Is UChicago a good fit for me?

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Chicago ✅
1

<p>I visited UChicago this year during spring break, so I wasn't able to talk to students, overnight in a dorm, eat in a dining hall, etc. I did like the campus, and I've heard that the students are 'quirky' (I am all for the quirky), but I do have some reservations that I'd like to get ironed out before I make any serious decisions. So, here's a little bit about me!</p>

<p>First - the obligatory academic stats that no one really cares about:
Rising senior
GPA: 4.5-something weighted, 4.0 unweighted
ACT: 36
SAT: 2310 (740 CR, 770 M, 800 W)
My school only offers two AP courses, but I'm planning on taking both (already taken one) and I'm taking every honors course I can get my grubby little hands on.</p>

<p>Now on to the more interesting stuff!
My academic style: I favor a liberal arts environment. In terms of required classes, I fall somewhere in the middle - I don't want complete free reign over which courses to take (ie, Brown), but I don't want complete rigidity (as in, "everyone must take these specific courses whether you like it or not"), either. I'm more of a distribution-requirement sort of girl. I don't love school itself, but I do love learning. I love plunging myself into an interesting, challenging course and discussing it until my head explodes. I like a creative class that gets me excited, with work that is conducive to my learning; I do not like "busywork". I need stimulation. I cannot be babied. When I am re-learning things I already know, I get bored. Newness is key!
My academic focus: I plan on a career in neuroscience, so naturally the sciences are going to be my main focus. However, I also adore the humanities - chiefly literature, philosophy, and language - although I'm a little less keen on social sciences. That doesn't mean I dislike them. I just don't like them quite as much.
My social style: My idea of a fun time is not an alcohol binge at a frat party. My idea of a fun time is getting together with some close friends, seeing a movie, going out for some coffee afterwards, and maybe perusing at a cozy little bookstore. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy partying occasionally, but definitely in moderation. Possible my biggest fear about going to college is making a new circle of friends. I'm not an antisocial person, and once I have a circle of friends I'm a lot of fun to be around, but I do have a bit of a problem with 'putting myself out there' and taking the first step to actually make new friends. So it would be good for me if the college I attended were full of friendly, adventurous, outgoing people willing to grab me and adopt me as one of their own!</p>

<p>So, what am I most iffy about concerning UChicago? I'd have to say the Core. It's not because I'm afraid of expanding my interests. My interests are plenty broad. I definitely plan on having a well-rounded curriculum. I'm just concerned about 1) the core taking up too much of my time and keeping me away from my more career-oriented classes, which are a first priority, and 2) the science core classes being too easy, since I hate feeling like time is being wasted on boring classes. All the information that I've gathered about the Core has been in bits and pieces, so if someone could post a bit of an expose on the Core - exactly what the Core is, what's required, what's not, what degree of flexibility there is, how AP credits are figured in, etc, that would be lovely.</p>

<p>I also love - love love LOVE - sleeping, and the way I keep hearing about how challenging and academic UChicago is, I wonder if I'll be forced to sacrifice it. Don't get me wrong, I love learning. But having a life is important, too.</p>

<p>So, based on all this: do you think UChicago would be good for me?</p>

2

<p>
[quote]
so naturally the sciences are going to be my main focus. However, I also adore the humanities - chiefly literature, philosophy, and language - although I'm a little less keen on social sciences. That doesn't mean I dislike them. I just don't like them quite as much.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>I think I stopped reading just about there and went, "Yup, she sounds like one of us."</p>

<p>To do a call-and-response to your entire post.</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Kudos on your great grades and scores. They'll certainly be an asset to you when you apply to colleges, and they're making me a tad dizzy.</p></li>
<li><p>Core is set up quasi-distribution requirement style, as there is no class you must must take. For example, if you're interested in neurosci, it sounds like you would love to do "Language and the Human" for hum (humanities) and "Mind" for sosc (social sciences). I took other hum and sosc courses, but the beautiful thing is that your sequence is your call.</p></li>
<li><p>Your social style sounds very much like what I've experienced at Chicago. Some drinking, some partying, but more just spending time with awesome people. I like drinking, and I like partying, but neither of them hold a candle to great friends and great conversation. I find that a lot of people put together dorm or apartment get-togethers, and because frat parties are relatively low-key (meaning nobody really puts that much energy into making them "good") they can also be fun, particularly if you don't care that much about partying either, you don't feel like you're in the wrong place.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>To make sure you come out of your shell a bit, I highly recommend either Pierce, Max P, or what will soon be our <em>newly built dorm</em>. (Also the Hitchcock side of Snell-Hitchcock, if you really dig quirky). You can request which dorms to be placed in on your housing deposit, and if you say you want one of those three, you will most definitely be in a buzzy and more outgoing environment than if you were to request a single. Max P and the new dorm will have great amenities.... Pierce does not stand out for its physical beauty (okay, it's a bit of a dump) but many of the most awesome people here are Pierce kids... it's a dorm of happy. Just ask anybody who has lived there (or message poster bohbeep, who overnighted there and is requesting it, I think).</p>

<ol>
<li><p>You do not need to take easy classes to fulfill core. You can take bio for majors, physics for majors, calc, etc..... you do not have to. But you can. So you will not be forced to take a class that's too easy or boring for you. Goodness no.</p></li>
<li><p>People who sleep a lot tend to also be terrific at time management-- people who don't sleep a lot are the epic procrastinators. I'm assuming you've reached a point in high school where you are a high performer who also gets a lot of sleep-- even though that may mean no extra YouTube videos, no long facebook forays, etc. If you are a good time manager now, that's just bonus points for you in college. Feel lucky. I was prepared to sacrifice my precious sleep too, but I've found that my time-management skills are good and that sleep is easy to come by. I have a friend who does no fewer than a zillion things on campus (along with studying pretty hard) and is the most time-managey person ever. She (and her pre-med roommate) find a way to get into bed at around 11 or 11:30 each night for a 8-9 am wakeup.</p></li>
</ol>

