<p>If I prefer practical applications and do not have a special passion for math, will I hate the heavily math based and theoretical approach to econ that the University of Chicago has?</p>
<p>I loved campus when I visited. In fact, it was the first school where I felt the fit. I suppose I'm just having second thoughts now that I'm actually thinking about the theoretical and mathematical nature of Chicago's econ program...</p>
<p>The thing is, I know that I can succeed a lot easier at Georgetown SFS. And their approach is much more practical, which I think would be better suited for my personality. And SFS seems better for internship opportunities. I don't know why I liked Chicago a lot more when I visited. It was just something about the atmosphere...</p>
<p>Perhaps I have a completely wrong vision of the U of C in my head, and I will be disappointed when I go. Or maybe not. I do know that I don't like having philosophical discussions over dinner though...will that be a problem? No one seemed to be doing that when I visited, but maybe I just missed it?</p>
<p>So...any econ majors/Chicago students here that can share their thoughts?</p>
<p>Im just beginning my Intermediate Econ sequence this quarter (eg the heavy mathematically focused econ). My current problem set is a shock with calculus I haven’t learned in my current cal classes yet (but touched upon a bit in my high school). However, its fairly doable especially if you work with friends who can check each others misunderstandings. The median of the last problem set for that class was a 95. </p>
<p>Granted, half the class is filled with genius students from Asia so that may be a skewed reflection of the usual median, but if a dumb american southerner like me can match the class average it can’t be too bad yet. I have heard though, that the next class 201 is usually the “weed out” class so I’ll see soon. </p>
<p>If you really can’t deal with the math heavy portion of econ, there’s always public policy. I’m currently planning on double majoring in econ and public policy (which is very doable here btw due to cross listed courses), if i do get “weeded out” by the heavy econ, I’m planning to just go public policy with an econ focus which would require much less math. </p>
<p>I can’t judge on practicality yet since i’m nowhere close to graduating and don’t know if its practical or not, but EVERYTHING at chicago is very heavy on theory, so its something you’ll have to deal with i guess. Not neccessarrily a bad thing since it makes you understand WHY things do the things they do rather just how to use theorems, but the heavy proofs did make drop down to a lower math. </p>
<p>On the otherhand, there are plenty of RSO’s (student organizations) and Library Seminars that offer hands on training for technical skills like MS Excel, Stata, etc. and I’ve heard that the Econ and stat sequences force you to learn these as part of coursework.</p>
<p>As for “philosophical dinners” you can find it or not find it, depending completely on who your with and if they want to talk to you about advanced topics. I can talk to one of my neighbors about video games and computer chips for hours. The very same guy also spent 3 hours one night debating with my roommate the nature of time and space. From my general experience, if you really want to talk about something philosophical just bring it up in discussion, and more often than not, those at dinner will respond to you. If no one brings up anything like that, it’ll just be a perfectly normal dinner.</p>
<p>How hard are economics courses at U of C? How many hours do you spend on economics coursework (relative to your other courses)? And what do the curves generally look like in an economics course? Specifically, can you assess the difficulty relative to a major in math or the hard sciences?</p>
<p>Also, do most people majoring in economics at the U of C start out by taking the introductory courses in their first year or do they jump right into the 2000-level sequence.</p>
<p>Are the foreign students really that plentiful/strong? I would think that their English skills wouldn’t be as good as ours, which gives us an advantage when writing paper? How many internationals are there really every year? And how many are in econ?</p>
<p>Lol, so you’ve never had typos or a wonky keyboard before?</p>
<p>But that’s not the point. Does anyone have any numbers/stats concerning the presence of international students at the university? Because honestly, there’s no way that there are that many undergraduates coming from Asia, etc. Don’t most of them come from graduate school?</p>
<p>I’m a foreign student from Australia - where everyone speaks English anyway - but really, I’m sure that the intls who get into and decide to go to UChicago will be/become quite capable at English They’re not very likely to go so far away from home just for college if they’re not going to work hard. Plus, if you’ve been to high school in Asia, you’ld know how intensive the environment is. Good preparation for college That being said, yes there are more intl. grad students than there are intl. undergrads. </p>
<p>Aaanyway YAY economics I’m interested in an econ major too! Or maths major with specialisation in econ., but that takes up a lot of credits (18 if I remember correctly)…</p>
<p>Honestly, I wasn’t trying to put down internationals or anything. I just wanted to gauge the rumors I’ve heard about their competitiveness at the U of C. And I don’t think it’s that far of a stretch to say that a native English speaker is likely to be better at English than someone who grew up speaking Chinese, Japanese, etc. because those languages have fundamental differences. That’s the only assumption I’ve made of some internationals.</p>
<p>And my parents did come from Asian countries to study in the US, and they can attest to the fact that even if you are the best and brightest from China, it still is hard to compete with American students in writing and such. It’s much easier in engineering than in areas that need lots of writing. Of course, I’m not saying that they won’t be brilliant at econ. Because I’m sure they are. I just wanted to know how hard it would be to compete with them.</p>
<p>Frankly, Maxxwell, your attitude is also exemplary. You’ve made no contribution to this conversation other than unnecessary put downs of others based on one or two posts.</p>
<p>I’m still not totally sure what you are getting at, but my suggestion is that you think less about competition from your schoolmates and more about what you yourself will be learning. It’s really not a race to the top.</p>
<p>They had to write the same essays as everyone else and were accepted. Their English skills are therefore typically of the same caliber as the other students here, so don’t count on any advantages. There was one international student in my HUM class the last two quarters who wrote absolutely smashing essays, despite English not being his first language; he was one of the few students who, if I remember correctly, got an A on one of his essays, an amazing feat considering the grading policy of that particular professor. (A direct quote from an evaluation of that class by another student: “In full recognition of the rigors and high standards of the University of Chicago, I also question the integrity of [the professor’s] grading. It is unnecessarily captious and hypercritical. A poor grade does not irk me if justifiable, but an unjustifiably poor grade is frustrating. You will only consider the grading fair if a C+ is your highest aspiration.”) So, take from that what you will.</p>
<p>these days, many international students, especially Asians, went to some sort of “international high school” where English is a language of instruction. They are drilled religiously on “WRITTEN” English. If anything they speak and write better English than the international graduate students who are coming out of local (foreign) universities where English is not widely spoken at all. Don’t count on the language advantages via a vis international students.</p>
<p>Alright, I’ll concede my point, whether that be an exception or the norm. I do know that they’re all brilliant.</p>
<p>But my real question was if foreign students really “dominate” the econ major at the U of C, as some rumors say. I’d like to know, even if I really should be focusing on learning and not competition, seeing as how grading at the U of C is done on a curve and there is possible grade deflation. The level of competition is a legitimate concern, IMO. So if anyone has any direct information on that, it would be very much appreciated. :)</p>
They’re not very likely to go so far away from home just for college if they’re not going to work hard. Plus, if you’ve been to high school in Asia, you’ld know how intensive the environment is. Good preparation for college 
That being said, yes there are more intl. grad students than there are intl. undergrads. </p>