<p>I've heard/read around the web and my HS that once you're at UChicago that everyone is constantly studying? Is the workload really that tremendous?</p>
<p>I've even heard that "UChicago is where fun goes to die." UChicago seemed very appealing to me before I heard about all this.</p>
<p>Also, if I were to be Pre-med, how competitive is UChicago compared to schools like Penn, Duke, or Cornell?</p>
<p>this has been discussed many times at length on this forum. I would suggest searching some on your own in it, but below i've also posted a link to the first thread i saw that discussed it. (i would also highly suggest the frequently asked questions thread on the chicago forum).</p>
<p>As time goes on, I appreciate more and more the screening value of that slogan. If you don't get the joke, you don't even apply. People talk about the Chicago applicant pool being especially intelligent and self-selecting for intellectualism. I have some doubts about that, but there's no question that the Chicago applicant pool is self-selecting for getting the jokes on the t-shirts. A prospective student either thinks they are hilarious, or tosses the viewbook in the trash.</p>
<p>JHS knows me and my family without knowing me or my family. I was the kid who loved the humor and the sensibility, if not of that particular phrase, then of attending Chicago. Chicago tends to runs hot and cold with people, and it ran very hot with me. Nobody in my family besides me would be happy at Chicago, because my family members are doers and practitioners who get impatient when it comes to intellectual things but are nimble problem-solvers and fact-checkers. And I think it's fair to say that of all my family members, I am the happiest with my school in all aspects-- social, academic, bureaucratic, etc. </p>
<p>Thanks MBP for posting the link-- I encourage the OP to read it through.</p>
<p>As far as pre-med goes, it's competitive anywhere! There's no easy way to get into med school. I don't feel qualified to make comparison to other schools and I would not trust peers to make judgments on colleges they don't attend (unless they have a valid basis for their judgments, like a friend who is a current student) but at Chicago, I don't get the feeling that there are a lot of pre-meds on campus, so as a pre-med, I think it would be easy to find non pre-meds, so you wouldn't feel like you're competing against your peers for a common goal.</p>
<p>Question: what appealed to you about Chicago before you heard the slogan?</p>
<p>Wasn't there a post recently that said that Chicago's med school placement among pre-meds is horrible in comparison to like schools?</p>
<p>You can read this discussion: <a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-chicago/487221-undergraduate-acceptance-rate-into-medical-school.html%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-chicago/487221-undergraduate-acceptance-rate-into-medical-school.html</a></p>
<p>It points out that interpreting med school acceptance "success" is a very tricky business.</p>
<p>Let me add one bit of info relevant to med school admissions:</p>
<p>There seems to be some sort of myth bordering on urban legend that Chicago GPAs are lower. Even Idad, in his link above, refers to a 3.25 GPA, but in a different context. And some folks cite a dated, poorly sourced source from Gradeinflation.com, to make matters worse.</p>
<p>Well, to deal with real data, based on my own count from the commencement program last June, about 2/3 of last June's graduates graduated with honors. I leave it to the rest of you to put the rest of the puzzle together, but I will give you a hint: The average GPA must be quite a bit higher than 3.25. Put another way, the person with a 3.25 GPA struggling to get into Med schoo should be struggling, because they are somewhere down in the botton 1/3 or 1/4 (maybe lower?) of the U. Chicago GPA distribution.</p>
<p>The University of Chicago attracts a self-selecting pool of applicants. Fun doesn't die there, but, rather, a large portion of the student body views an intellectual approach to college life as being fun. If you're looking for a LOT of fun, check out the party-school rankings. :-)</p>
<p>DB sums it well.</p>
<p>Let me clarify, though, that partying does happen at UofC. I had the pleasure of living in Hyde park just south of 53rd a few years ago for a year. I saw the police called in more than once on my block to break up apartment parties that got too big - as in hundreds of students on the street...</p>
<p>The difference is that party night seems to be mostly Saturday night, not Thursday through Sunday, like it is at some other schools, and most of the parties seem to be smaller affairs, at least according to my alumna daughter. it is also true that at some parties you are as likely to find kids actually talking and debating one another, where the alcohol is light lube (i.e. these kids will walk home without a stumble...), rather than the other way around.</p>
<p>Ok, thanks a lot guys. That link did help.</p>
<p>and @unalove: Its location and the fact that it seemed more intellectual than other colleges of its class.</p>
<p>Machiavelli - I don't know what thread you're referring to, but from what I've seen (and I've posted about this before), if all you want is a top med school, going to ANY of the non-HYP elite schools might be a poor choice. UPenn has a arduous and somewhat cutthroat pre-med scene from what I've heard (coupled with a hit-or-miss pre-med advising office), Cornell is tough too, and Chicago has a great pre-med advising office, but also has a rigorous curriculum and (until recently) not as much grade inflation.</p>
<p>If you just want a top med school, it might make more sense to go to Big State U and maximize GPA, MCAT, etc. there. </p>
<p>Especially now though (with the stronger incoming classes), I think Chicago does just fine in comparison to its peers.</p>