Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Swarthmore and Uchicago
Heeeheeehee.
Parent of a UofC student
How 'not fun' is u of c ? It's my DD's top choice. She does just study all the time, but it seems like college should be some fun.
We visited Hopkins and that seemed to be the least fun college of all time .
Where would be a U of Chicago alternative school that would be a bit of fun?
if your DD wants to go to UChicago, she definitely should. it's an excellent school. that said, it's incredibly intense. the undergrads are treated essentially like grad students, vis-a-vis the academic expectations of them. the kids tend to be somewhat socially awkward and obsessed with their schoolwork (aka studying late on a saturday night).
i say this as someone who almost went to uchicago for undergrad, did go there for grad school, and whose sister went there for undergrad.
my vote for a school with a good combination of academic excellence and fun campus life would be umich, assuming you like big ten sports.
I’m the parent who laughed. My kid is currently there. She has fun — that wasn’t the disqualifier — nor, obviously, was excellent academics). It was reasonable amount of pressure. The quarter system is brutal/unforgiving, everybody is smart and works very hard, profs have high standards. And the Core Curriculum means lots of requirements as well as the need to be reasonably competent in fields other than your own. For STEM majors, Core plus lots of sequential courses can mean fun things like study abroad are out of reach if you want to do a thesis and graduate in 4 years.
People (profs and students, including grad students) have all been friendly and helpful. There are a wealth of opportunities and great facilities. I’m very pro-UofC at this point, but I would never recommend it to someone who wants to avoid a high-pressure environment. FWIW, Madison was my daughter’s fun/reasonable pressure alternative and we’re both convinced she would have been very happy there as well.