<p>I'm trying to decide whether or not to go to UChicago right now.. I just did the prospie overnight a day ago and am sort of having trouble coming to a conclusion. It seems like some people there are very very academically focused and don't really do much of anything but most of the others (the ones I was around at least) were very into partying.. a lot. Like out til 3 with an 8:30 class the next morning, frequently. I am not averse to partying as evidenced by my behavior at the alpha delt thing.. ;) but I don't want to have either lifestyle, do you find that there are enough people that fall somewhere in the middle? This wouldn't really be much of a problem since, I figure, it's college, there's all kinds of people there... But, the disproportionately high number of socially awkward smart people was making me wonder.. I don't know. I hope that didn't offend anyone but opinions are welcome. i'm a guy if that matters.</p>
<p>hey, i was just at the prospie night too. and i loved it for the most part, but i definitely agree with you. </p>
<p>i got placed into a house that I didn’t enjoy at all (very socially awkward people for the most part), but i contacted some kids i met earlier in the day and i went to both a shoreland party and the alpha delt party. </p>
<p>i definitely think chicago is whatever you make it. it’s a school for people who know the type of college experience they want. i was and still am kind of afraid that this school fosters amazing intellectual growth, but the level of social growth varies so much. it just doesn’t seem to be a focus by the school. </p>
<p>i loved the kids i met at shoreland though (and i’m not a huge drinker at all). they were outgoing, social, artsy/hipster, close knit, and house party type of kids. they really seemed to have a good control over their social life at chicago. and for the most party they seemed VERY happy despite the workload at times. it was actually the more socially awkward kids i talked to who didn’t seem to like chicago as much or were at odds with the school over certain things. </p>
<p>basically chicago kind of caters to whatever you want. i know personally that i want to have a good time and learn alot. so i think it’s just a combination of time management and a sense of direction or purpose. </p>
<p>i’m a girl, so i tended to talk to a few more girls than guys. but i met plenty of girls with gpas above 3.5, who party weekly, go to chicago every other week, and are involved in RSOs on campus. </p>
<p>so although I’m very nervous about next year, I definitely think prospie weekend made me want to go.</p>
<p>(It’s a beautiful spring day here in Chicago, 70s, daffodils blooming…everyone is outside.)</p>
<p>except for those of us who are inside translating 300 lines of German text, writing an 8 page art history paper, and reading 200 pages of history…</p>
<p>i have a question…</p>
<p>some people said the reading is about 200-250 pages a night. and then someone else said that the reading is about 200-250 pages a week. i know it depends on the courses, but who was more accurate?</p>
<p>thanks.</p>
<p>I have NEVER heard of 200-250 pages per night. However, I suppose if you took 4 of the most reading intensive courses offered at the school, you could have that much reading. </p>
<p>200-250 pages per week is about the amount of reading that a course like Hume, Sosc or Civ requires.</p>
<p>General word of advice: People at UChicago tend to exaggerate how much work they have.</p>
<p>alright thanks so much. that makes me feel a bit better. </p>
<p>do you have an approximation of how much you read every night?</p>
<p>i know it probably varies, so don’t feel obliged to answer.</p>
<p>i was just at the prospie overnight, and from the kids who I hung out with, they seemed to be able to have a good balance of social and academic life. they were actually alot of fun. of course, i was in the shoreland dorm, i’m not sure how much this reflects the entire student body though. </p>
<p>do you tend to work more on the weekdays or on the weekend?</p>
<p>The problem with readings is some are a breeze and some go as slow as molasses.
I had a more rigorous than usual SOSC sequence (by volume of reading), but always could blow through the 200-300 pages of assigned weekly reading in 6-8 hours on a Sunday. So besides four 10 page papers a quarter (about one every three weeks), I found getting an A each term not to be terribly taxing. </p>
<p>In contrast, there were 25 page journal articles in econ that could easily lead to a whole day of start and stop analysis while trying to figure out the underlying math on scratch paper. Likewise, I know humanities and soft social science people who faced the same problem, particularly in the close reading driven courses. Word to the wise: avoid any course that has close reading in its description unless you want a doctorate in obscurity studies, or naturally enjoy debating the degree of implicit textual irony achieved by utilizing the Harvard comma in conjunction with colloquial vulgarities
blah blah blah.<br>
I would say though that if you are a hardcore qualitative person, and at some point hit four upper division courses in your field at a time, then you will be looking at 600-1000pages a week. Owing to the fact that you will need to leave a lot of time for papers, this can be quite depressing. </p>
<p>Personally, I would encourage you NOT to blow through the core fast, but distribute it out so that there is at least something to break up the monotony of your field. As much as a kind of loathed taking an art elective and a biology topics course as a senior from a personal interest perspective, they were a nice logistical foil to 3 econ or math courses per term, all of which were assessed via problem sets.</p>
<p>The amount of reading you have depends on what classes you take. Some undergrads also sign up for grad classes which assign a lot of reading regularly.</p>
<p>Like any college, students at the University of Chicago are on a bell curve when it comes to just about anything. Take it that compared to 18-22 year olds nationwide, these ones are going to be skewed towards the “bookish” and the “nerdy,” but those are not terms I would use to describe every student here.</p>
<p>There are also a few superb secrets to the University of Chicago, including:
- If you come in with no AP credits, you can talk 3 courses half the time and 4 courses half the time and graduate on time. Most students here take 4 courses most of the time even though they could take 3 courses most the time.
