UChicago first-year taking your questions!

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Chicago ✅
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@ThankYouforHelp I haven’t found the people I’ve met from Snichcock “painfully nerdy and antisocial” at all–I’ve met two acquaintances from there and they’re both really nice and great to talk to. One of them has the same interests as me and we happened to go on the same trip organized by an RSO and had an amazing time talking with one another and enjoying the experience.

I don’t really see any difference between the connectedness of dorms North vs. South of the midway–from either end of the campus it’s probably only a 15 minute walk to the other end. I’d even say that students in BJ and South vs. Max, North, etc, just get to enjoy different parts of campus more. For example, BJ or South people can enjoy the Logan center much easily since they’re closer than people in North. But that doesn’t mean that they have to or do spend the majority of time away from the quad or north part of campus. I know a group of students who are all in South but have an afternoon class together, so they would go and eat lunch together at bartlett or baker, and I once went with some friends to get 4th meal at cathey.

There is a difference some difference between the feel of the dorms though. North can sometimes feel like a hotel or some model building–it’s all white, even the inside, and feels super modern. It’s also really big, meant to be occupied by ~800 people, and has 3 different buildings connected in the middle–when you go inside after you go past the security desk you have to go up a flight of stairs to the second floor that branches out into 3 branches, one of each building. There are also glass study rooms and a walkway with a huge glass window looking into baker. It is kind of odd because there’s one building that only has one house in it, while the tallest building has 4 houses. Also the house lounge isn’t just a separate room but is 3 stories high, right in the middle, with hallways on either end, so it’s an interesting feel–kinda like living in a big 3 story house with a huge living room and lots of bedrooms. Max P is yellow on the inside with these long hallways and personally it kinda felt like being inside a kid’s drawing. It’s also a different feel because all the rooms are set up as suites of four, while North has singles, doubles, and apartments. I think it used to be the dorm for lots of the athletes because of its proximity to ratner and crown, but now some are saying that it’s north now–and yes, we do have a lot of athletes. I haven’t been inside south much, but honestly it just felt like a regular dorm–pretty modern looking.

I have no idea what the grad student population of International House is (and frankly I didn’t even know grad students lived there), but people I’ve met from there do complain about how far it is. I don’t know of anyone that actually wanted to live in i-house, they just got unlucky in the housing lottery/put their deposit down late, but I can’t speak for everyone. I-house also has pretty much all singles, so definitely a different feel than Max P, for example.

I do know of freshmen in Stony so yes, they do get sent there, but again, I think it’s mostly because of late deposits. Then again, there are people I’ve met that love stony and claim it’s the best dorm. I heard that Shoreland was where students got “exiled” to if they were kicked out of housing, so I wonder if that will be Stony now.

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The grad student population of I-House is now 0. This was a very controversial decision.

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@ThankYouforHelp, former Woodward Court occupant here from back in the U of C days.

DD lives in South, which she loves so far. Overall, it sounds quite a bit like my Woodward Court experience but better. Lots of bustling with house and dorm activities, friendly social kids. Food and Harper Lib nearby. Classes on south end of campus so far. 'Course, there’s crossing the Midway in winter to come yet…

She goes back and forth to campus multiple times a day so it’s not like she feels removed from campus in any way. Doesn’t seem to think much of walking to 55th St to take the bus to the train to go into town.

Floor plans: https://summerconferences.uchicago.edu/page/south-campus-floor-plan

She did mention that the kids from I-House tend to come together as a group to eat their meals (they eat at South). I have an old dormmate whose son was at I-house as a freshman. He apparently liked it enough to stay as a second year. I hear they have a pretty tight house culture(s) and kids like living there.

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@ihs76 This is small but the 59 bus run along 61st to the Garfield Red Line station - you don’t have to walk all the way to 55th, and most people in South and BJ don’t, unless they don’t know about that bus for some reason.

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This may be small too, and maybe current students can chime in here, but UChicago seems to have less campus-wide “sloppy” (read, massive party) days than most other schools. Using my grad school alma mater, Penn, as a comparator, here are days where I felt like the entire Penn campus got sloppy (and parts of campus were a mess in the aftermath), with steady partying in between:

Start of Year/NSO (New Student Orientation) - tons of frats and apt. parties
(steady traffic of parties/trips to BYOs on weekend days during the year)
Halloween (this was a mess)
Feb Club (for seniors - lots of trips to bars throughout the month)
St. Pattys Day (also surprisingly messy)
Events around Hey Day (a silly day where the Juniors “graduate” to be seniors)
Spring Fling (this was a mess for 4-5 days straight, it seemed, all revolving around a summer concert)
End of Year Parties

When I was at Chicago, there were decidedly less sloppy days. We had a spring concert of some sort, but it didn’t involve a solid week of partying for a large chunk of campus. I also don’t remember Halloween or St. Pattys Day or other days as being the mess they seem to be at other schools.

As I recall, the small minority of students who wanted to party could, but the scene was much MUCH less intense.

Maybe current students could chime in here?

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That is still true. It was a heavy party day if maybe 20% of my house got drunk one night, and those were extremely rare. Perhaps it is different in Max, North, or South.

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@Cue7 Yep, Chicago definitely has a less intense party scene than other schools. I don’t go to parties and generally don’t have close friends that party, so I don’t really notice it when there are parties going around the house or school. During o-week and the first couple of weeks, tons of frats/sororities advertised their different parties on facebook. Since Halloween fell on a Monday this year I saw a lot of people getting dressed up/asking for clothing items for costumes during the whole weekend. But it is really easy to stay out and not really notice the party scene since there are many students who don’t wildly engage in it.

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@aykt4245 - Thanks again on the calculus question.

This is a long shot, but does anyone know if a 4/5 on AP Physics 1 AND AP Physics 2 gets CORE credit for “physical science”? The AP chart is ambiguous. It says credit for 2 quarters 100-level PHSC are given for those scores, but doesn’t specifically mention core or gen ed credit. We’re trying to get this squared away now, because DD can and may have reason to take up to 7 AP exams in May. In some cases, she just wants to take AP exams that won’t get her anything at Chicago because she’s likely to get top score and her teachers’ students’ AP scores matter for the teachers’ reviews and she doesn’t want to screw the ones who did a good job teaching by skipping out on the exam. In other cases, she wants to at least maintain flexibility re classes at Chicago. In particular, she has taken 3 AP math classes (Calcs and Stat), and 2 AP physics classes. She had a complete crap “honors” biology class (her and other top student helping the teacher to understand the biology, total waste of time, teacher fired the next year) and so will need to take 2 quarters of core biology at Chicago and may be woefully unprepared. On the other side, she wants to maybe double major in a particular humanities major and a particular social science major, and that would be very difficult to do unless she AP’s out of at least some of the core/gened requirements. So math and physical science look like the most promising for that. (I know that probably hurts the hearts of some. But the truth is, you can’t do everything. She might even go back and end up taking science classes in junior or senior year, if she doesn’t end up double majoring or is able to take extra courses, because she does like science, but it looks like Chicago really encourages the students to finish core/gened by end of sophomore year, and 15-18 core/gened classes in the first 2 years would be hard to do while also taking prerequisites for majors, much less any freely chosen fun or exploratory classes.) She has a good calc teacher and is very likely to get a 5 on BC calc with normal review. To even have a chance of getting credit for core/gened physical science, she would need to take both AP Physics 1 exam and AP Physics 2 exam, and since I think there’s not much overlap, she would have to restudy the AP Physics 1 material (took that class in 11th). And again, if she were to take AP Physics 1 and AP Physics 2 tests, she would be taking as many as 7 AP tests in May, be taking 2 AP tests on some days and/or rescheduling AP tests to later in the window. She will have huge responsibilities / opportunities in her extracurriculars in the spring, and of course, wants to spend some time with her friends before they all break up for college. So she won’t be taking the AP physics tests (and same for AP calc) unless she can be fairly assured by April or so, not during O-week, that the right scores could get her credit for core math / physical science. (I do realize that they COULD change the rules for class of 2017.) And of course, $90 an AP exam is not nothing, and if there is no reason to take $180 worth of AP physics exams, she won’t.

Is there someone specific she could ask about this who could give her a definitive answer? With regard to the math and with regard to physical science? It seems like the AP chart is TRYING to do this, but it’s just not crystal clear.

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@Lea111 You’re right–the chart is pretty ambiguous. The core requirements say that you need at least 2 quarter of physical sciences and since the AP list says that AP 1 & 2 get you 2 quarters of PHSC it seems like she should be good with just a 4 or 5 on both 1 and 2. Sorry I’m not much of help here–I’m a physics major, so my physical sciences requirements are already taken care of. Best bet would probably be to somehow ask someone from UChicago. Maybe a current student who is a non-science major could help clear this up? Also, a FB page for incoming students should be set up soon (if it hasn’t been already) and should have some current students as moderators/administrators who may be able to answer your question.

