I returned from Admit day this week with my DS24. Overall, it was a fun experience to learn more about the school. For future UChicago prospects and parents, I thought I’d share my observations of things that I learned, which some might find helpful. These are different from my personal experiences going to a big state public school (as an undergrad).
Active Career Advancement: Career Advancement, which seems to fall under the Admissions department, supports students from the very start. Students get assigned a career advancement counselor, in addition to an academic one. They are responsible to make sure students get early guidance & plan on classes, internships, research, etc. if they are interested in a particularly field (e.g. pre-med, law, finance, liberal arts) or guide them if they are undecided. For pre-med (my kid’s focus), I learned that they have 3 staff - a good ratio for 150 students on this track. During the med school application process, they will also review resumes, help with personal statements, and conduct mock interview. Overall, they seem much more active than what I’m used to.
Core + open curriculum: Students get wide discretion to pick/choose classes. Because UChicago undergrad is under one college, it is easy for a bio major to change to a CS or economics major, as long as all requirements are completed by the time they graduate. This allows flexible minors and additional majors. I saw this positively because students can explore and can change their mind without needing to “apply” to different colleges.
Research: Research is a major theme. I learned that 80% of the students participate in some research and there are more research opportunities than students. It seems like professors are more open to cold-emails by students for research opportunities vs state schools. Obviously, I see this positively for my DS who is interested in going to med school.
Knowledge as a theme: Related to research, I get the sense that UChicago constantly strives to seek new knowledge as an institutional priority. I can see why they liked my son’s essays.
Graduate Programs: UChicago is trying to better tie the undergraduate experience with its graduate programs. When I talked with the Dean of Booth (who came from Stanford and Penn), he said that UChicago actively promotes collaboration between Booth and undergraduates. As a result, undergrads can take up to 6 Booth courses, if they want. Undergrads can also get guidance from Booth students for things like case preparation and finance interview. They also allow UChicago students to apply to Booth MBA (w/o GMAT) before graduation and get deferred acceptances, in which they can return to Booth after several years of working with a substantial scholarships. They have a similar program for law. Obviously, I see giving undergraduate exclusive opportunities to work with UChicago’s graduate school programs as a positive thing.
Overall, the event gave me more assurances that my DS chose the right school.
I would be curious to know if some of these are more common at other private colleges. Going to a public school, I found them novel. For those who went to UChicago’s admit day, please feel free to share what other observations you had.
