<p>Several times I've encountered someone who had the misperception that UChicago is a science/math-heavy school. One time was at a UChi info session and a parent asked a question like, 'I get the impression that Chicago is very oriented towards science and engineering, but how's the drama program?' and one of the students blurted out "Chicago doesn't have an engineering program."
Another time was on these forum boards somewhere.</p>
<p>So I was wondering, how do people get this perception? Mine has been totally the opposite way, but I'd love it if someone could change my mind (but not just say, oh Chicago is good in every field!!!).</p>
<p>Physics is one of the fields in which we are the most famous, not necessarily the most. We run Argonne and Fermi national labs, and ran the first controlled nuclear reaction for the Manhattan Project.</p>
<p>Also, three recent movies set here, Proof (good), The Core (bad) and Chain Reaction (bad) all involved math/physiscs. </p>
<p>My impression is and has been that Chicago is sort of math/social-sciency. It is clearly one of the universities that attract strong math students, and its signature social sciences departments -- economics, sociology, political science -- have a reputation for quantiness. Also, of course, a longstanding reputation in physics, which is right next door.</p>
<p>However, Chicago also is highly ranked in English, classics, other ancient civilzations, philosophy. And the Core obviously has an enormous humanities component. Students whose focus is math and related fields, or science, probably spend more time on average studying humanities at Chicago than they would anywhere comparable, except maybe Columbia.</p>
<p>One of my Chicago students is well-rounded (but not as strong in math as he would like to be), the other really purely an English student (but thought it was important to get a background in other things, including math and science).</p>
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Students whose focus is math and related fields, or science, probably spend more time on average studying humanities at Chicago than they would anywhere comparable, except maybe Columbia.
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<p>From my understanding, MIT is pretty demanding in the humanities too, even though the vast majority of students are math/science majors (but not all!)</p>
<p>For me, I chose Chicago for fit first, assuming that it was a solid all-around school (I assumed correctly). Where I think strength and availability of program and does play an important role in decision-making is more obscure majors (Gender studies, Cinema Studies, etc.) at LAC's, which may not have them or may have one or two faculty in the department.</p>
<p>I'm a math major at Chicago. We are widely considered to have a top 5 math department. While I don't think that much of general rankings like those from US News, I think that rankings of specific departments are one indication of the strength of that department. We also have a strong physics department, and it helps that we have close ties to Argonne and Fermilab as someone already pointed out.</p>
<p>The OP said that he or she thought Chicago was not math/science-oriented. I think you are mixing up engineering with math and science. Chicago is oriented towards pure studies, which includes math, science, the humanities, and much more. It's especially characteristic of this description that we have no engineering department. No offense to engineers, but I really like this :)</p>
<p>JHS mentioned that math/science students here spend more time studying humanities than the average elsewhere. I'm not sure how true this is, and it depends on the definition of "elsewhere". But I think it is important to factor in the difference between core curricula at schools like Chicago and Brown -- Brown which has no core curriculum. I have mixed feelings about the core here (which the college feels the need to capitalize): I want to have read the Great Books, but at the same time I want to just be doing math. Though I think that if you manage your time well and don't take Biology for Majors as a Nonmajor, the Core shouldn't be that time-consuming.</p>
<p>Harvey Mudd is well known for requiring its students (math/sci/engineering) to take an extensive humanities core (10 semester courses). I believe they require more than any other engineering school.</p>
<p>"Harvey Mudd is well known for requiring its students (math/sci/engineering) to take an extensive humanities core (10 semester courses). I believe they require more than any other engineering school."</p>
<p>It actually comes out to 11 or 12 when you include Hum1 and IE. I still have to take 8 more and I only have 3 semesters left 8^0</p>