<p>Would a 4-year Masters in Chemistry AND a minor in both Mathematics and Philosophy be doable? I’m assuming all my electives would be in Philosophy, and all but one of the classes needed for Mathematics are covered as part of the chem requirements.</p>
<p>I haven’t attended Dartmouth or Penn and have few friends who go to either, but I would say the type of learning is probably, at least, a lot different. Chicago is very theoretical and, for the most part, people like going through the core. I.e. people enjoy learning things outside of their field. I have a couple of math / physics friends who are also very passionate about art, for instance.</p>
<p>Yes, that is very doable…you won’t even need to take all philosphy electives to do it. But please, don’t stress about majors before you even come here. You might get here and realize you don’t love chemistry as much as you thought you did.</p>
<p>I’ll keep my mind open, but thanks!</p>
<p>@Calexico: I had this huge long thing written out for you and then I got logged out. Here’s the short version: A lot of the stress involving academics at UChi comes, I think, from the quarter system smushing so much into so little time, while insisting upon the same (or higher) level of intellectual rigor as peer institutions that are on a semester system. It’s rough. You get used to it. And yes, I think students at UChi enjoy learning stuff more than students at other institutions. It’s a pretty indelible part of the culture here, and if you don’t enjoy learning, you’ll be unhappy.</p>
<p>@5thEagle: I would caution you against choosing to do so many majors/minors right out of the gate. I originally had a double major, but I realized it would eat up so much of my time that I wanted to spend on other kinds of classes. You would have no real space in your schedule to deviate even slightly or experiment with classes in which you have an unrelated interest. This is one of the major reasons I decided on a linguistics minor instead of a double-major, so I could continue to take anthropology/sociology classes while also having a focused area of study.</p>
<p>“Chicago is very theoretical and, for the most part, people like going through the core. I.e. people enjoy learning things outside of their field. I have a couple of math / physics friends who are also very passionate about art, for instance.” -CS</p>
<p>This is a very good point. My older sister, who also attended UChicago, always knew she wanted to become a doctor. However, she took an amazing art history course as part of her core requirement and got hooked. She spent a year to get a masters degree in Italian Renaissance art at UChicago and then went off to med school. </p>
<p>She’s the medical director at the medical center where she works now but still travels to Italy on her time off to pursue her interests in the field. She is currently weighing the possibility of teaching a class in art history at the local college. This to me, is what the core is all about.</p>
<p>Another question about professors (although this might be slightly redundant) – do you guys find yourselves having to fight through masses of grad students to gain access to your professors? Specifically in Classics/Philosophy/English/Linguistics (or any of the humanities)? I’m weighing LAC vs. somewhere like UChicago, and my mother is encouraging me to stay away from universities because she thinks access to professors will be a challenge. I guess I’m specifically worried about grad students in smaller depts taking up all of the faculty’s time…</p>
<p>No, not at all. I mean, there are some really famous professors who teach classes of 100 students (think JRR Tolkien’s class) where it might be hard to schedule regular office hours with your professor; but that is definitely the exception. Especially in the areas of concentration you mentioned, most of these classes have under 20 students (and, for the most part, professors only teach one class at a time). And, I can say, I have never been denied an appointment with a professor when I couldn’t make their regularly scheduled office hours (and I’ve taken classes with some rather popular ones…).</p>
<p>I haven’t had difficulty getting a chance to speak with my professors at all! Undergraduate education is really valued by UChicago, I feel, so profs are always available. They probably have separate office hours for undergrad/grad students anyway.</p>
<p>I have also never had any problems scheduling time outside of class to talk to a professor. The one time I had an issue was when I could only meet on Wednesday afternoons and my professor actually wasn’t on campus on Wednesdays. I needed help with a paper. However, we met after class over the next few sessions for about 5-10 minutes each, and also talked a lot over email before the paper was due. I think that’s your worst case scenario.</p>
<p>Hi esopha! A couple of practical questions from the parent of an incoming first year:</p>
<p>1) What’s the best/preferred way to do banking?</p>
<p>2) Where the heck does one buy toiletries, school supplies, that kind of stuff? Is it mile or so round trip walk from South Campus to shops on 55th or 53rd Street that it appears to be?</p>
<p>Any other practical tips would be very helpful; thanks in advance.</p>
<p>1) What’s the best/preferred way to do banking?</p>
<p>Well, there are several banks nearby! Citibank is right on campus next to the bio buildings, and I think Bank of America has a place nearby. An exboyfriend used it, though he had to make a trip of it, so maybe that’s not super convenient. There’s also Hyde Park Bank, which I’ve heard good things about.</p>
<p>Now, I personally use Maroon Financial, which is the on campus student credit union. They’re great. Only a $5 overdraft fee when you mess up terribly, and they’re very good with communication. They also do debit/credit cards, loans, etc. I only have shining things to say about them.</p>
<p>2) Where the heck does one buy toiletries, school supplies, that kind of stuff? Is it mile or so round trip walk from South Campus to shops on 55th or 53rd Street that it appears to be?</p>
<p>Yeah, it’s a long walk. There’s a small shop in the basement of South Campus, I believe, so you could probably buy toiletries there. School supplies can be bought in the school bookstore, which is a Barnes and Noble. It’s conveniently right next to the Citibank I was talking about.</p>
<p>South Campus is, unfortunately, pretty far away, and I live on the other side of the Midway, so I can’t really talk about things other than SC and the UofC Press… maybe someone else will have some suggestions?</p>
<p>Thanks espohas for your timely response. We were pretty surprised when we visited last week to see how few retail services there are near campus. I picked up a Hyde Park Chamber of Commerce booklet in the admin office and was surprised to see how minimal services are. Odd really, this 15,000+ person hub with so little around it.</p>
<p>With the housing system, can you switch dorms after your first year to another dorm? I paid my deposit late and probably won’t get into snell-hitchcock so I wanna see if I have a chance of living there in my second year.</p>
<p>Hey, im on my Phone and unable to recopy the question here, sorry.
I asked this question a few days ago and noone answered, can you please help?</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-chicago/1328136-concerts-student-life-uc.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-chicago/1328136-concerts-student-life-uc.html</a></p>
<p>Thank you</p>
<p>“With the housing system, can you switch dorms after your first year to another dorm?”</p>
<p>Yes.</p>