take notes every day of outlines of each chapter.</p>

<p>These two examples of AP classes are exactly what I had to do this year, and I find it easier than sitting in normal classes where you get worthless packets with fill in the blanks. Normal classes never have you using the book too. The teacher never makes you read it, only gives out random questions from it, and even then, the answers are in the teacher's yacking lectures. </p>

<p>At UChicago, how does the process of writing papers work? In my AP english class, we are given a bit of poem or prose with a prompt and we write for the whole hour, or sometimes only 45/40 minutes or so, and then are graded on the 1-9 scale. Most days we are given poetry or prose to discuss in class, or we discuss the book or play we're reading, or if it's Shakespeare we're reading, we read it out loud. We never have take-home writing assignments. </p>

<p>What I mean to ask is, are all papers written for classes written as a full-blown research paper (notecards, bibliography, rough drafts, time, and footnotes included), or are most of them written off the top of the head and for the most part based on your own knowledge and opinion of the subject?</p>

<p>If you were to assign a percentage to the different types of work you do, what would the percentages be? 60% reading, 30% papes, and 10% studying lecture notes (studying = constantly rereading?)? Or more like 40% reading, 20% studying notes, 20% papers, and 20% projects? </p>

<p>What can I expect to be doing when I'm "studying"?</p>

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<p>Very litle writing is done off the top of the head. Writing done in class is generally called an "exam." If they are going to read something, professors generally want it to be high-quality, refined, revised, edited, etc. They don't care what you can churn out in 45 minutes, but what you can produce when you really engage whatever it is your doing. </p>

<p>[There are in-class writing things, but it's on exams and is usually based on content, with the writing part de-emphasized (as long as you express what your expressing in a clear way)].</p>

<p>The different types of work depends from quarter to quarter. If you're taking lots of Humanities/Social Science classes, you'll do more reading. If you're in more Physcial Science you'll do a little less reading probably, and have problem sets to do. Math would be more problems, less reading (very little in some cases) A lot of time is spent reading, and reading usually means taking notes (for the multiple purposes of helping organize the stuff in your head, being able to find key ideas later without re-reading, and [for me] staying awake).</p>

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<p>Thanks so much Maroon8. I've been really kinda nervous about UChicago because I can basically say I came from a total rubbish high school. My biology class from freshman year only got as far as disecting owl pellets and then arranging the bones of the whatever on paper and gluing them down. No frogs, no cats, no visits to morgues to look at cadavers (those three another school did for bio and AP bio). The only real education I got came from my two AP classes at another school, my reading, my math class because my math teacher isn't too bad (25 on the ACT math portion = basic abilities), and the fact that I understand logic and common sense and can think for myself (you'd be surprised how many people don't have that where I went to school) will help.</p>

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<p>Maroon8...your posts have been very helpful! I, too, come from a "total rubbish high school" and have been a bit nervous about the work. The sciences in my school are particularly bad, so I'm hoping that I'll learn a lot in core biology! </p>

<p>mwbashful18...hmm...logic and common sense...many people the world over don't have those. I really hope I do, but sometimes I'm not so sure. ;-)</p>

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<p>savoirfaire87: too true about the common sense thing. I just have always been told that what i have going for myself is a relative understanding of how the world works -- and if i don't know something, i have the common sense to go Google it until i do know, lol. </p>

<p>My school's valedictorian, brilliant kid, all A+ grades, 4.137 or whatever gpa, was going to apply to UMich - Ann Arbor, but because of his 26 ACT, our counselor told him not to bother. And this was like, early November, and he's instate. The kid totally had a lock on an acceptance, regardless of our school's idiot counselor, and he didn't even have the sense to apply anyway. I'm the type that would take the chance. In fact, I'm the first student from my school to go to a top-20 college in about 15 or so years -- because I took a chance with applying.</p>

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<p>Your high school lied to you. You will never ever ever ever ever have to turn in note cards, rough outlines, rough drafts, or most likely even final outlines EVER to a professor.</p>

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<p>There are writing tutorials and tutors for those who want to take advantage of them.</p>

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<p>Yes, idad is right. These tutors are all over the place, stationed at the libraries between specific times. I actually know a guy who is a tutor; he is a 4th year PhD candidate in economics from Chile. So, he is pretty bright, and those will be the kind of people who are available if you need some help.</p>

<p>I am not yet a freshman in the college, but I do have access to the U. of C. libraries, so I should see if I can use those tutors when the going gets tough for me. :)</p>

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<p>mwbashful18: </p>

<p>HAHA your counselor sounds like ours. He's awful...absolutely useless...discourages students...totally behind on SAT changes, college admissions in the MODERN (read: internet) world, etc. </p>

<p>Pretty much everyone in my high school goes to local schools or to Penn State or U Pittsburgh. This year, my co-valedictorian is going to NYU and one of our honors students who is an awesome cross country runner is going to Notre Dame to run for them. A couple years ago another kid went to Notre Dame. About ten years ago a girl went to Stanford. And....that's about it! </p>

<p>-->And as you said, it's not like our classmates are being rejected from good schools...they simply "don't have the sense to apply" without any "official" support from the counselor.</p>

<p>Of course, no one has ever heard of U of C where I live, so no one even knows that I'm going to a "good school."</p>

<p>It's time for a revolution.</p>

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<p>Katharos:</p>

<p>Did I ever mention to you that you are awesome? Well...I will now. </p>

<p>You are awesome. :)</p>

<p>I was reading the post about favorite books and I saw that you like to read CS Lewis. I love his books! Mere Christianity is excellent!</p>

<p>I noticed that you posted that you listed Snitchcock as your first dorm choice...but you were considering switching it to Breckinridge. Did you switch? I put Breck first--I have a friend who lived there and when I visited him I really liked the quiet, conservative atmosphere.</p>

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<p>Is it ridiculous for someone to attempt to take 5 classes at once? I have a big major (biochem-19 courses) and I really want to make sure I graduate and take a few fun extracurriculars, too. I plan to just take four the first quarter, but it depends how my placement tests go...</p>

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<p>5 classes?</p>

<p>What are you a freakin genius?</p>

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<p>yeah, ditto.... i think its either 3 or 4... and i'd be shocked if you didn't need to have some sort of a special permission to do 5</p>

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<p>btw Robertson, u had asked me a looong time ago about my finaid package at Chicago and I never answered: I'm an international, so no finaid for me, unless I was willing to risk not getting in, which I wasn't!!! (I got in EA, so maybe I should've... heheh)</p>

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<p>You must petition the Dean of Students to let you take five, and you must pay for an additional course out of pocket.</p>