<p>There seems to be a lot of people on cc who really hate U of Chicago. However I know that most of them are not at all informed. I was wondering if anyone credible (former/prospective student, parent etc) could answer a few questions.
What are the students like? Are they as socially inept as people say they are?
Are they preppy, artsy etc???
What is a typical weekend schedule?
UC is bigger than most of the colleges I'm looking at. Is there any sense of community?
Are the academics overwhelming?
How does housing work?
Are there any especially outstanding classes/professors? </p>
<p>I'm a rising second-year in the college so I may offer some insight. </p>
<p>Is the student body anti-social? I'm not going to lie. There's a lot of ugly and awkward people here. But there is a small percentage (15%?) who have some social skills, and because they actually take care of themselves, look ok. That means about 150 people per class. Unfortunately, Chicago is super strict with id's so weekends are pretty much limited to drinking/smoking in the dorms (residence heads basically look the other way as far as alcohol and pot...but u have to be more careful with other stuff) and frat parties for your firt two years. After that, you have the city at your disposal. What does the other 80% do? I don't know and I'm not going to pretend I do. Study? Watch movies? Play Video Games? My point is that if you want to be social, you can be. </p>
<p>As far as academics, I asure you that you will get a first-rate education here. Although it gets a little intense around midterms and finals. (People literally fight over study rooms at the library). As far as grading, I think it's not that hard to get a B, but you have to work for all your A's. </p>
<p>There's not too much campus community spirit (it's not like we have a decent football team to rally around or anything) but there's definitely a sense of community within your "house." There are weekly meetings, study breaks, ski/camping trips, and trips to restaurants downtown. Houses also play each other in im sports, which of course builds house spirit. </p>
<p>Hope I helped a little. If you have further questions, just ask.</p>
<p>I think paperclip is pretty accurate. Chicago is not a preppy school. It is not a party school. It's a school where a first or second year has the opportunity to take seminars with grad students. It's a place where undergrads can become part of a research group or lab, not just bottle washers.</p>
<p>Weekend schedules depend on what you want to do (and be). Want to get into a top law school, med school, or an i-banking job? Then you'll spend some time at the library. Satisfied with Bs and and occassional C? Have fun.</p>
<p>Also, there are a lot of creative types here. There are fewer pre-professional types. They tend to hang out across town at Northwestern.</p>
<p>Newmassdad, I'd agree about the social (i.e., party) quotient from my observations from afar (and also as someone who taught there for one semester many years ago), but not about the pre-professional quotient. There are a whole lot of Chicago students who are thinking pre-med (main concentration: biology), pre-law (main concentration: polisci), pre-business (main concentration: econ) and are rather focused on that next step as opposed strictly to learning for its own stake. But because of Chicago's faculty and curriculum, they get to learn and think along the way.</p>
<p>I'd also add that how hard you work depends in part on how organized and how smart you are. You can and many students do get out of Dodge -- i.e., away from campus -- on a regular basis. Being "non-social" (non-party) doesn't mean you have no social life or opportunities to get involved in other activities both on campus and off. (My son often preferred the "off" and managed to do this on a regular basis, including being a big sports fan.)</p>
<p>Just a few clarifications: You can still have good grades and drink 4 days a week. It's all about time management. Trust me, there are plenty of frat boys who drink until they pass out on a regular basis, and still mange to get into Harvard Med School and land internships with J.P. Morgan. You go to class for about 12 hours a week. That leaves A LOT of hours to kill. Granted, you will be busting your ass when you need to ( ie. midterms and finals weeks). But for the rest of the time, you're not necessairly jeopardizing your grades for fun</p>
<p>As far as the "learning for its own sake" mentality. Some have it. Others (<em>cough</em> econ) majors are extremely focussed on landing i-banking internships.</p>
<p>Good points all. The son of a colleague of mine just got his PhD, after going through Chicago some years ago as a party-frat boy. There's no necessary relation between your future career and how much you like to party (or drink) at Chicago. And despite the alleged lack of grade inflation at Chicago, a whole lotta folks graduate "with honors" (3.25 GPA) -- and not all of them only studied there. It's also helpful to remember this: 24x7. There are 168 hours in the week, and when you truly have to you can find plenty of "free" hours for work or play.</p>
<p>Thanks so much guys, you're really helping! It sounds like the fraternities are the center of social life. Is this true? Are sororities big as well?</p>
<p>I have visited campus a few times and do not find any more ugly or awkward people there than anywhere else. My son certainly does not fall into that category. I would also assume that you are in the 15% that you refer to as being socially acceptable.</p>
<p>Also, don't knock the football team. Have you ever attended a game? The problem isn't the team, which is decent. The problem is lack of fan support. These players, along with athletes who participate in other fall sports, arrive on campus in August (the 21st this year) and spend an entire month practicing on their own time.</p>
<p>They have rigorous schedules with very little free time. Since Chicago is Division III, there are no scholarships for participation. They play because they love the game.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, because of the quarter system, three games are played before school starts.</p>