- Some courses here are pretty easy. Some courses here are pretty hard. Some might assign 30 pages a week that are painful. Some might assign 100 pages a week that are easy. It’s always fun to play misery poker with things like page numbers, but it’s not always descriptive of the kind of work or the difficulty of the work. I definitely recommend taking a variety of courses with a variety of difficulty levels at any given time-- it makes no sense to overburden yourself!
- I wonder if some posters, upon meeting me in real life, would call me “socially awkward.” I really don’t think it’s fair to judge somebody based on whether or not they make themselves appear on a Thursday night, how they dress (or how they refuse to dress) to get a sense of how you might fit in with them.</p>
<p>unalove, what I meant about social awkwardness didn’t really fall under any of those criteria–i don’t really care how people dress, or if they show up to a party or not–was that there were some people who just would not… like talk. Did not seem to be able to function in terms of talking to people. I’m not really sure how to describe this beyond that, it was sort of an intangible aura. I realize many people at U of C are “weird”… I also realize that it’s the good kind of weird in most cases.</p>
<p>Admittedly I’m judging people based on this first impression, but like I said, undefinable aura 
I think there are probably other people who know what I mean… maybe they could give a better description.</p>
<p>uchicagoalum, i like your suggestion of spreading out the core.</p>
<p>Just a few things:</p>
<p>Prospective nights DEFINITELY sealed the deal (although the Alpha Delt party was… eh). Everyone there was so genuine and friendly. I was fortunate not to run into any stereotypes (okay, maybe just one) and even though I hate the Shoreland, I found the people to be as ilovepeople712 described them: “they were outgoing, social, artsy/hipster, close knit, and house party type of kids. they really seemed to have a good control over their social life at chicago. and for the most party they seemed VERY happy despite the workload at times.” Thankfully the people in Shoreland will be moving to</p>
<p>u chicago rules. wooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo woo.</p>
<p>
Nor have I. However, I’d say I have about 100 pages a night thanks to exactly two classes. (I usually read 200-300 pages on the weekend, though.) Art history classes probably assign the most reading.</p>
<p>
Some Hum and Sosc classes are incredibly lightweight. Language and the Human, for example, required maybe 30-50 pages of easy reading a week, reading which was essentially optional. In Mind we are usually assigned fewer than 50 pages a week (this week we’ve got 16), but we do write weekly response papers. Others can be extremely taxing. Protip: read the course evaluations!</p>
<p>Thanks for the interesting prospie discussion. We (me and D) will be there this week (23rd & 24th) and now we can focus our questions on the real stuff. By the way, the course evaluations are available for anyone or just enrolled students? Also, any thoughts on the level of UChic students’ parents’ anxiety (justified or not)?</p>
<p>From a parent’s point of view, the University does an entire week of orientation which really got S1 off to a good start. As everyone here mentioned it has to do with the courses and instructors. S1 thought his bio lab for non-majors was far more demanding than his o-chem labs (which he took before bio) when he was doing the pre-med thing (which he abandoned once he actually shadowed some physicians for a month and had many long talks with 3 relatives who are MDs). In essence it is difficult to predict. He has not only survived, but thrived. He has an active social life, a delightful girlfriend, and an off-campus apartment he really enjoys.</p>
<p>There are many forms of parent anxiety, but a few I find rather troubling:</p>
<ol>
<li> “Internationally elite university X costs a lot compared to Big State University Y, which has given Sally a major merit scholarship. Will my child really land a salary to justify sticker price?” </li>
</ol>
<p>Absolutely not. There is no way you can validate the cost of an elite UG in the US based on its career ROI. The facilities, selection filter on students, better academics, social prestige, and so forth are what you are mostly paying for. In contrast, professional schools, the best of which are certainly attainable via a heavily subsidized, public course of undergraduate study, have become the new financial kingmakers. That is, it’s fair to ask if an MBA or JD from school Z is worth the money, since career advancement is the point of the degree to begin with. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, there are plenty of misguided parents who believe because they spend 200K+ over four years, their child is entitled to a six figure salary or thereabouts upon graduation. The bubble era finance and consulting salaries that got splashed around in the NYT and WSJ prior to the collapse heightened this to ridiculous levels (since a very small fraction of graduates did take home 100K+ salaries as analysts, and got front page coverage during bonus season). </p>
