UChicago from a former pre-med student

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Chicago ✅
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<p>I've been surfing this forum for quite some time and I finally decided to post in order to give some direction to some lost seniors. I am a former pre-med student from UChicago and my overall experience was alright; I am trying to give the most truthful description as possible. To say the least UChicago chooses amazing people intellectually with extreme diversity in thought, ethnicity, religion, and overall in mind. Despite such a unique student pool I was extremely dissatisfied with the lack of social life, coming from NYC I thought Chicago would be just as big, fun and mighty, but the campus is way too quite. The campus itself is beautiful but again if nothing's going on it's going to be extremely boring, and trust me four years in this place isn't something I would do again. </p>

<p>And that leads me into my next point, if you are doing sociology or anthropology, great, Chicago is for you, even econ. If you are doing engineering, MEDICINE(like I did) or law, I would not recccomend Chicago. As good as Chicago is, when it comes down to it graduate schools especially for premed don't care where you went, all they care about is your GPA. Look up people who go to Albany med school or Jefferson, or Harvard or Yale there are as many if not less top25s in those schools than there are kids who chose a less rigorous/prestigous path. I talked to a dean once and he told me the last 4.0 in the school was supposedly 30 years ago. I had strongly considered JHU as well for premed, but avoided it based on its cutthroat competetiveness, Chicago is probably more competetive, we boast a 88%+ rate into med school simply because the small distribution of high grades in pre-med classes forces so many candidates out. Take it from me, 800 on 5 satii's, 5 on 10/11 aps, 1590 on my sati, and I would do anything for a 3.5. Overall my experience was ok, but I cannot stress this enough. I think Chicago's strongest attribute lays in its character and the fact it gets kids in with real world situations, over getting into US news and having perfect SAT scores.
I also think the range of kids(intellectually) at Chicago provides a problem as some experienes seem to rather blight others kids. I had an Indian roomate once who was thrown into a dumpster and had to have a psychiatric evaluation after he snapped. Yes, I know, that soudns extreme and unlikely, however I didn' tlike the way the school handled it, by not suspending anyone.
However whether it is prestige or a strong undergraduate program you are seeking I would say from my experience Chicago has potential, but is very mediocre in many senses compared to a lot of schools. The uniqueness of an individual is in no way exemplified to its true potential. Even more than that, it doesn't matter what school you go to or how much you pay for undergrad, getting into grad school should be your focus if you are a pre-med, pre-law and if you can't do that its not worth it. Trust me, it may seem painful to hear that but like me and half of my friends, I applid to 8+ med schools and go rejected from every single one of them (3.4 gpa, a very good one for a pre-med at UChic, and a 34 MCAT). All in all, if you are only seeking an undergraduate experience, come to Uchic, you may like it. If you are planning on an above average, not everyone in the library studying til 3am, I can actually get into med school undergraduate than Chicago is not the place for you. That's as honestly as I could say it.</p>

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<p>So the pre-professionals at Chicago don't do too well then? Well,a ctualy teh answer is obvious, but that's quite disturbing.</p>

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<p>Doctor, what are you doing now?</p>

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<p>I didn't understand what you were implying about the dumpster incident. "The range of kids intellectually at Chicago presents a problem..." Do you mean that there are some really bright kids and some really not so bright kids? And the ones who are not so bright, and probably not so mature, were responsible for throwing the kid in the dumpster?</p>

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<p>If you had to do it all over again, where would you go for pre-med?</p>

<p>And what med schools did you apply to?</p>

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<p>I continued my education for one more year at my state university and reapplied to Med School which boosted up my GPA tremendously, I go to U Illinois for med school.
I would definately go for premed go, I would love to be a doctor, just not at UChicago and as for med schools I applied to the list is massive, most of them were those you never heard of Jefferson, Einstein etc. That just tells you all another thing, that medicine itself is very tough, and getting every advantage in your direction only helps</p>

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<p>So you're saying a student with a 3.7 from UI would get into med school ahead of a student with a 3.4 at UC? Right?</p>

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<p>For a different perspective from a former premed student: <a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=94082%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=94082&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>I believe the graduating class of 2002 or 2003 had two 4.0 students, 2004 had a 3.98 GPA. </p>

<p>My nephew who graduated from a top tier Ivy roomed at med school (recently graduated) with a student from a state school. He said he saw no advantage from his Ivy education. For medical school, it is true that where one goes to undergrad is not so important, as long as one has very good grades and excellent MCAT's. I have seen some posts in the parent forum, however, that suggest one has to have a higher GPA than a top private, and that at that level, getting it may be as difficult or more so than a private, and radically curtails one's social life. I do not know if this is true or not, but points to the fact that the premed life is not an easy one wherever one goes.</p>

<p>This was posted recently, but it might be worth a repost: <a href="http://maroon.uchicago.edu/o-issue/2005/the_unofficial_guide_to_being_a_u_of_c_premed.php%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://maroon.uchicago.edu/o-issue/2005/the_unofficial_guide_to_being_a_u_of_c_premed.php&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

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<p>He's not telling the whole story.</p>

<p>3.4 GPA isn't THAT great, in fact it doesn't even qualify you for honors in most cases. I think he's just bitter, and is either flat-out lying or leaving out important details. Details like those that were laughably absent from the "dumpster" incident, and plain IGNORANCE about grad school (don't go to U of C if you plan on law school? Really? Don't go to the best economic program in the nation?) I wouldn't even be surprised if he's fabricating the entire story, and never even attended. Come on, even his screen name is "Doct0r."</p>

