<p>What are the classes really like here? I know what everyone says (small class size, brilliant professors, all that), but I'd like some perspectives from actual students. I'm applying early action, and I haven't been able to visit, so I'd just like some information in case I'm accepted. </p>
<p>What field are you interested in? Your experience will vary significantly depending on what department you’re in.</p>
<p>I’m probably going to major in English, though I’m unsure whether I’d rather use that to eventually pursue journalism or get my master’s and become a college/university professor, or at least a high school teacher.</p>
<p>I should begin with a caveat: I’ve a physics/economics major here, and consequently I’ve only taken ~7 humanities classes at Chicago, two of which were english courses. </p>
<p>That said, the popular perception is basically accurate. Professors in the humanities are friendly and approachable ( I just had dinner with one last week. He had some hardcore marxist friends, which made for interesting dinner conversation…) class sizes are small, and overall people seem very satisfied with their classes.
At least compared to my friends at similar schools, I would say the biggest advantage of majoring in the humanities at Chicago is that most students in the majors have a strong interest in the material: there aren’t a whole lot of people that are taking english purely as an easy or default option, so if you really enjoy the subject, the university provides a uniquely rich opportunity to study it.</p>
<p>Hi,</p>
<p>My daughter is a first year interested in Sociology - very humanities oriented. She’s taking three classes this quarter - “The Mind”, “Language and Society”, and Calculus. Loves the first two - hates the third. The classes are “fascinating” (her words), the professors are very approachable, there are only about 20 students in each of her hum classes and only 30 in calculus; the discussions are great. However, the work itself is very difficult. There isn’t a lot of work, but what there is, is hard. For example, in the one of the classes she is expected to read several articles (easy) each week, and then come up with an original idea that synthesizes all of the articles. And the ideas really do have to be original - she got a 4/10 on her first two essays because her ideas “came from the lectures and weren’t original thinking”. She’s since worked closely with the professor, and got a 10/10 for her last two essays, but it was a huge change from high school. She LOVES it, though, and knows she made a great decision when she chose UChicago.</p>
<p>Hope this helps - not exactly a current student, but fairly close. And Definitely a humanities perspective…</p>
<p>Note – Sociology (and social science in general) is not considered “humanities.” It’s very numbers and data oriented. If Crusoemom’s daughter pursues it at Chicago, she is going to need her Calculus course and more math beyond it. And Crusoemom’s daughter is probably not taking two Hum courses (no one does that), but one Humanities (“Hum”) core course (Language and the Human) and one Social Science (“Sosc”) core course (Mind).</p>
<p>All of the Chicago core courses within a category like Hum or Sosc have a fair degree of overlap, so that all the students share a common frame of reference, but each has a slightly different flavor and emphasis. It’s interesting that Crusoemom’s daughter, despite her interest in Sociology, chose the Sosc option that is probably least engaged with Sociology out of the set. Of course, that could mean nothing about her ultimate choice of major</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>