<p>Anyone can enlighten me?</p>
<p>I don't understand a single word on the course catalog. It is just... overwhelmingly sophisticated.</p>
<p>If you’re looking for the Core in a snapshot, start here:</p>
<p><a href=“http://collegecatalog.uchicago.edu/pdf_09/DegWksht.pdf[/url]”>http://collegecatalog.uchicago.edu/pdf_09/DegWksht.pdf</a></p>
<p>From there, I would start looking at listing for divisions:
[Courses</a> & Programs of Study](<a href=“http://collegecatalog.uchicago.edu/programs/index.shtml]Courses”>http://collegecatalog.uchicago.edu/programs/index.shtml)</p>
<p>Keep in mind that the course catalog doesn’t reflect all of the courses offered at any given time. </p>
<p>It might also be helpful to visit individual departmental websites.</p>
<p>I am a swimmer and a ESL whose first language isn’t English. Can I just do the swimming exam and an exam in my first language and complete the Language and PE requirement?</p>
<p>If I want to do pre-med at Chicago, does that substantially reduce my workload? What if I use all of my IB credits except Calculus, Biology and Chemistry, and spend a lot of time focusing on these three subjects?</p>
<p>I am just trying to make pre-med at Chicago doable for me. I think it’s certainly doable. Of course, I’m still waiting for other universities.</p>
<p>A few words will answer these questions:</p>
<p>1) O-Week
2) Your advisor.</p>
<p>I don’t really know the answers.</p>
<p>I can understand why you might want to know how much these requirements will affect you before committing to enroll.</p>
<p>As far as I understand it, there’s no rule against taking the competency exam in your first language, as long as it’s a language in which a competency exam is offered. (“Neither courses nor competency tests are offered in the following languages:
Cantonese, Dutch, Romanian, Swedish, Tagalog, Thai, and Vietnamese.”) If there was high level IB test in your language, and you took it and got a high score, that would work, too. You could call the Dean of the College’s office to ask about the specifics of this.</p>
<p>Phys ed: It’s not just swimming. You also have to take a five-minute assessment test, and depending on what it shows you may have to take a quarter or two of phys ed classes. That is in addition to your other courses. As an athlete, you may have no trouble testing out of phys ed, but I think even some athletes have flexibility issues. (I assume you will have no trouble passing the swim test, which requires you to swim a pretty short distance without having to be rescued.) In any event, this is NOT a reason to worry. I have never heard anything from anybody about the phys ed classes other than “it’s fun” and “I should do more of these”, and I’m pretty sure it’s graded pass/fail.</p>
<p>S1 was able to easily pass the phys ed and swim test though he played no high school sports. He did have two black belts and was very flexible.</p>
<p>S1 passed the swim test by backfloating all four laps.</p>
<p>^ lol</p>
<p>10chars</p>
<p>Darned near had hypothermia by the time he finished, too. He said he had no idea how long he was in the water. He was just going to make sure he didn’t have to take the swim class!</p>