3

<p>Well, here's how the core works. If you are a science major or a pre-med, or want to take the courses they take, you don't have to worry about too easy core science courses.</p>

<p>There are three core-specific course types -- Humanities, Social Sciences, and Civilization -- and four clusters of requirements that include those courses and other distributional electives that are not core-specific.</p>

<p>The first cluster is easy to understand: Everyone has to take three quarters of one of the Social Science sequences. There are five or six to choose from, with different focuses, although they all have some amount of overlap in their curricula.</p>

<p>The second cluster includes Humanities, Civilization, and electives in art, music, or drama (including both practice and "history or theory of . . . " courses). Everyone has to take at least six quarters of these, including at least two quarters of one of the five or six Humanities courses (which also include first-year writing seminars, and which overlap with one another, too) and at least two quarters of Civilization (for which there are many options, including those integrated with study-abroad programs). You can substitute an extra quarter of Humanities or Civilization for one quarter of art/music/drama (but only one).</p>

<p>The third cluster is biological sciences, physical sciences, and math. Everyone has to take six quarters of them, including at least two quarters of each of biological sciences and physical sciences. You can substitute an extra quarter of either or those for one (but not two) quarters of math. The basic introductory courses that all science majors and pre-meds take satisfy the science requirements. If you don't take those, there are a raft of options to help non-science-oriented students meet these requirements (including some combo "natural sciences" courses, a special one-quarter intro biology course, and a bunch of focused biology "topics" electives).</p>

<p>The fourth cluster is foreign language. Everyone has to demonstrate competence in a second language to at least the level of one year of college study. You can do that with an AP test or by taking the university's placement test in a language and placing out of first three quarters, or you can take one of 30 or 40 languages offered through the third quarter course. I suspect a huge percentage of students place out of this requirement, but a huge percentage of students take language courses anyway.</p>

<p>The language requirement is the only one you can place out of with AP. In the sciences and math, your AP score (or placement exam) can put you in a more advanced course, but not substitute for the requirement. For the Social Sciences and Humanities/Civilization clusters, no one cares what you took in high school or what you got on your AP. </p>

<p>All in, of the 45-48 courses most students take in their college careers, the core requires you to take as many as 18 courses you might not take if you were at Brown (for non-science-majors, non-pre-meds, who do not place out of any quarter of a language -- all two or three of them per year), and as few as 9 (for a pre-med or science major who passed a language AP). The special Social Science, Humanities, and Civilization courses can't count towards a major; the other courses can if they meet the major requirements.</p>

<p>My impression is that most, but not all, students basically like their Humanities and Social Sciences courses. Some of them have better reputations than others and seem to work better. One of my kids hated Humanities (too elementary and unfocused, but it was one of the "bad" courses) and liked Social Sciences a lot; the other loved both. They do pretty much ensure that there is a common set of readings that almost everyone has gone through in their first or second years, and that provides a certain cohesiveness throughout the college. Some of these are stone classics everyone reads (like the Iliad or The Wealth of Nations) and some are slightly quirkier (there's a lot of Durkheim, and everyone reads Marx). Civilization courses, and the non-science-major science courses, get mixed reviews (except, apparently, for the bio survey course, which hardly anyone seems to like).</p>

4

<p>JHS, we might need to bookmark that explanation for future reference.</p>

<p>To make things a little bit more concrete, let me explain how the core worked in my case:</p>

<p>Social Sciences: I had to take a full year of sosc, no ifs, ands, or buts. I chose the Self, Culture, and Society sequence, took it my first year, and loved it. I found it appropriate for my level and also a great way to launch myself into small discussion classes immediately-- made me go into major and elective classes with a lot of confidence.</p>

<p>Humanities: I took Human Being and Citizen my first year, and also loved it. Everybody has the option of going the full year or going 2/3 of the year. I went the full year, meaning that I only needed to do one art/music/drama and two civs. (or 2 hums, 2 art/music/drama and 2 civ).</p>

<p>Art/Music/Drama: Intro to Art History winter first year.</p>

<p>Civilization: I took two civs my second year.</p>

<p>Math: Placed out with placement test credit. Yay! </p>

<p>Physics: Placed out of one class with AP credit, took a "rocks for jocks" interesting class to fulfill the other class.</p>

<p>Bio: Took general bio for non-majors fall of second year and bio electives for non-majors spring of second year.</p>

<p>Foreign language: Placement test credit.</p>

<p>So in all, I took 11 courses for core. (I hope my math is right). The only ones I felt "forced" to take were three (the physics and bio ones), in which case I didn't mind too much, as I felt that almost any other school would require a similar number of classes for distribution. (Not to mention that I learned things and that the profs were very good lecturers).</p>

<p>I definitely felt like I chose my other core courses: in fact, I did, in choosing Core when I chose to come here. My reasoning for choosing a school like Chicago is because I knew I wanted courses that were like the Core and it seemed like an added bonus that everybody's reading similar texts at the same time. There's "Mengels season" where everybody in sosc is reading the medium-sized red book, and I will forever associate springtime with Kant's little kicker of a pamphlet, The Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals. These are the books that you see out and about around campus, and it's just nice to see that kind of unity.</p>

5

<p>Thanks a bunch to both of you! You really helped allay some of my fears about UChicago. Glad to hear that the Core isn't as rigid as I thought, and that I'll still be able to sleep. :) Also, do you know what year the new dorm is opening?</p>

6

<p>It <em>should</em> open Fall 2009.</p>