<p>Another poster asked about what a "typical" first year schedule looks like and how much time a first-year should expect to be working. Before I begin to give sample schedules, let me point out that there is no such thing as "typical," particularly not at the University of Chicago! The estimates I provide are based on what my friends experienced and what course evaluations says.</p>
<p>Let's start with the basics.</p>
<p>Every incoming first year will take humanities core. The class meets three hours a week, about 20 students per class, and is co-taught by a teacher and a writing instructor. The writing instructor will do some writing-specific seminars and will be an extra pair of eyes and office hours for essay reading.</p>
<p>A typical student will probably spend 3-5 hours a week working on hum. Some students will blow it off (0 hours/week) and some will take it extremely seriously (8 hours/week). Some adore hum, some tolerate it. It will improve your writing, that's for sure.</p>
<p>If you're starting a language, it will probably be about 5 hours a week in class and 3-5 hours a week outside of class.</p>
<p>Pre-meds will probably take general chemistry or biology and might spend 10-14 hours a week on it (the lab component is time-consuming). It sounds like a lot, but when you realize that a full-time job is 35 hours/week, studying for gen chem doesn't come close. Also, not all of that time is spent studying-- much of it is spent doing labs.</p>
<p>Social sciences core is a big favorite. I found it a tad harder than hum because there's less direct hand-holding and the texts I read were theoretical, not literature or history. I spent 3-7 hours a week on sosc, more often 3 than 7.</p>
<p>Calculus is another big first-year class that students take to cover the math requirement or to pursue econ and science majors. I would think of it as another 3-5 hours/week class, though again, some students blow it off and others struggle. For students taking honors calculus, it's more like 10-15 hours a week of homework.</p>
<p>Same goes for physics. General physics is probably 5-10 hours a week of work, honors much more.</p>
<p>I think that mostly covers first-year classes, as all of these classes are sequences. Students take three or four classes at a time, and depending on the student's interests, he or she might start taking single electives first year or may save them for second year. I recommend that students check out evaluations.uchicago.edu before choosing classes to make sure that they are not signing up for four classes that are all very demanding.</p>