<p>Hi everyone,</p>
<p>just wondering: is UChicago known more of a grade inflation or deflation school.</p>
<p>In my opinion, grade inflation and grade deflation are stupid terms to begin with. If you're talking about average GPA rising over time, then the U of C and every other school I know of has significant grade inflation. If you're talking about how difficult it is to get an A at the U of C versus at another, academically comparable college, then I would say that the University of Chicago is known for "grade deflation." It's not deflation at all, though. It's a misnomer, in my opinion. Chicago does not give away high grades easily, and by talking to friends at other schools, it seems as if UChicago students often have to work harder in their classes for the same--or lower--grades as students at other schools. That's another reason why comparing average GPAs isn't very valuable: average GPA doesn't factor in whether students at one school work harder as a whole than students at some other school, and it doesn't reflect challenge of workload.</p>
<p>Anyway, it's not really something you need to think much about. If you work hard, your grades will be fine. They may not be the best, but they'll be fine.</p>
<p>deflation.......</p>
<p>On my visit to UChicago, I saw a shirt that said, "UChicago... where the only thing that goes down on you is your GPA."</p>
<p>Just an observation :)</p>
<p>That's an old and popular shirt. </p>
<p>A newer one (not trying to start a fight...) is: "If I wanted an A I would have gone to Harvard." These are just meant to be humorous; the intention is not to insult another school...</p>
<p>Other t shirts and slogans (quotes may be slightly off):
Where fun comes to die
Where Hell does freeze over
The level of Hell that Dante forgot
a shirt that lists all the Noble prize winners
one that mentions unprotected sex that's too controversial to be allowed on a t shirt
others that I'm currently forgetting...</p>
<p>"That's all well and good in practice... but how does it work in theory?" is another one I like.</p>
<p>Hitchcock House is planning to sell one...</p>
<p>Front:</p>
<p>"Chicago students do it theoretically."</p>
<p>Back:</p>
<p>"Chicago students do it, theoretically."</p>
<p>Crew team sells a shirt that's a visual pun that involves the intergral of e to the x power. Yep, you know what I'm talking about.</p>
<p>Another dorm sells matching shirts: "University of Chicago: Where the Squirrels are Cuter than the Girls"/ "University of Chicago: Where the Squirrels are More Aggressive than the Guys"</p>
<p>The nobel prize one is sold by the bookstore, as is the "Supply/Demand" ("Supply" has a picture of a brain, "Demand" a picture of the world). Lame.</p>
<p>What can I say... we like our t-shirts. Whenever "Where Fun Comes to Die" shirts are being sold, I get about 10,000 e-mails from various listhosts....</p>
<p>hahaha I love these t-shirt slogans.</p>
<p>It would be nice if certain members of Hitchcock House would actually make the shirt...been on deck for quite some time.</p>
1 Like
<p>Just because it has to be said...</p>
<p>These t shirts are meant in jest. Students do have fun; they do have sex; they don't usually feel like they're in hell.</p>
<p>I did one of the four! I made t-shirts.</p>
<p>My new favorite shirt, sold by the Bondage Club (yeah, so apparently there is a Bondage Club...)
