<p>Does anyone know about the English department at the University of Chicago? I am interested in this as a major, along with Creative Writing. Does anyone have personal experience with English classes or a major? Also, does anyone know about the typical workload for the major? I've heard some horror stories about the stressful environment at U of C... I'm totally willing (and expecting!) to work hard in college, but I still want time to pursue extracurriculars and to hang out with friends. (And sleep. And eat. And have a life.)</p>
<p>I took some classes in the English department at Chicago and enjoyed them. There is a creative writing minor and plenty of opportunities to share and publish creative work, but the creative writing community is probably small particularly relative to what you might see at a school that focuses on a creative writing academic undergraduate experience.</p>
<p>As for your questions about workoad and stress, I write the following as an alum of Chicago, as a volunteer who has reviewed hundreds of Chicago undergraduate of resumes through my employer via the Jeff Metcalf program, and as somebody who has friends who are Chicago alumni and alumni of other terrific universities.</p>
<p>My personal experience with the workload was that it was easy to do fine in classwork but hard to do very well. I got 8-9 hours of sleep every night, had leadership in two clubs, served on several ad-hoc committees, worked part-time, and got out to see the city of Chicago and went to my fair share of parties. </p>
<p>All told, I think I ended up graduating with a 3.2 GPA in my major, I knew my professors well enough to ask them to write letters for me, and even with my unremarkable 3.2 GPA I received an unusual scholarship to attend the best graduate program in my field in the country. I was an average candidate coming into Chicago, and in some ways I was average on the way out, only that I have some distinctions in my narrow professional field.</p>
<p>My resume reviewing experience tells me that my experience at Chicago is pretty normal. I review a lot of resumes of students in the 3.2-3.7 GPA window, students who have time to take on lots of neat extracurricular things, students who in interviews seem genuinely happy with their experience. I cannot imagine that every student at Chicago feels this way, but it certainly seems the norm. </p>
<p>Keep in mind that Chicago kids tend to be a very special bunch. They tend to be people who tie their sense of self to their academics, and while this can be wonderful (conversations abound about the role of the family in early America at dinner parties) it also can beat kids up a little bit if they are not performing to THEIR ideal. If you ask me, it’s the double-edged sword of attending a highly selective college… you realize the kids had to get IN somehow, and sometimes there’s a narrowness or hyper goal-orientation that accompanies the joy of being in a cohort where deep engagement in academics is the norm.</p>
<p>UChicago has one of the best and well-regarded programs in English. English is one of the most popular majors at Chicago, and there’s an enormous variety of classes.</p>