<p>Sigh, I finished my first at UofC and frankly, I don't really feel "into" it. It has nothing to do with the faculty or the students (both of whom are awesome), but rather, I just don't feel like I am doing what I want to do at UofC. I feel incredibly out of place. I am looking to transfer next year into another university.</p>
<p>During my senior year at high school, I choose UofC over Berkeley but now I regret it immensely...Is there any hope of a transfer to Cal? I know OOS transfers to Berkeley are extremely difficult but is there still a chance? My GPA is not too great, a not-so-high 3.3. However, I did do some research at the physics lab and can probably get a rec from my mentor. I am also trying to apply as a transfer to CMU. Do I have a shot or should I just grin and bear my current situation?</p>
<p>Hmm…I’m thinking of doing the opposite, transferring out of Berkeley to some place like Chicago. Why do you feel out of place? What do you feel limited at Chicago?</p>
<p>I don’t think you’re OOS…you’re still a California resident regardless of where you’re going to college, I believe. Sure Cal gives priority for students transferring from state schools (namely the CCs and CSU systems) but it can’t hurt to try.</p>
<p>You might want to cross-post on the Transfers board…you had about 100 views before you received any replies. Sorry I wasn’t much help; good luck in transferring!</p>
<p>By that, do you mean engineering? From the context, it sounds plausible, but maybe you mean something else entirely.</p>
<p>But if not, I sympathize. My idea of myself and of the world has changed dramatically since I applied to college many moons ago, and I’m sure it’s still going to change as I get older.</p>
<p>Two things:</p>
<p>1) Kudos on your honesty to yourself. I don’t have the right answer for you, you might not have the right answer for you, but I admire your wisdom and your bravery to look at a situation and see that something could be improved. But if college is not worth the financial and/or emotional pricetag, then it’s definitely worth reconsidering.</p>
<p>2) A 3.3 is not a low GPA in any context! You’re a B+ student at a rigorous institution, standing at about the halfway point of an academically outstanding class. Your high school and college transcript, along with your research, will be respected at many institutions.</p>
<p>My feeling out of place at UofC has nothing to do with the party scene (I never attend any parties at all–I prefer to dwell in equations and such.) However, it does stem from a couple of major factors: (1) weather, (2) humanities orientation.</p>
<p>I am a native Californian. The only exposure to snow I had was during a visit to Lake Tahoe and even there, the snow seemed somewhat warm compared to Chicago’s blizzards. I thought I could bear the UChicago cold but it really makes me feel miserable; winter classes are especially difficult. Anyone else feel this way?</p>
<p>More importantly, there is a huge bias towards humanities at UofC. I respect the humanities and literature but when I came here, I felt like the entire university was geared towards analyzing literature. Honestly, I’ve completely BS’d a few essays and have gotten As in them. Other times, I try extremely hard and write what I think is a great essay which ends up getting a B. Does this happen to anyone else? Anyway, it reminds of this xkcd comic: [xkcd</a> - A Webcomic - Impostor](<a href=“http://xkcd.com/451/]xkcd”>xkcd: Impostor)</p>
<p>I am a science-oriented guy. I have pretty good grades in science classes but the humanities and philosophy classes bore me to tears. Why is there such a focus on the subject anyway? From my experience, you can get away with BSing quite easily. Science, on the other hand, has no in-betweens and it’s difficult to get away with BSing in a science class.</p>
<p>At Berkeley or CMU, I hope to seek refuge from this literary onslaught. </p>
<p>Edit: I realized that I might have been harsh with my words and I apologize if I came off as offensive to anyone. These are just my personal sentiments.</p>
<p>On the bright side, you’ve slugged through hum (I hesitate to ask what sequence), and you have sosc and civ to go. If you take Mind or what I think is now called Social Science Inquiry for sosc, you might enjoy the approach more. Less “fluffy,” more science and math-oriented.</p>
<p>Civ is not like hum or sosc. Some sequences are literature-based, but they are not literary analysis in the same way. You’re not threading psychoanalysis and postcolonial theory through them. They are more about seeing literature as part of a civilization.</p>
<p>So that (might) be the bright side. And while you have taken two (or three?) literature based classes already, you only have really two (or zero, depending on how you feel about civ) more to go. These requirements might be annoying and painful, but consider that MIT has more of a humanities and social sciences requirement, so even they’re not all science, all the time.</p>
<p>The first winter is usually the hardest for newcomers. It gets easier once you know what to expect.</p>
<p>Basically, if you decide to stay at Chicago, I think you’ll be happier in the year and years to come.</p>
<p>If you’ve already taken HUM and SOSC, then wouldn’t you already have this out of the way? SOSC isn’t as bad as HUM, observed from a scientist’s viewpoint. There are some poor SOSC teachers that treat it like HUM (and disrespect any kind of scientific analysis you give), which is completely inappropriate, but once you find a good teacher, I think you’ll be fine. CIV isn’t close to HUM at all, as unalove explained.</p>
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<p>No no no. I don’t know about SS inquiry, but I know that Mind is a joke of a class. Give them a truly scientific critique, and they’ll give you hell for it. Some of the papers they assign are truly scientifically flawed, and if you point this out in your weekly papers, they’ll tell you that that’s not the point. So you’re supposed to just accept bad science as an axiom for your analysis? That’s not good at all! I switched from Mind to Self after a quarter it was so bad.</p>
<p>I do agree with unalove, though, in that you’ll probably be happier in the years to come. Once you get HUM done and find a good SOSC teacher (you might want to talk to a few of them to see how they work), I think that you will have much more freedom in sticking with just science, if that’s what you want.</p>
<p>Positron - You’re certainly not alone in your feelings about the winters at U of C. Check the recent “Compare U of C to Swarthmore” thread for many more posts about the effect of the tough winters on Chicago students. </p>
<p>I hail from the mid-Atlantic, and I thought I’d be prepared for the Chicago winters. I was wrong. I think this varies from person to person of course, and some are just equipped to deal with the tough winters more than others. A lot of my friends would see the subzero forecasts and gusting winds and just shrug. For me, the winters were definitely tougher to deal with on a yearly basis. </p>
<p>As I’ve mentioned before, that’s why I think Chicago should increase the level of “cheer” during the winter quarter. Have lots of events and winter-based activities (more than just kuviagunsrk or whatever it’s called), free hot chocolate nights, fireside chats with great speakers, big movie nights, coupled with a reduced course load or option to take classes pass fail. Winters can be quite tough, and I think more emphasis should be placed on improving the mood during the winter quarter. </p>
<p>(I’d also be in favor of maybe like a 4 or 5 day mid-quarter break, which would encourage students to travel to warmer pastures, if only for a bit. Heck, during some days at Chicago, places like NYC and Philly seem positively tropical.)</p>
<p>Additional note: I think many are surprised by the bite the Chicago winters possess. Certainly when I was at U of C, it added to the, as I’ve mentioned before, “grittiness” of the school.</p>
<p>I doubt that you’ll get much relief from the winter weather at CMU. It might not be as bad as Chicago, but it still snows and blows in Pittsburgh. In contrast to most people, I love to see how extreme the weather can be. I live in an area of Ohio with weather that’s pretty much identical to that of Chicago, and I was really happy this past January when we had a day where the high temperature was 0°F. That stuff a) makes it WAY more fun to complain about the weather, and b) gives you more variety to your experience.</p>
<p>I agree with the people who say that the worst is over for you. After your first year, you start taking more courses that you enjoy, so I wouldn’t give up on UChicago’s core just yet.</p>