Front: University of Chicago
Back: Whip Me, Spank Me, Make me read "The Iliad"</p>
<p>I think we've scared off the OP. That's what you get for asking about grades! Hah!</p>
<p>Anyway my impression of most elite schools is that you can find yourself in a situation where you can get A's by doing the work and B's by barely lifting a finger. I know this is the case at Harvard, which, though it has MANY difficult, rigorous, challenging classes over which students are clawing their eyes out over, also has a host of classes for which the readings are, um, optional. I remember that IvyGate (a blog) exposed a student who was sending around the "official" guide to "gut" classes at Yale (essentially, a list of classes for which the input is minimal and output is high grades).</p>
<p>Chicago does not have gut classes. Every class, in other words, is legitimate, even if it's not overly challenging. I'm in two classes right now that I would hesitate to call challenging, but it's not as if I could coast through without doing the work and spending a lot of time on the readings and essays. And even with the work I am putting into it, I'm getting B-range grades, not A-range grades. And these classes are the wading pool at Chicago-- I am probably going to exhaust the "easy" classes by the end of this year.</p>
<p>Yeah, 2nd year sucks like that, Unalove, doesn't it?</p>
<p>Yeah, but at the same time, I'm still very kid in a candy shop about it all... with hum and sosc cores out of the way, it's like, I can actually choose my own classes, and there are lots and lots of options... some I'll never take, and some I really want to take.</p>
<p>I've spent lots of time with timeschedules in anticipation for 8th week registration... I still can't choose what I want to take! I have 12 classes I'm interested in, and I can't whittle down the list.</p>
<p>Then take all 12. I actually know someone who's taking 6. And more than likely, some of those classes will have to be deleted by time constraints, and the class times for the winter quarter are up at timeschedules.uchicago.edu. I would actually like to take more classes as well, but it seems that I'll be stuck with the same 3 I'm taking this quarter. It's unfortunate that some departments seem to like a certain time slot and will schedule 3/4 of the none-Core-ish classes in that time slot (e.g. Math, 10:30MWF), and, moreover, that some departments like the same time slot.</p>
<p>Un-uh. I'm staying with four, no sneakiness, no auditing, four it is.</p>
<p>(If you officially take more, you have to pay extra tuition).</p>
<p>A lot of classes are offered every year during one of the trimesters, so if I don't catch it this time, there's always next year.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Chicago does not have gut classes.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I disagree. Watch as I gut the core:</p>
<p>SOSC 14100-14200-14300. Mind
HUMA 16000-16100-16200. Media Aesthetics (keep in mind that almost all hum sequences are absurdly easy)
TAPS 10100. Drama: Embodiment and Transformation
Civ abroad (really easy to get an A for the whole sequence)
NTSC 10100-10200-10300-10400
MATH 13100-13200.</p>
<p>Add to this list a bunch of P/F electives, and a b.s. major (e.g. African and African-American Studies, Ancient Studies, Cinema and Media Studies, Comparative Human Development, Comparative Literature, Early Christian Literature, Environmental Studies, Gender Studies, Geographical Studies, HIPS, Interdisciplinary Studies in the Humanities, International Studies, Jewish Studies, Latin American Studies, Law, Letters, and Society, Medieval Studies, Psychology, Public Policy Studies, Religion and the Humanities, Religious Studies or Visual Arts) and you have a Chicago degree with a ~4.00</p>
<p>I know students struggling in all of those classes, minus Mind (but probably just because I don't know students well who are in it) and study abroad, which does tend to be very easy. It depends a huge amount on the professor and also the strengths and weaknesses of the particular student. I know some students in difficult drama classes with hard-ass professors, and I know students without math backgrounds who struggle in the 130s. </p>
<p>As for throwing out twenty majors--most of which are interdisciplinary--all you're really doing is showing off your own prejudice. I would never say that a certain major is easy, let alone that it's BS, unless I had actually experienced that major in full or had extensive reasoning why I believed that to be true. Have you taken classes in all of those majors? Have you taken upper-level courses or really interesting ones or the ones with the best or most difficult professors? Further, what makes a major BS? What makes one concentration inferior to others?</p>
<p>Corranged got here before me.</p>
<p>Cesare,</p>
<p>Some may argue that Mind and Media are the "easy" cores (not as much emphasis in the great books, more room for b.s., etc.) but I promise you they are no match for the "gut" classes at other institutions. As far as I'm concerned, all of the classes you've listed are legitimate, even if they don't fit your definition of a challenge. Mind and Media both require a good deal of reading and writing; the work is unavoidable.</p>
<p>I also don't understand how you have decided that all of those majors listed are "easy." Many require BA theses, and the faculty I know in some of those majors/minors are frightening (in a good way).</p>
<p>Like I mentioned earlier, I would not consider Core Bio to be a challenging class, but that doesn't mean that it's a joke. I still have to attend classes, take detailed notes, and do lab write-ups. I'm not getting the best grade ever (slightly above average, whatever that average gets curved to) for my perfect attendance and my neat notes. My impression a real gut class is that doing the work equals an A, while lifting a finger equals a B+.</p>