Hi, I am a high school sophomore and a prospective student for the University of Chicago. Yesterday I went on a tour of the school, I loved it but I forgot to ask the question “How stressful is the University of Chicago and how heavy is the workload?”
It can be pretty stressful if you let it and the workload is pretty heavy for most people. You can very deliberately choose classes to make it easier, but in general people have a lot of work and getting good grades is hard.
Do you see much ritalin abuse or similar focus-enhancing drugs?
I don’t. As far as I know, none of my friends do. But there’s a few of them are out there, there is one in my house.
I will say I knew more people in high school who abused them than than in college.
The workload can be very heavy (between 40-80 hours a week, depending on major and classes), but I don’t find it stressful. This is mostly because the work is quite interesting (which is why students often elect to take hard classes), and most of the times if you find something difficult/overwhelming, you are not alone- the rest of the class thinks the same thing. I don’t know anyone here who uses focus-enhancing drugs, but there are likely some people who do.
Chicago has ALWAYS been and still is a VERY rigorous college. It has the tongue-in-cheek reputation as the “school where fun went to die”.[ this slogan was created by Chicago students, so that does say something both about how hard Chicago is and the sense of humor of the students]
The students who THRIVE there are those who are REALLY smart and who LOVE TO LEARN.
If that does NOT describe you, then you should not apply.