<p>Calling Admissions folks “liars” becaue they posted RD results three hours EARLY is rather sour grapes, IMO. If one looks at previous yeas of Chicago admissions, there has never been much warning until results were posted. In factr, when S1 applied, there was NO warning. It just showed up. Ted didn’t believe in building the hype.</p>
<p>As for Core: It was a major attraction for S1, though grades have been not as high as he hoped. Bs and B+s, nonetheless, but when he gets an A- on a HUM or SOSC paper, it is cause for celebration. He loves the discussion-based approach; he lived his HUm profs, SOSC has been a mixed bag.</p>
<p>As for S2, if he chooses Chicago, IB Philosophy will be the most useful course he took in HS. :)</p>
<p>Thanks to all for your comments on the core. I will direct my son to them as well as the facebook page. I do think it is possible to like Chicago in spite of the core (perhaps especially before attending). He really enjoys good teachers but it sounds like there are mixed reviews of the profs for the core classes.</p>
<p>As kitkat notes there is a bit of a range of what you can take for the core. That is good to know. Thanks again. More input is always welcome.</p>
<p>To clarify on the professor issue: With enough research and dedication, you can seek out the good professors. It requires a lot of reading course evaluations, but it’s totally worth it if you’re going to enjoy the class. The evaluations tell how well the professor prepares, the harshness of grading, and the morale and productivity of the discussions, among other important issues. I didn’t read course evaluations for my first quarter, and I paid for it. For the second quarter, I studied them intensely, and I ended up with really good professors as a result.</p>
<p>There is a whole lot of objective proof that it is possible to like Chicago in spite of the Core after attending: That’s probably the position of a majority of upperclass students (although other viewpoints are represented, too, including loving the Core and disliking the University).</p>
<p>I don’t know why science students think the Core is biased against them. The math/science component is 7 quarters, and hum/sosc/civ/art requires 9. AP credit is awarded more in the math/science area, because the AP courses actually cover most of the material in a college course, whereas no AP course remotely approaches the content of any of the hum etc. courses (except for maybe AP Euro History = the Euro History Civ sequence, and AP Art might substitute for a quarter of art . . . but that’s not what you meant). My English-major kid really resented having to take Hum, which she regarded as unfocused and high schoolish (although in retrospect she wished she had tried harder to understand what her writing TA was trying to teach her), her math sequence was like torture, and she thought the Core science-for-poets classes were a real waste of time. At least the science kids get to count their real classes against the Core.</p>
<p>As for the “non-classic” components of hum and sosc constituting “fluff”: It doesn’t look like you learned much. The Chicago Core is explicitly NOT a Great Books program, although it’s designed so that if you really wish it were that you can almost get what you want. If you didn’t take one of the Great Books hums, that’s your problem. And I think that most of the sosc sequences ARE Great Books courses, it’s just that the faculty’s definition of Great Books includes some stuff you didn’t hear about in high school.</p>
<p>I should probably clarify this. It is true that more credit is awarded for math and science AP courses. However, these math and science AP credits don’t help math and science majors. They do help humanities and social science majors considerably, as they get them out of the core math and science requirements. But there’s no parallel for math and science majors to get out of humanities and social science core requirements. The AP credits can help people place into higher sequences, but math and science majors can’t really take care of their core requirements with AP credits in the ways that other majors can.</p>
<p>Right, JB, I understood that. But the problem is that AP English Lit, or AP Gov/Pol, Micro, Whatever have essentially nothing to do with what’s being taught in the Core. And it’s not like the math/science elements of the Core impinge on the lives of science majors, since their normal coursework in whichever major they choose will wind up satisfying the Core, and no one is going to make them take an introductory course that they’ve placed out of. For my daughter, the four quarters she spent on Hum and art felt like standing still, pretty much a waste of time.</p>
<p>S1 loved the Core. His favorite was definitely the three quarter sequence in Greek Thought & Literature. No AP credit for that sequence that I know of. He also took a year of physics, calculus, and chemistry, two courses in biology, and a course in statistics, he is a social science major. It’s all good.</p>
<p>One of the reasons I applied to UChi was because I loved the concept of the Core. Since I haven’t (and most likely never will) taken classes there, I can’t really speak as to how great they (undoubtedly) are. But from reading the course catalog, I love the idea classes even more than I did at first. 'Tis a pity that that’s all they’ll ever be–an idea. :(</p>
<p>@Jamal5: If it’s any consolation, I shan’t be going, since the school is so frickin’ expensive. (and yes, this has nothing to do with the OP’s question–forgive me for being bored.)</p>
<p>I have three friends that attend Chicago. But they feel the core (which takes an avg. of 2 years to complete) doesn’t let them focus on their academic major…Personally I like it. I feel it makes you very well rounded, learning languages, math, science, english, writing, and philosophy…But it is time consuming, and even thought the courses dropped from 21 quarters to 15, I think it could go down to maybe 9-12.</p>
<p>The core can actually be as much as 18 quarters and as little as 10-11 quarters, based on placement credit. I think for many people it’s closer to the lower figure than to the higher one. For a science major who did OK on an AP foreign language test, the core is effectively 9 course-quarters that he wouldn’t be taking anyway for his major.</p>
He also took a year of physics, calculus, and chemistry, two courses in biology, and a course in statistics, he is a social science major. It’s all good.</p>