<p>Hey!
so i have been struggling with the idea of big v. small schools (eek, i know, time is running out). are most of the classes at u chicago huge? are the professors accessible? do undergrads feel overshadowed by graduates? is there enough of a focus on undergrads? </p>
<p>on a social note, does fun really come to die at u chicago?</p>
<p>anything would be appreciated!</p>
<p>muchas gracias</p>
<p>One of the things I find remarkable about my son’s (he’s a 2nd year) experience thus far has been the tiny sizes of most of his classes and the interest shown in teaching them by his profs. A few of these have been grad. level classes, but he has not felt like he has been treated as an “inferior” in any way by either profs. or his grad. student classmates. For this quarter, time schedules shows enrollment of 24, 18, 11, and 7 in his four courses (the highest two being core courses). Of course, some courses have much larger enrollment. However, of the couple my son had last year, even these broke down into small sections every week to allow for intensive discussion of the material taught in the larger lecture.</p>
<p>Chicago is not warm and fuzzy in the “hand-holding” sense, but faculty are generally very encouraging and supportive towards students who approach them with interest in the subjects of their expertise. Despite the total size of the College, I imagine the availability of faculty and intimate class sizes compare favorably with LACs.</p>
<p>Right, and there’s no neon sign that says, “HEY, PLEASE IGNORE ME, I’M AN UNDERGRAD!”</p>
<p>.At Chicago, the undergrad and grad populations merge pretty seamlessly around campus, as they sometimes take classes together and such.</p>
<p>Where fun comes to die is a t-shirt slogan (one that we made up, btw!) and if you don’t mind seeing the shirts around campus all the time, I think you’ll be okay. Like any top school, students here work pretty hard-- however, we don’t have a corresponding “party hard” component with an overbearing frat scene, binge drinking problem, etc. I think that’s an asset rather than a drawback!</p>
<p>thanks! very helpful posts</p>