UChicago Feedback
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Anonymous
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DS loves it. He graduated from the top high school in our city (ranked higher than your big 3) and definitely finds the course work challenging.
I adore my son but he’s a Jewish nerd in a school of multi religious nerds! |
Anonymous
Gratuitous rankling just causes threads to spiral. |
Anonymous
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My niece graduated from UChicago a few years ago, double majoring in Economics/Statistics. She studied in a good international IB school previously, and described the coursework as arbitrarily difficult. I have spoken with a bunch of her friends as well, from all sorts of high schools around the country, and that assessment is pretty universally shared.
Which is not to say that the kids didn’t have fun, or didn’t make friends or anything. Just that it was a grind, and nothing they had done previously could have prepared them adequately for it. |
Anonymous
Yes and DC was ready for this kind of work. Quarter system is relentless. Strong writing skills and ability to read closely helped — Core means that this is true for STEM students as well. DC had lots of faculty contact throughout (in and out of major). I would have characterized it as big nerds playing with little nerds. DC found time to leave campus/do stuff in other parts of the city fairly regularly, compete in a club sport, participate in DocFilms and the Folk Festival on campus. It’s high-energy, at times grueling environment, so if that’s not where or how your kid thrives, I’d encourage them to avoid it. But if “contents under pressure” works better than “choose your own adventure,” then check it out. Personally, I fall in the latter camp (DC is in the former), though both of us love an intellectual challenge. Just different styles/sources of motivation. |
Anonymous
| How does your kid feel about the Core? They better be excited about it, because those classes are rigorous and impossible to avoid. |
Anonymous
| Wow - so many people describing "cut-throat" environment, or "arbitrarily hard". I have two kids there. Yes, both really love to learn, but they have close sets of friends, go out weekend nights, have lots of activities, and don't describe things this way. They find the faculty really good, and describe most of their classes as really interesting. Different kids, but neither would switch. |
Anonymous
This. If your DC is serious like this, Chicago may we’ll be the best place. If not…. |
Anonymous
| The comment about Core is interesting. When you tour the school, they make it seem like the Core is no issue because you have such a huge selection of courses. The example they mentioned multiple times was “Physics for Future Presidents.” I guess easy physics for political science majors. |
Anonymous
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So much bad information. So much nonsense. Let me try and give s balanced perspective
1) some majors like CS, Math, Physics, CAAM and Premed related majors are tough 2) Some like Econ, are quite not so bad. You can maintain a high GPA ( 3.6+) 3) Some are a joke and aimed at certain students. Most are humanities You can mix and match. So if you take a CS and pol Science you can average out your GPA to a decent 3.5+ if you have good work ethic and time management skills There are known courses to take in almost every core area that are "gimme A" courses. You may not learn much and will get your head filled with woke nonsense in some courses, but will cruise through to an A. It's a fast paced quarter system, so if you have bad time management or work ethic, you will feel the pain Most faculty and students are Uber liberal. Administration keeps their worst woke tendencies in check. Small but passionate conservative students and faculty get a lot of coverage in media but they are a tiny minority that only survives because the admin gives them some intellectual cover Safety has worsened after the lightfoot admin came to office and summer 2020, but if you are careful and travel in groups, you should be fine. Social life is great (;a little too distracting, if you ask me) if you are friendly and generally not a dou***bag Food in dining plan is mediocre. Most choose to bail from dorms as soon as they can. Getting in and out of Chicago is super easy if you don't live in the boonies |
Anonymous
| well the first year is pretty consumed with the core. it is okay, until there is a rush to figure out major but you haven't explored too many classes bc too busy with core. |
Anonymous
+1 It’s off our list for a few reasons. One is that they try to reduce their acceptance rate by encouraging unqualified students to apply. |
Anonymous
Some faculty are just awesome.. Some are Meh, some downright awful. You have to check reviews and ask friends. The bad teachers are well known. You just have to dig |
Anonymous
I’ve never even seen the campus. I could be wrong. But I picture core UChicago people as being people who, as children, memorized almanacs for fun, wish they’d known Plato, and see familiarity with something like the core as being essential to being an educated person. They’re people who, if they come from an affluent household, with no disabilities or other testing issues, are going to score 780 or higher on the verbal SATs, without prepping, because they’re the kind of people who write the SATs. My suspicion is that a lot of the people who go to UChicago and are unhappy are bright, well-rounded people who wanted to go to a prestigious school, not the almanac memorizers. I have been at Northwestern, and I think the situation is the reverse there. That’s a place that makes bright, well-rounded go-getters feel great and the almanac memorizers feel a lot of stress. |
Anonymous
 they get coverage because the girl's multi-millionaire mom and dad are Fox News hosts
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Anonymous
| I did a phd there in the 90s-mid 2000s and the undergrads are wickedly smart. It is an oasis of learning and intellectual inquiry and I now teach at a top university which doesn't hold a candle to the over environment of Chicago. The undergrads are, typically, self selecting, but there has been some "normalization" and much better amenities and focus on the undergrad experience in the 2000s and 2010s. Fun no longer comes there to die, but fun still has to work its ass off. |