Reply to Uchicago - how crushing is the quarter system?

Forum Index » College and University Discussion

Reply to "Uchicago - how crushing is the quarter system?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]To give you an idea of how much downtime there is if a kid takes 3 classes per quarter - my DC is also an athlete w 4-5 hours of practice a day plus also a research assistant and a TA and part of a social club. To do all this, you need discipline in time management.[/quote]

That's true but a kid doesn't have to do athletics or sign up for multiple activities.  If all you did was three classes plus may be one EC, there's plenty of non class time to focus on papers and studying.  My point is that to a large degree the schedule pressure can be self-driven.  Unless you are on work-study.
[/quote]

Don’t you generally need 4 courses about half the time (and 3 the other half) to accumulate enough credits to graduate in 4 years?

Also, workload may be a function of number/selection of courses (with the latter not always in the student’s control, both because lots of (STEM?/core) courses are sequences and because undergrads do get shut out of top choice classes), but pace is a function of the length of the term. [/quote]

DC is a STEM double major and hasn't had an issue with course shut out as an undergraduate.  I do have the impression that sometimes he's gone to a professor to be enrolled but so far it's worked out.  Overall I get the impression that the faculty goes out of their way to be supportive.  However, I don't believe they pamper and that is an important distinction.  Numerically, I'm sure there are quarters where 4 classes are needed but honestly there are courses at every university that aren't a lot of work.  I'm not involved enought to know the # courses but if he can graduate in 3 years, it can't be all that bad.  His friends are having the same experience.  This is the age that they should go forth with their educations with no fear.  Is it a  school for everyone?  Of course not.  No school is.  I will say that the work can be hard but the peer group is supportive and friendly.  It's not a cut throat environment.  A good place for kids who want a hard academic workout whatever that means on their terms.[/quote]

My DC is also a STEM major and has had to wait a year for a course in the major and has also routinely not gotten specific ARTs core offerings when desired.  My broader point, though, is sequences, prerequisites, and caps on course size (as well as scheduling conflicts generally) mean that it’s a myth that in the quarters when you must take 4 courses you can always put together a collection of 4 easy courses.  Judging from what you’ve said, I believe your kid was admitted the same year as my kid. Rules about AP credits have changed since then and an additional on campus credit minimum has been established. (My DC, too, could graduate in three years — I suspect the University is trying to make that harder since it’s a money-losing proposition for them in most cases).

Agree that the faculty are generally very supportive (a number have been amazingly so).  And undergrads are supportive of each other.  But that not infrequently means a bunch of stressed/depressed kids huddling together for warmth.  And/or the least stressed kid feeling compelled to help others worse off vs focus on their own work.  How/whether/to what extent these issues will affect any particular kid going to UChicago varies, of course, but they are real issues (and not a function of drive or academic ability or fear) and should be taken into account.

[/quote]

It does depend on the kid.  Mine likes to dive deep into fewer courses at a time so the quarter system suits him.  And admittedly he manages workload and navigates processes such as registration like a champ.  His high school taught him that.  I didn't say that UChicago's system works for everyone.  Even for him, there were times I was pretty worried about the load.  But to offset that is how happy he is with all the choices he's been able to pursue.  I have no idea why he has always gotten his courses.  He does have a lot of older friends that I believe might have helped him identify the prerequisites path early on.  He is also open to different CORE courses so it's easier for him to put the pieces together.  That's possibly the only advice he's taken from me.  It turned out in our case that all the worrying I did over the pace of the quarter system was for nothing.  And if it had not been right, I always told him he could transfer.   BTW - I do not keep up with curriculum changes but my DC had very few AP courses.  His school just wasn't into that.  I do vaguely recall that the University placement exams had course waivers he actually didn't plan to use but yielded to the advisors.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics