Reply to Univ of Chicago

Forum Index » College and University Discussion

Reply to "Univ of Chicago"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous]DC at U Chicago here. Let me try to answer your original question.

The first years just took their first quarter midterms, and are bemoaning calculus at various levels and inquiry based learning (proofs) across the board. Chicago is unique in that college level calculus and three humanities sequences reading primary sources are required of ALL undergraduates.  You cannot place out of math here, just place into higher levels of math. The philosophy of the school is that the college sits across all disciplines and you cannot graduate without learning significant ways of thinking in all areas. The kids are reporting 27 out of 40, 10 out of 40 on the midterms... by contrast I went to Harvard and did not have to take a single math course to get a summa degree in economics at graduation.

My DC also loves that the Chicago Principles exist and are supported by President ZImmer and Alivisatos, which support vigorous debate and free speech on campus. So loud external agitators can't shut down debate the way they can at other schools. I heard about grad students at Chicago agitating to get a professor who had beliefs they disliked fired, and the President shut that down asap by citing the principles and telling the grad students they were free to go elsewhere. This was something my DC wanted - his point "how can I study philosophy effectively if I am going to be told what to think"? David Axelrod founded the Institute of Politics at Chicago and "gasp" it is bipartisan and even invites conservative speakers!

Finally, at Chicago a kid needs to be a self starter and confident- there are  hundreds of clubs, Greek Life, house events, and a career track you are introduced to immediately and most kids join multiple things. This is while you are thrown into the quarter system- add drop is by week three, then midterms are week 4-5, so there is no grace period. Midterms are occuring concurrent with Family Weekend, so kids are trying to see their families and still needing to submit papers by midnight Friday, Saturday, Monday... . But point of pride they are getting it done.

This is a snapshot, but hope it helps. It's the right fit for our family. I don't want to convince anyone of anything, just share what was important to us. Good luck to your daughter.[/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