<p>Try supporting the team for a change. If you wanted a big time sports atmosphere, you should have attended a Division I school.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>I never used the words "socially-acceptable." That implies there exists some sort of well-defined, exclusive clique and that's not completely accurate. Perhaps I should have been more clear when using the word "social." At most colleges, 85% of the student body drinks/parties. The 15% who don't are often considered anti-social. That doesn't mean they lack communication skills, but that they chose to refrain from "normal" college-student social activity. In Chicago, the ratio is flipped, hence the "anti-social student body" label.</p>
<ol>
<li> NO Chicago student will tell you we have an exceptionally good-looking student body. Ask your son. Unless he's in denial, he'll tell you.</li>
</ol></li>
<li><p>As to your "I suppose your in that 15%" comment. well...yes...that's y I know a lot about that social scene and that's y I'm writing about it. Libs asked about a typical weekend schedule so I gave her insight into a typical weekend for me and my friends. I don't know what a lot of the other students do. I'm not going to make assumptions like "other social circles go see plays downtown" becasue although that may be true, I've never actually heard of anyone doing that. </p></li>
<li><p>Yes, I've attended games. I have friends on the team, and went to support them. I know they work hard and it does consume a lot of their time. But let's not kid ouselves here. You can't call a team with a losing streak "decent." </p></li>
<li><p>I didn't want a big time sports atmosphere! I never said I did. Libs asked if there's a strong sense of community. All I said was we don't have that sort of atmosphere, and that is among the reasons why there's not that as big of a sense of community here as at schools that do (Duke comes to mind). I didn't even say it's a negative thing or somehting that's somehow detracting from my unergrad experience.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>From what I've heard, Chicago has less big-group partying than some east coast schools, and more sitting in your room and drinking/partying with friends -this does not sound exciting to me, but certainly liveable. I must say when I was on campus visiting people seemed remarkably clustered in small groups everywhere I went, as opposed to having more open postures of people at other schools I've seen -but it was near finals and the end of the year, so perhaps they were more tired/serious. I think Chicago has the disadvantage of being large enough a student will not know a majority of the other students they run into throughout the day, yet not having the same big party scene of a lot of other universities -I do think however that friendly people wind up with good friends just like any other school. A lot of people apply to Chicago simply as a back-up to the ivies, so Chicago is not a first-choice school for 50% of the people who wind up there which may affect morale. I'll let you know the validity of the unusually high % ***hole rumor in a couple of weeks when I'm on campus.</p>
<p>As far as looks go, there is definitely a range like at every school. The hottest guy from my hs goes there. Chicago definitely has lots of "geeks." I've noticed this thing where less-academically focused schools tend to have better looking people, and preppier, richer schools tend to have better groomed/better looking people -however, neither of these characteristics are particularly attractive to me.</p>
<p>mackinaw, I agree that a lot of chicago grads go on the professional schools. I think the difference is that many of the students are, for example poly sci or econ majors that happen to go on to law school, rather than "I'm pre law, just happen to be an econ major."</p>
<p>Bio could be a bit different, but I note that it's probably harder for a bio major to get into med school than for other majors, but the rest of that story is beyond this thread.</p>
<p>I've never taken a class at any of the Ivies, so I'm therefore in no position to compare Chicago to any of them. All I can tell you is that I've had a fullfilling academic experience here thus far. I found my professors intelligent, knowledgeable, and dedicated (my sosc prof once e-mailed me to find out if I was ok/ why I haven't been going to class lately). I like that most of my professors return papers with half a page of typed-up feedback along with a grade PLUS comments right on the paper. It's such a welcome contrast to my high school experience where I usually just got a grade and some trite comment like "good" or "well-written" or "excellent." I also like the "anti-textbook" atitude of the university's humanities and social sciences division. My sister goes to a state school where she reads about Freud's theories from an "into to psych" book. I get to read Freud and decipher what he's getting at with my class (of about 20) during class discussion. This is why I think I'm getting a "first-rate" education here. As to how it compares to the ivies, I have no authority to make such a judgement.</p>
<p>Anonyminity: Yes, most of the faces you pass on the quads, you won't recognize. But by the end of fall quarter, every face you see at a party, you've probably seen before. Alas, this creates an atmosphere where gossip spreads like wildfire and everyone is "all up in each other's ****." This, of course, makes things like break-ups particularly difficult. I guess that's my major gripe about the school socially.</p>
<p>My elder daughter graduated from U of Chicago in 2001. She had a phenomenal education. She also had a great time getting to know the city of Chicago with her friends. Academically the school is tough, which I think has led to a misrepresentation of the student population as unsociable, heads down geeks.</p>
<p>Although I was not an undergrad at Chicago, I was a TA, and therefore had a great deal of contact with undergrads. My impression was that they were little different from undergrads at other schools with which I had experience. These schools included state schools and top tier schools including Ivies. By not different, I mean socially. They were better scholars than most, largely because of the Chicago pedagogy. Truthfully though, I always thought that many of the students worked harder than what was really required. I was often able to help undergrads to study more effectively, less brute force studying and more thinking through a discipline. As an earlier poster said, the perceived study requirements do affect social activities, but once a student learns to study more efficiently, more time is available for other activities. It is also important to understand that for many Chicago students fun comes from discovery, overcoming a challenge, gaining a new insight, and enjoying the company of smart people.</p>