<p>You also write remarkably poorly for a U of C alum--especially someone who is trying to attend graduate school of any sort. I'd be most interested in reading your application essays. No really, you seem extremely qualified to attend Harvard Medical or Pritzker.</p>

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<p>Debasser,</p>

<p>I had the same general feeling when I read DoctOr's post the first time. I went back and read the posts again, and I agree. I think it's bogus. It's rife with spelling and grammatical errors.</p>

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<p>wow why is everyone on this site so insanely paranoid?! debaser I personally hate it when people tell anyone else to correct grammar, i knew I wrote horribly but hey this is an internet forum! Secondly I didn't say don't take econ, econ is amazing at uchicago, one of the best majors in fact. And debaser I acknowledged 3.4 was horrible, but by Chicagos premed standards it is very high. lastly, im not telling you to forget law or preprofessoinals, I'm telling you to consider it VERY seriously. Over half the nation's pre-med don't get in first time, so I'm not alone. and as iDad said when it comes to graduate school they want to see kids with the grades not the names. I'm not sad or bitter, I know I scored at the top of my premed classes and ended up in somewhat of a dilemma, but no doubt I was not alone. Again, I loved Chicago, but in terms of getting into graduate school all I'm saying is don't go somewhere, even if it may be excellent, if there's no way you could attain the means to get into graduate school</p>

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<p>
[quote]
in terms of getting into graduate school all I'm saying is don't go somewhere, even if it may be excellent, if there's no way you could attain the means to get into graduate school

[/quote]
Whether or not your personal experience regarding pre-med studies is valid, the statement that I'm quoting above regarding "graduate school" is over-general and off-base. There is plenty of evidence with respect to the success of UofC students in completing doctoral programs; nationally, they are within the top 10 colleges in “PhD productivity” (see <a href="http://web.reed.edu/ir/phd.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://web.reed.edu/ir/phd.html&lt;/a> ). I seriously doubt that UofC grads are at a collective disadvantage in admissions to professional schools such as law school, business school, or med school. (But I’d like to see the data either way.)</p>

<p>I might add that the average GPA is not as low at Chicago as people sometimes assume. Half of all students graduate “with honors,” namely with a 3.25+ GPA. As a former director of a doctoral program in the social sciences, I can also report that we knew how to adjust GPA’s from certain schools for grade inflation.</p>

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<p>I want to study law in graduate school and I will still attend UChicago if accepted-- Not all people put such drastic importance on party life. One of the reasons I want to go to UofC is because I detest parties and would like to meet other people who don't spend all their time thinking about their social life. Also, I will not take pre-law, but philosophy. Do you say that this would have an impact on my getting into a good law school? I don't quite understand what you're saying. I think your experience was a personal and specific one; generalizing as you did does not accurately reflect what occurs most of the time as mackinaw proved.</p>

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<p>A young friend is in her second year at med school at Case. If memory serves me correctly, she applied to 26 schools, was invited to interview at 8 or 9, and was accepted at, I believe, 4. In her case, I believe her recommendations and research work (at Skidmore) were here strongest suit. </p>

<p>I believe that OP brings up an important point - and it is a question of knowing yourself. Some students do their best work when challenged. This type of student - with a strong personality that is unlikely to be lost in the herd - would be a good candidate for a school such as Chicago or Columbia. Other students will do better - and be more confident - in a situation where they are the star. This was the situation with my friend who is now at Case.</p>

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<p>Don't panic about your GPA. My daughter just completed the first quarter of her second year. Her lowest grade so far has been a B+. She only received one of those; all other grades have been higher. This quarter she received three As and an A-. Yes, she works hard. But she also finds time to spend with her friends and goes downtown nearly every weekend.</p>

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<p>Doctor is not the first to suggest that going to a less rigorous school may be an advantage for pre-med students trying to maximize their GPA. Some have said the same thing about Johns Hopkins and Cornell on these boards. Anyway, there isn't really any reason that I can see to think his post is bogus. Though the dumpster incident isn't typical of student behaviour at UChicago, I suppose it could happen (and could happen at any school, really). I would suspect however, that that type of behaviour is much more common at Less Rigourous U or Party U (he did say UChicago is typically rather quiet)! And of course most wouldn't go to Chicago for engineering. They don't offer engineering, do they? At any rate, Doctor did achieve his goal of getting into med school, even if he ended up following a different and longer path to it than was his original plan, so congratulations on your persistence, Doctor!</p>

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<p>Sillystring, congratulations to your daughter! My son (second year) is also doing well, but not as well as that. He gets A's and B's, so far, slightly more than half A's, I believe. I honestly don't think he would have a higher GPA at an easier school, though. If he feels a class isn't challenging or is a waste of time (as he did many times in high school), he does much worse!</p>

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<p>UofC did have an incident with a "gangster party" earlier this... well last year.</p>

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<p>And the PC police blew it out of proportion - the lockstep conformity they call "diversity" is laughable.</p>

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<p>Sorry to be so naive, but what is a gangster party? Is it a party where students invite gangsters? Pretend to be gangsters? Bring guns?</p>