<p>For students at UC or parents of students, what is the average class schedule like? Less classes each quarter (3-4) compared to one on a semester schedule are taken, but how does it typically pan out?</p>
<p>I am asking because as an athlete, it would seem difficult to get a Shoreland dorm, where I would have to go back and forth multiple times during the day for class, training, life, etc. Thoughts?</p>
<p>davan,
UChicago is full of places to study and work on projects - you would not have to be running back and forth to your dorm all the time.</p>
<p>My son took 4 courses last quarter - he was very busy, but participated in EC's and house sports and discussions 'till dawn. He does not sound the least bit put upon.</p>
<p>My S sounds just like ohio_mom's. He is a member of a competitive (on the national level) sports club and played IM football. He also took 4 courses and did very well this past quarter. One can be very (very) busy and get it all in, though good time management and planning will be required. (He also has made many friends and has an active social life.) </p>
<p>Getting to the Shoreland is not all that big a challenge (very frequent buses), and as ohio_mom said, no real need to return to the dorm (and if one is living at the Shoreland, I believe one will be eating at BJ).</p>
<p>But what are the typical number of courses that a student takes in a quarter?</p>
<p>I heard 3 and 4 about alternately.</p>
<p>You basically need 42 credits - so some quarters you can take 3 and others 4. If you are are concerned with courseload during your first quarter - or first athletic season - you could schedule 3.</p>
<p>too bad that U of C can't give freshmen their first quarter as pass-fail like they do at a few of the other really rigorous schools like Swarthmore or MIT. Have any of the students ever tried to institue that change or is chicago concerned about blemishing their image in some way?</p>
<p>Are the classes typically early or late as a general rule?</p>
<p>Not only do they not allow P/F, my S was in a course that was curved so that 90% class average was a grade of "C"!!</p>
<p>I know nothing is very early or very late, I think most classes start 9-10 to 2-3</p>
<p>
[quote]
Not only do they not allow P/F, my S was in a course that was curved so that 90% class average was a grade of "C"!!
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Keep in mind many intro classes tend to have tougher curve than uppper-level ones. Accoridng to gradinflation.com
<a href="http://www.gradeinflation.com/chicago.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.gradeinflation.com/chicago.html</a></p>
<p>Chicago's average GPA was 3.26 at 1999 (probably even better now). That's almost "B+" and doesn't sound much of a grade "deflation" to me, although it's still less than Harvard/Stanford's 3.4. Either the "grade deflation" is a myth or gradeinflation.com has wrong stats.</p>
<p>I recently read where the UofC had the only football team whose GPA was higher than the student body's as a whole. I believe to graduate with honors at Chicago the GPA is 3.25. I do not believe most graduate with honors. It is also true that later courses tend to be graded a little easier, particularly if they include graduate students.</p>
<p>Rereading my sentence I see that it may be misunderstood a little, what I intended to say was that a course score of 90%, which was the class average, was a C.</p>
<p>I still don't get it. 90 out of 100 was a C?</p>
<p>well if 90% was the class average, it seems reasonable that its a C. Sounds like a normal bell curve. If 90 was an A, half the class would get A's, which is bs.</p>
<p>The track&field team also had a much higher GPA than the school average at a 3.5+.</p>
<p>Bob: A bell curve? You have to be kidding me. When competitive colleges start to use the bell curve regularly, let me know, because that is just ridiculous in most circumstances. If UC graduates kids at a 3.0-3.1 and the same kid could've graduate w/ honors from Harvard (check the statistics on that), it sure does not help the UC kid a whole lot in getting a job or into a good graduate school.</p>
<p>Graduate schools, and the businesses who care about GPA, understand the grading policies at the various, at least well known, schools. For example, Reed College average GPA for a graduate is, I believe, 2.8. Reed also is in the top 5 colleges and universities in placing students into Ph.D. programs.</p>
<p>Agree on the ridiculousness of 90% being a C even if it is the course average.</p>
<p>To answer the original question, it is possible to be an athlete, do well in classes, and live in the Shoreland. A few students on my floor do it... I believe most of them take 3 classes the session their sport is in full swing. It is true, though, that some find the commute difficult, despite the buses: one first year moved to Max P in the middle of the quarter.</p>
<p>And classes start at various times in the day; last quarter, I had classes from 9:30-10:20 and 10:30-11:20 MWF and 9:00-10:20 and 12:00-1:20 TuTh. One of my roommates didn't have class until 3:30 on TuTh and the rest of her classes were all after 10:30!</p>
<p>Do students sometimes take three classes the first semester they are enrolled, since they are just adjusting to the campus? Or does the school encourage students to take a full load of four from the first day?</p>
<p>If a student has APs they expect to get credit for as "general electives" at the end of the first year, can they mentally factor those in, and hence enroll in three classes instead of four? </p>
<p>Finally, our own son earned 6.6 credits at Chicago this past summer. Anyone know what office he should contact to see how and if these are counted towards the undergraduate degree? (If they aren't credited, that is fine, but it would be nice to know.)</p>
<p>Students often take 3 courses in a quarter and I highly recommend it for the first quarter. My S, of course, didn't listen to me and took 4. What some students do is to sign up for 4 and then drop the one that is least appealing after a couple of weeks. That was S's plan. Unfortunately, he liked them all, and stuck with them. He did very well this quarter so I guess he know what he is doing, BUT, I still think 3 is the way to start off. </p>
<p>Given that 42 courses are required for graduation, one can enroll in 3 courses for some quarters and still graduate in 4 years without AP's. The AP credit does help, however.</p>
<p>As for college credit earned during HS, this is from the Chicago catalog:</p>
<p>College Courses Taken during High School. Students may be eligible for college courses taken while they were in high school by petition to the Dean of Students in Winter Quarter. Credit is evaluated on an individual basis. To be considered for transfer credit, course work may not have been counted toward high school graduation requirements. Credit for science, foreign language, and calculus courses is awarded only by satisfactory performance on the appropriate placement or accreditation examinations taken at the time of matriculation. Transfer credit may not be used to meet general education requirements in humanities, social sciences, or civilization studies unless a student formally enters the College as a "transfer student."</p>
<p>For more information see: <a href="http://college-catalog.uchicago.edu/credit/index.shtml%5B/url%5D">http://college-catalog.uchicago.edu/credit/index.shtml</a></p>