<p>There are lots of other people who can answer these questions better than I, but I’ll have a go:</p>
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<li>Of course it’s possible to graduate with a 3.7 GPA, and without socially starving yourself, but it’s also possible to starve yourself socially and graduate with less than a 3.7 GPA. A 3.7 GPA probably puts you somewhere in the 80th-90th percentile of graduates. In other words, lots of people achieve at that level, in every major, but lots of very, very smart people who will go on to have great careers fall short of that. It’s not just a question of working hard, although working hard certainly helps. Talent enters into things a lot. And recognize that while you may be the smartest person in the room in all your high school classes, you may never be the smartest person in the room at the University of Chicago. Or even the second-smartest. That’s OK, because not being #1 doesn’t mean you stop learning and stop being a valuable person.</li>
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<p>Just don’t obsess too much about your GPA. If you want to, you can probably find courses that are easy enough or graded easily enough that they will boost your grades. Don’t give in to the temptation. Study what you need to learn, not what you need for grades.</p>
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<li><p>Honors Calculus is in many ways the signature course of the Chicago Math Department. They love it, and secretly think everyone should take it. If you are even half-competent, and you are willing to try it, they will let you. If you have a 3 or higher on the Calculus BC exam, but are not obviously a candidate for Honors Analysis, they will recommend you take Honors Calculus. If you have a strong background in calculus, you should be given a chance to take the inquiry-based section of Honors Calculus, which is almost like a different course, one that math people tend to love but which takes a lot of time.</p></li>
<li><p>Very few people are recommended for Honors Analysis. They tend to have a strong background in math courses well beyond the Calculus BC level, and a lot of experience with proofs. Chicago attracts a lot of students interested in math, and graduates about 100 math majors per class. Of those, 10-15 might qualify for Honors Analysis as first-years.</p></li>
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<p>Unlike Harvard, though, where Math 55 is only open to freshmen, Chicago lets second-year students take Honors Analysis if they have done well in Honors Calculus. </p>
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<li> Math with specialization in economics is what the Economics Department at Chicago tells you to take if you want to pursue a PhD in Economics. They would rather you learn a lot of math and a decent amount of economics than a lot of economics and not quite a lot of math.<br></li>
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<p>I don’t know what the “downside” is, unless you dislike math or aren’t very good at it, or unless you don’t want to work that hard. (Lots of people have perfectly good reasons not to want to work that hard. Like EC activities that take a lot of time, teach them a lot, and may be more important for their future careers than classes.) There are a lot of different paths through the Economics major, and some of them are a lot more rigorous (and mathy) than others. If all you know is that someone got an Economics AB at Chicago, you don’t know all that much about his skill levels without looking carefully at his transcript. With Math/Specialization, you know the person is a stud without anything more.</p>
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<li> Every year, it seems like a couple of people triple major. It helps if the fields are closely related/adjacent, like CS and Math, or Math and Econ. It probably helps a lot if you place out of the Core language, biology and physical science requirements, since that would effectively give you an extra quarter-and-a-half to take courses that meet major requirements. To my mind, however, it’s kind of a stupid thing to do. Employers and graduate schools really don’t give a crap about double or triple majors.</li>
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<p>One of the real joys of college is taking a few courses that don’t relate to anything just because they seem cool. The ability to do that is far more valuable than that third major, and triple-majoring means giving it up. If you majored in Math and had a few CS courses on your transcript – enough to show interest and some skill level – you would be a serious candidate for 90% of “CS” jobs, as well as for a bunch of jobs where people wouldn’t necessarily want CS graduates.</p>
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<li> If you haven’t been admitted yet . . . save these questions for April.</li>
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