<p>Is UChicago a good place for a student who is strong in math/science but is a slow reader and doesn't love writing? I know that for students who are not strong in math there are easier Core classes in that area, but are there easier humanities Core classes for the reverse type of student? If not, will it be overwhelming for this type of student?</p>
<p>If you don’t like to read/write, you’re going to want to do the following.</p>
<p>For hum requirement, take media aesthetics. Rather than read a bunch of authors and write essays on them, you analyze works of visual or music art. It’s reputed to be the ‘easy’ hum sequence. </p>
<p>For sosc, you’re going to want to take social science inquiry. The first quarter is basically your standard read and write, but the 2nd and 3rd are basically a stats course on linear regression in Stata, where you take a bunch of publicly available data and write a research paper. I really, really liked it - actually, the paper I turned in for the final quarter is going to be published in a business journal (I wrote it as part of research for an accounting professor at Booth, but much of what I learned came from this sosc sequence).</p>
<p>For civ, yeah you basically have to read/write your way through it.</p>
<p>So best case scenario, you’re going to have 3 read/write classes in civ, 1 from the first quarter of sosc, and two quarters of hum which are read/write ‘lite’.</p>
<p>Certainly feasible, we all take classes in areas we’re not strong at as part of the core, and it’s not like everyone enjoys reading/writing. Read through the course reviews when you get access to them and try to find an instructor who assigns less reading than average, but honestly don’t worry about it. TBH, there’s always the choice to skim/skip the reading you’re not writing an essay on and just not participate that much in class discussion - enough students diligently read the text that it’s not too noticeable if you don’t speak up a couple lectures. You’ll be fine, don’t worry about it.</p>
<p>I think LearningLover answered the OP’s question really well . . . as a matter of “do what I do, not what I say.” </p>
<p>As a math major alumni myself who wasn’t so psyched about the humanities/social science core when I entered the university:</p>
<p>It’s important to realize that College is about personal growth. Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses, and it’s important to focus on your weaknesses as well as strengths. Not only that, the humanities and social science core is structured to be interesting, novel, and analytically rigorous to all students. Actually, given their analytical ability, math majors can perform really well in a lot of the courses.</p>
<p>There’s always the opportunity to take the watered-down, easy core classes, but they’re not nearly as fun or challenging. They won’t contribute to your intellectual development, and depending on the professor, they might actually have harder grading standards. I was dreading HUM/SOSC when I first entered the college, but ended up taking Greek Thought & Literature and Power, Identity, & Resistance for my Core classes. They were wonderfully enlightening and interesting, and I got As nearly all quarters, despite the fact that I was simultaneously taking the very time-consuming Honors Analysis in the math department.</p>
<p>Actually, I took a single quarter of the watered-down Mind (SOSC) course when I was trying to escape my SOSC requirements by taking something a bit less social science-y. But after that quarter, I realized that it would be much more fulfilling to take a more orthodox SOSC class, so I switched into Power, where I read intriguing philosophical writings from giants like Marx, Durkheim, Adam Smith, Kant, and Hegel. In fact, I regret taking that one quarter of Mind, as it prevented me from taking the last quarter of Power, where I could’ve read writings from Arendt and Nietzsche (which I did on my own personal time after graduation, actually).</p>
<p>In conclusion, you can take watered-down HUM/SOSC courses for your Core. But you really shouldn’t. They won’t contribute to your intellectual foundations, and you might actually find traditional Core classes closer to your mathematical mindset, given their analytical focus.</p>
<p>@phuriku @learninglover What about for students who are good at social sciences/humanities but are absolutely horrible in maths/sciences? What are some courses I should look into if that’s my case?</p>
@phuriku thanks for the info! do you know which HUM/SOSC courses would qualify as “watered-down”? all the course descriptions sound quite interesting, so how would one go about figuring out the actual quality of each course?