Questions about UChicago - Academic, Career Planning and Social

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Chicago ✅
1

<p>Hello! </p>

<p>I'm a current hs senior currently choosing between UChicago and UC Berkeley. It would be really helpful if any alumni/ current students could please answer the following questions :D</p>

<p>Academic:
How big have your classes been in the past year (the candid answer,
not the advertisement brochure answer! :P)?
To what extent are classes discussion-based, and is this usually
helpful for you in understanding your material?
How often last year have you been taught by a TA (in comparison to
your course load)?
What kind of academic advising do you get, and is it helpful?
How much written commentary do you usually get from each assignment -
and who marks the assignment: TA or Professor?
Is the writing center usually generally helpful in terms of improving
assignments?
How many professors, if any, do you have a good relationship with so
far (i.e. know you by name, know your academic strengths and
weaknesses, can drink coffee with you and ask questions - not
necessarily related to your course material), and how hard was it for
you to foster these relationships?
Are UChicago undergrads allowed to take grad level courses or gain
access to Professors (Levitt!!) in any of UChicago's grad schools?
(e.g. Law School, Booth Business School) If so, how easy is it to
apply for this?
How well-taught is the Core? (I.e. generally taught by professors with
experience in the field, or - ?)
How hard is it to get into required classes to fulfill your major/
non-required classes that you really want to take?</p>

<p>Career-oriented:
Do you feel that UChicago has been helping you achieve your career
goals so far? I.e. in the form of resume writing, career fairs, etc
Is it true that UChicago students look down on pre-professionalism,
and is this a hindrance to applications to Law school? What resources
are available for potential law school applicants? (Are there LSAT
programs?)
On the contrary, UChicago apparently has a really good PhD program
placement - what resources are available to prepare for graduate
school?
How easy has it been for you to obtain internships? Are there a lot of
internship fairs?</p>

<p>Social:
How helpful has the social boost of residential colleges been for your
academic life? Do the older students in the residential colleges
usually help the freshmen with work/ offering academic advice, or is
there more segregation based on class?
One of my concerns with Berkeley was the horror stories of roommates
who blast music at late hours/ arrive back to the dorm drunk. Is this a uniform concern across colleges? What
kinds of stories have you heard/ experiences have you had in UChicago?
Given the UChicago workload, how much time do students have to pursue
and excel in extracurricular activities?</p>

<p>Thank you! :)</p>

2

<p>Wow that is a long list of questions!</p>

<p>I had a list of questions almost as large as yours, and when I PM’ed some of the current students they wrote pages and pages :smiley: Although they did not say everything I wanted to hear, the fact that they spent so much time to answer my questions (and really elaborate answers) told me that I would be in the right company.</p>

<p>I’m confirmed for UChicago '15, and while I can’t answer your questions I will say a few things:</p>

<p>Alot of your questions seemed to be about TA’s. From what i’ve heard, that can actually be a good thing. I would elaborate but I don’t think that will help you choose between the two, Berkeley probably has as many classes taught by TA’s if not more.</p>

<p>Also, I get the feeling that if you posted what you were looking for in a university, what kind of social atmosphere you were looking for, what kind of academic workload you are looking for (you get the trend) people would be able to help you more. The two institutions are quite different. </p>

<p>That being said, honestly, as a person who is your peer, I think the question is a no brainer. Unless your personality is a much, much better fit for a place like Berkeley, UChicago>>>Berkeley [I don’t mean to offend anyone here.]. I get the feeling you pretty much know you’re going to UChicago, but you just want to make sure :slight_smile: Just go for it! and don’t waste time, your queue in the housing app depends on the day you pay your deposit.</p>

3

<p>Some quick answers :):</p>

<p>Academic (fall/winter/spring): Here were/are the classes I took this year, with attached class sizes.
Humanities: 18/18/- (Human Being and Citizen I, II)
Computer Science: 32/32/55 (Honors Intro to CS I, II, Computer Systems)
Math: 21/27/30, 25 (Calculus 153, Multivariate Calc, Linear Algebra + Intro to Analysis
Biology: 30 (Core Biology)</p>

<p>[University</a> of Chicago Time Schedules](<a href=“http://timeschedules.uchicago.edu%5DUniversity”>http://timeschedules.uchicago.edu) lists all the classes by quarter and department; very useful for gauging class size.</p>

<p>My Humanities classes were entirely discussion based, and the biology class was about a third to a half discussion. The math/CS classes were more like lectures, although there was a heavy interactive component in Honors Intro to CS and Intro to Analysis.</p>

<p>For teachers, I’ve had 5 professors, 1 lecturer, 1 post-doc, and 2 graduate students.</p>

<p>Homeworks are generally graded by TA, exams by the professor. The writing tutors are very helpful; they brought my essays from B-'s up to A’s over the course of the first quarter.</p>

<p>As far as relationships go, I have pretty solid ones with my CS professors as well as with my first HUM professor. All it takes it showing up to office hours; they’re as good an excuse to chat about the Bulls as they are for explaining monadic I/O.</p>

<p>Grad classes are pretty easy to get into for undergrads; i know several people who are either taking them or auditing them. The Booth school actually has a few undergrad-only sections, and the CCIB (Chicago Careers in Business) program facilitates even more exposure to Booth classes.</p>

<p>My HUM professors (the only part of the real core I’ve taken) were, well, very topical. We cover the Platonic dialogues in the first quarter and the Ethics in the second, and lo and behold my first professor was a Plato scholar and my second one was an Aristotle scholar. Pretty convenient.</p>

<p>I’ve only experienced one case of not being able to get into a class I wanted, that was a 6-person class working on developing immunobiology games for the iOS platform. Unfortunately, my technical experience was predominantly with Linux platforms, so I didn’t make the cut.</p>

4

<p>In the course of two years, only one of my classes has been taught by a TA. She was a year away from a PhD in math, was extremely helpful and friendly, won an award for excellence in teaching, and spoke perfect English (THIS MATTERS). I’d imagine some TAs are better than others, but from what I’ve heard, the quality of TAs tends to be relatively high at UChicago.</p>

<p>Yes, even my introductory courses have been taught by full professors. Even my biology course (a microbio/immuno class for non-bio majors). And the awesome John List sometimes teaches the introductory Economics sequence when it isn’t being taught by other full professors. </p>

<p>I am an English major, although I have dabbled a bit in other subjects. All but one of my English classes have been extremely discussion-oriented; they have ranged in size from 15-25 students. The professors in every single one of my classes (not just English) have learned my name, and I would comfortable gong to coffee with just about all of them.</p>

5

<p>Right, I should mention I’m a prospective Computer Science/ Economics double major. And although I haven’t gone for coffee with any of my professors, tea counts too right? ;)</p>