<p>More realistically, 50-70 K total is very strong for the private sector companies that come to Chicago (i.e. the glitzy ones), and not at all guaranteed as a liberal arts major with only internship experience. There are plenty of people who take generic corporate, public sector, or non-profit roles paying much less. Consequently, if this strikes you as a raw deal, and you could care less about footing the bill for fancier gyms, high brow dinner tables discussions about Supreme Court nominees, or cocktail party cache, then be fair to your kid and tell them they need to look elsewhere. Don’t let four years pass and then harangue them about their professional “mediocrity.” The attendant animosity will likely become mutual. </p>
<ol>
<li> “When I went to College, it was about the bigger experience. The sports, the parties, meeting new people, living on your own. Academics were mainly just something you had to do to get your degree. What is with this place? Why are the students so into this stuff?</li>
</ol>
<p>There are far worse things than an intellectually curious child. For the most part, let their bookish element flourish unless you see obvious indicators that it is interfering with their health or welfare. Don’t berate them on a Sunday about having stayed in on Saturday night to work on a paper. It really is necessary or even desirable sometimes. Still, do ask about their new friends, what they have seen in the city, etc. </p>
<ol>
<li> “My kid does not know what he wants to major in. He has spent the first two years all over board. I know his grades are OK, but Johnnie isn’t wining any awards like he did in high school. Is something wrong?”</li>
</ol>
<p>First, people in the College tend to see their academic plans evolve several times. So long as you kid is not telling you, “I have no clue what I am doing,” or, “I cannot find anything I like to study,” for very prolonged periods of time, do not worry too much. It normally works itself out. </p>
<p>Second, understand that the grading is just plain harder than what most high schools use (even well known preparatory institutions). There is an implicit or explicit curve to every course, because professors need to be able to rank students for graduate admissions and create a culture that rewards good work. UChicago, with rare exceptions, does not ascribe to the ‘A’ for effort philosophy. </p>
<ol>
<li> “Financially, we don’t really need Sally to work over the summer. She has an unpaid internship in DC, but why can’t she just work at the mall and at least get something for it? Won’t employers recognize she goes to UChicago?”</li>
</ol>
<p>This is horrifically pennywise and pound foolish. Internships matter. A lot. Certainly for employers, and also for many graduate programs (MPP’s, MD’s, MBA’s…). If you child needs to clock 40 hours at the GAP to make ends meet, then there is nothing wrong with that. But she should still try to tack on 10-15 with an organization that can offer her resume worthy experience. I have seen really top notch students and all around great personalities get to graduation with no clear exit options on account of having spent their summer doing only hourly work, or worse, nothing at all. The converse is that it is not acceptable for your kid to tell you they are going to spend the summer reading, at the beach house, traveling in Europe, etc.</p>
<p>S1 could have attended the state flagship university, a really fine school, for far less money. But he, and his parents, believed that the education one gets at the University is second to none. (Rightly or wrongly, we do not feel that way about most of the other so-called elite schools.) We don’t care one wit if it leads to a high paying job, what we are hoping is that it makes his life richer and filled with the wonderment enjoyed by the truly educated.</p>
<p>My S1 (a first year) also recommends spreading out the Core over an extended period. He has loved his HUM sequence this year and paired it with some very difficult courses in his major fields of study. This seems to have been a good balance of p-set vs. reading and philosophising. No complaints about the amount of reading AT ALL. </p>
<p>He plans to do this with SOSC next year and Civ the year after that, though he tells me there is an awesome Fine Arts class a friend took this year that meets only in the fall, and some Bio Topics classes that interest him which meet only once a year. In those cases, he’ll work other things around getting those classes.</p>
<p>He talked to upper div folks about who to take, read the course evals and sat in on several courses during first week to get an idea if he’d like it. He also found the department advisors (not in every major ) VERY helpful in guiding him to courses and profs who would help him reach his goals.</p>
<p>it is slowly hitting me that my summers will be non-existent for the next 4 years… damn resume…</p>