<p>The “Anticipation Meter” is threatening to go ballistic.
Please, bear with us newbie parents.</p>
<p>Yes, we have nothing else to do now that everyone else’s kids are off to school except stress out over those still in the nest! :)</p>
<p>Seriously though, there’s no point in such a late start to the school year. It’s ridiculous that Chicago starts almost 3 weeks after the next latest quarter-system school.</p>
<p>Easier to get airline reservations and S will be able to work 3 extra weeks (the rest of the interns left for school and the city had money left over). It will help pay for 4 days of school.</p>
<p>Actually, Northwestern starts classes on September 23 and Dartmouth on the 24th. I know its hard to still be at home when all your friends have gone to school, but the next 3 weeks will go by very quickly and you too will head to Hyde Park. Take it from a mom…its a great time to do some last minute bonding with your parents, I mean… there’s nothing else to do, right!!!</p>
<p>beefs:</p>
<p>Caltech starts Sept. 29 as well. Stop complaining.</p>
<p>Stanford starts only a few days earlier, too. We gave a farewell party for my first kid a week before she left, and the only kids from her class left were the Stanfords and the Chicagos (no Dartmouths in that group, or Northwesterns). She hung out with friends at Penn some, but they were kind of distracted by their new lives.</p>
<p>If one uses the summer term at U of C for classes/research, having a free September is sweet.</p>
<p>The bigger issue for UofC kids is getting out so late for summer break. What it means in practice is that a kid can’t wait until school is out to look for a summer gig. Kids that got out 4-6 weeks earlier will have snapped up what was not committed during the school year.</p>
<p>So kids MUST start summer internship/job/whatever hunt in the winter or over spring break.</p>
<p>This may be obvious to us, but I can guarantee you it is not obvious to college students.</p>
<p>Go buy some dorm sheets on sale.</p>
<p>There were only left-overs this weekend. Not even on sale.</p>
<p>Speaking of good things about a late start –
At least the $$ for S’s tuition bill is still in MY bank account…though the bill arrived in the mail today, so that won’t last long!</p>
<p>Do most first-years take three classes autumn quarter? Seems like that would be such a huge drop-off from a HS schedule that it would be easy to get overconfident – “Oh, I have only three classes to worry about” vs. needing to actively manage four.</p>
<p>CD, </p>
<p>You will find quickly that 3 courses are plenty to keep you busy, especially the hum core course with its reading and writing. </p>
<p>If you get overconfident and slack off, don’t worry. You will have a wake up call very quickly. In fact, the first big paper comes due right before family/parents weekend for most kids, and that first grade will be a bit of a shock for most first years.</p>
<p>CountingDown, I had one of each. My S took 4, managed, but received a serious reality check about the amount of work it took to succeed, whatever that meant to him at the time. Quarters move very quickly. As Newmassdad points out, that first paper is usually due or first exam scheduled just prior to Family Weekend. Classes start September 29, Family Weekend begins October 24…There is little “adjustment” time in terms of figuring out how to balance the classes, reading, homework, extracurriculars and life. My D took 3 classes the first quarter and 4 in the subsequent 2 quarters. For her it was a good plan. I think it all depends on your student, and again as Newmassdad points out, what classes they are taking. My D took Hum, Sosc and Math that first quarter and it was enough. She added Core Bio the second quarter. If a student is taking multiple Core reading-based classes, they might at least want to consider the option of taking 3 classes. Remember, the Chicago graduation requirements are set up to reflect that a student can take 3 courses/quarter for 6 quarters, and 4 classes/quarter for 6 quarters and still graduate on time. There must be a reason!</p>
<p>S1 found it easier to stay focused with 4 courses, but is taking 3 this quarter. He would take 4 with the idea of dropping one if it got too bad, but once one has put in the work for a couple of weeks, that is hard to do. As mentioned, the quarter keeps you hopping.</p>
<p>So it’s perfectly normal to take only 3 classes in your first quarter? Logically, I feel like it’s the best decision. It sounds like UChicago does not have the kind of workload that anyone should underestimate, so to go in with only 3 classes (which I’m sure is still no joke with a Hum and Sosc) is probably the smarter choice. I think it’s what I’ll do…unless I decide otherwise on O-week because of some new circumstances or something.</p>
<p>I took 3 my first quarter, because I wanted my 4th course to be “making friends, joining activities, and giving myself room to mess up.” I took hum, sosc, and physci (Physical Sciences core).</p>
<p>Hum and sosc were so-so challenging, and PhySci was a breeze (well… I took AP Physics in high school and found that easy, too, so I might not be the one to talk). I think I wrote 3 hum papers (2 short, one long final) and 2 sosc papers (one midterm, one final) that first quarter.</p>
<p>When I took 4 in the winter, I was more than ready for it.</p>
<p>I would encourage anyone on the nerdier side to take three their first quarter and invest heavily in building a decent social network, especially if you are outside of Max-P and hence do not naturally interact with a large portion of your class. Some students use four courses as a social excuse early on, and it definitely hurts the hundreds of good first impressions you should be making in September and October when group functions are more frequent than usual (e.g. Frat parties in the fall are dominated by first years). But as for the winter and spring quarters, and pretty much as long as you have the core hanging on, you should take four courses and move things forward. The fall (recruiting, graduate school applications, and thesis work) and spring (artificially short quarter to get grades in for graduation) of senior year are not the time to be taking a full load. Winter of junior year can be bad if you are gunning for rather competitive internships.</p>
<p>It really depends on the courses you take… so rather than taking 3 courses first quarter consider adding a easier core class that you’d eventually have to take anyway (e.g. Global Warming). That way you’ll have more flexibility down the line, and since it’d be an easy class, enough time to spread your wings. Personally, I noticed a big difference when I finished humanities in Spring Quarter and took Global Warming instead; a lot more time to just lunch with friends, join more activities and what not.<br>
O-Week also does a pretty good job of wing-spreading. </p>
<p>I would agree with uchicagoalum, third-year and fourth-year are going to be busy as hell, so you don’t want to cut down on classes early on.</p>