<p>i am a junior in high school and i am starting to look at a lot of schools in chicago, because that's the area i'm set on attending. (i live near pittsburgh) </p>
<p>i've done some research on the university of chicago, such as cost, acceptance rate, majors, ect. but i have a list of about 8 chicago schools i'm looking at and i need to narrow it down to about 3. </p>
<p>so if anyone is willing to tell me a little bit about the university it would be greatly appreciated :) such as what the location is like and if it's near downtown, what the atmosphere is like, if students/teachers are generally friendly, ect.</p>
<p>And it is a very academically challenging school, no other Chicago school is really in its league academically, unless you are talking about Northwestern.</p>
<p>Chicago is a fine school and I would definitely urge you to learn more about it and see if you want to apply.</p>
<p>One word of warning, however.....make sure you have one or more solid safeties (both in terms of finances and admissions) on your list. These days, nothing is sure, so you need to apply to a range of schools.</p>
<p>If you find you really do love Chicago and think it's a match, consider the option of applying Early Action. If you get in and are certain you want to go there, it could eliminate the headaches of applying to other schools. At the very least it gives you an excellent acceptance early in your senior year.</p>
<p>By the way, my son attended Chicago last summer and was so attracted by the school that he decided to apply early action. He loved that he had the city of Chicago close by, the gothic architecture of the campus, and the intellectual flavor of the students. He worked hard but also had a lot of fun doing and seeing things with other students. It's not a big state university. There is less emphasis on frats and heavy partying. The workload is challenging. But students help each other and his profs were approachable. One of them provided him with a college reference.</p>
<p>thanks for the responses; i'll definitely look into it more!</p>
<p>if you don't mind saying what was your son's gpa? mine currently is probably about a 3.5 and i hope to raise it to either a 3.6 or 3.7 by the end of the year, but i'm not sure if that will even be good enough for this school if it is as exclusive as it sounds.</p>
<p>also, i read it's a liberal arts school...is that a good or a bad thing?</p>
<p>Unless you want to go into engineering it's definitely a good thing. I would definitely do some research about Chicago's Core Curriculum and make sure that that's what you want before even applying.</p>
<p>katie,
Your grades will neither get you in nor keep you out. Chicago really does look at the whole application - grades, essays, SAT's, essays, EC's, essays, work, essays, recs and (to a lessor extent, the interview). Did I mention essays? Concentrate on getting your best grades ever this semester (important wherever you apply!) and on the other factors you can control. </p>
<p>I you have not already done so, look at the essay question for the Uncommon Application. If they look interesting ... if you find yourself thinking about them later, you may be a prospective Chicago student.</p>