Also, your worries regarding bio: Core Bio was made for people that don’t know bio/didn’t do AP or anything like that. My friend took core bio this quarter and said it was super easy, she herself not having bio since freshman year of high school. The only time I took bio was also freshman year of high school where it was one of the easiest classes I’ve ever taken, despite being called “honors”, and I’m taking core bio next quarter, so I’ll see how that goes.

If your daughter gets a 5 on BC, then she’s good for the core requirement in math as well, so you don’t have to worry about that.

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Again, thanks!

We put down enrollment deposit < 3 hours after ED decisions came out, so she should have really good housing preference priority. She is probably going to want to be in South because of proximity to Logan Center. Seems like she should get her 1st choice hall, right? Also do you know anything about the size of doubles (or, apparently, there are triples too) in South, relative to other halls? She probably could get a single somewhere, but she wants a roommate. And if B-J is a backup hall, are the doubles there small (I thought someone said?)?

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@Lea111 I would be very very surprised if your daughter didn’t get her first choice! If she wants to do stuff with art and/or music then, yes, South would be good in terms of location. Cathey is also right next to it so you’re super close to food. I would also recommend checking out and researching the other dorms, online and also possibly at an overnight. Remember that you can change your housing application as many times as you want before May 1, so if your daughter decides she wants to live somewhere else it’s not a problem to change her selection.

A South average double would be 10’x20’
A BJ average double suite would be 24’x12.5’, with each bedroom being 12’x12.5’

Check out this pdf: it has the average floor plan/layout for each room along with dimensions. It’s a bit dated since it still has all the satellites listed and doesn’t have anything for Campus North, but still actual.
http://d3qi0qp55mx5f5.■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/housing/docs/Granville_Grossman_Double_Floor_Plan.pdf
In case your daughter becomes interested, here’s the North average house layout since it’s not included in the other plan:
http://d3qi0qp55mx5f5.■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/housing/docs/Campus_North_1.pdf

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BJ will be smaller rooms but it has the advantage of being all gothic feeling, which is one of the things I loved about the U of C. Unless things have changed, the common areas look like an old English gentlemen’s club.

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BJ has larger rooms actually. With every dorm they build they’ve been shrinking the size of the rooms.

Source: I live in a large BJ single. It’s pretty nice.

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@HydeSnark - the BJ “typical” room map looks like a double is made up of two rooms combined, and there’s only one entrance. Is that right?

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DD’s double in South is quite ‘average’ but it is nowhere near that size. There is maybe a foot of space between the open door and her bed. And width wise, it is quite a bit < 20’. Two beds (placed crosswise) and two smallish desks pretty much took up the entire width of the room. Good news is she doesn’t spend much time in there.

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@Lea111 Yes, but keep in mind that the inner room is going to be about as big as a South double at the smallest. There are three doubles in BJ that are just one massive room, the size of other house’s house lounges (they can comfortably fit 20 people, honestly), and there are larger doubles that have two rooms, each bigger than a standard sized single. Dodd-Mead has the most impressive double in BJ - there are two rooms, each more than twice the size of a single, and it has its own bathroom. Incredibly, first years have this room this year.

People usually set it up either as having the inner room as the bedroom and the outer room as a study room or as having each person get their own bedroom. I recommend the former, especially if you’re in the smallest version of a BJ double because the inner room is a lot bigger than the outer room and it’s rather unfair and causes weird unstable roommate relationships.

37

Can I circumvent calculus as a prospective political science major?

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@evilninjaz99 I believe so. There are a multitude of computer sciences courses you can take plus Studies in Mathematics (MATH 11200-11300). You need at least one quarter of math to complete the core in this case since you only need to take two quarters if you’re doing a calc sequence. But if you do only do one quarter of math you need either three quarters of physci or three quarters of bio.
Also, do you have AP Calc credit? If you have a 5 on BC you’re good for the math part of the core (you get credit for two quarters of calc). I believe AP Stats credit can also get you out of the math requirement, but that’s only one quarter, so if you don’t want to take three quarters of something else you’d have to take one non-calc math course.

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I didnt apply but i was planning to. Since i got ino nyu stern ed i can no longer. How easy would you say it is for a chic grad to get a job on wall,street? This is my ultimate goal and sometimes i regret not applying ed1 to uchic and ed2 to nyu stern.

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(1) Never mind. I figured out the answer to the question re Psychology. (2) Is there some internal publication where students review particular classes? (3) How does the class registration process work? I see from a Maroon article that they’ve just changed the bidding system in some ways. Do most people get most classes they want (not necessarily the sections/time/day they want, but the classes)? Do students majoring or minoring in a subject get preference?