<p>That’s pretty much the way I see it, glasses. I hate doing busywork, and I also hate studying for tests, and I feel like the work I’m assigned (95% of the time) is interesting and has a purpose. Thus, I like doing it, and it doesn’t seem to actually be “work.”</p>
<p>If you’re admitted, you can do the work here. It’ll be hard sometimes, but it won’t kill you. Most of the people who say the work here is harder than other schools haven’t ever gone to other schools. I’ve checked out syllabi posted online for courses at other colleges, specifically Williams, Barnard, and Bryn Mawr, and some of those courses seem to require just as much work-- maybe even more work-- than a Chicago class.</p>
<p>Where I think Chicago is different is that there aren’t “gut” classes or “gut” majors-- the kind where students show up, get an A, and leave. Most colleges have at least some classes that are gut-ish (maybe not exactly my exaggeration), to appease the crop of students who don’t want to invest time and energy into schoolwork. Chicago does not have that option for students who don’t want to open a book during their time in college.</p>
<p>This school is not right for people who fear not being successful. From what I’ve seen in high school in college, the reason a lot of students get great grades (and, from there, get into top schools) is because they don’t know what they would do with themselves if they get anything less than an A. You see this attitude on CC all the time, or, what I like to call, “Does this 750 make me look fat?”</p>
<p>That attitude will leave you in an emotional gutter at the U of C. If you scale your expectations and see a B+ or an A- as a goal grade rather than an A, I think you’ll be fine. Most students don’t talk about their grades anyway, so if you’re working hard, you’re working hard not to do better than the person down the hall from you, but to do the best that you can do.</p>