<p>Don’t listen to us folks who don’t know you from “adam”, who have no idea what your background, strengths, weakness or track record are.</p>
<p>Talk to an advisor O-week. They have access to your admission data and test results from O-week. This will give them a pretty good idea of what you can handle, and how you stack up against your classmates. </p>
<p>Keep in mind, too, that while all U Chicago classes are demanding, there is still a range. For example, most would agree that honors analysis is a bit more demanding than 130 series math. :)</p>
<p>Chicago is not a particularly competitive environment, except for pockets like econ or maybe pre-med (flamers welcome to add their counterviews…). But your abilities relative to your classmates still have an impact on what you can handle. And this must be matched to the courses. Some kids breeze through honors courses. Others are crushed by them.</p>
<p>Final note: Get to know your advisory as soon as you can. (s)he can be a real advocate for you if problems arise. For example, my D had significant medical problems that arose her first year. If it had not been for her advisor, she might have lost an entire quarter. Rather, her advisor went to bat for her and got some deadlines modified to suit the circumstances. You may well see posts about bad advisers following this. No doubt some are better than others. But there are some real gems in the group, and a wealth of good advice regarding all sorts of things. Don’t be shy, and don’t wait until they call you about a problem, heaven forbid…</p>
<p>Thanks for all the constructive comments here. I told S to come look at this part of the chat, because he had never considered taking only three classes – but now thinks there is some merit to that idea. I suspect he’ll take a Hum, Sosc, he’s hoping for very challenging math :), and a fourth class, which would be Honors, but for which he is extremely prepared and would be fun for him.</p>
<p>He already has some specific plans for finding a job and social activities. He can be very introverted if left to his own devices, so I was glad to hear he has thought about getting himself launched into life beyond studying. Anyone (or any offspring) here involved in social dance or contra at Chicago?</p>
<p>My impression is that surprisingly few students ever take only three courses (or, if they do, it’s only while they are writing their honors theses, or something like that). My kids have never been able to narrow their choices down to the point where they would have been happy taking only three courses. Four is pretty do-able, as long as they’re not all bestial (i.e., two lab sciences, an introductory language course, and a heavy reading course might be pushing things).</p>
<p>Try 3 spanish classes, including one grad level, plus something else (do not remember what) the same quarter. She could not decide among the spanish classes, so took all of them…</p>
<p>Would taking only 3 classes first quarter put me in a place behind my peers in any way? Truthfully, wouldn’t it be beneficial GPA-wise?..or is GPA not simply calculated by averaging all your grades from all your classes? Is there a weighted scale at UofC?</p>
<p>Uh… there isn’t a weighted scale, as far as I know, and as far as I know all grades count equally towards the GPA. You’ll have a major GPA and an overall GPA, once you declare a major… </p>
<p>Your primary concern shouldn’t be GPA, but rather getting a grip on how college is different from high school, and perhaps it’s GPA-related to the extent that you’re testing the waters to see what kind of work qualifies for what kind of grade (and that scale will vary from prof to prof). I’ll be honest-- a lot of kids start out taking 3 courses and find they have lots and lots of free time. Depending on what kind of person you are, you will either use this free time productively (trying out new clubs, attending office hours, staying at lunch an extra hour or four), or you will use it unproductively and you won’t feel prepared to take 4 classes a quarter.</p>
<p>I don’t need to take 4 classes a quarter ever again and I could STILL graduate early. But, like the others here, I can’t not take 4. </p>
<p>Don’t worry about being “ahead” or “behind” your peers. College is not the rat race that high school can be-- in high school, it seems like everybody seeks the same goal of admission to an elite college. But in college, students’ goals are incredibly diverse, to the extent that even if you have a relatively common and relatively competitive goal-- say, going to a top law, med, or business school-- you won’t necessarily “know” your “competition” because you’ll be surrounded by a lot of people who don’t have those same goals. I have a bunch of friends who may be interested in law, but I’d say that only one is “competitive” about it.</p>
<p>CAPS and pre-professional advising can help students identify opportunities and academic goals.</p>
<p>There is very little reason not to sign up for four classes at first. You have three weeks to drop one, if you choose, and many people overestimate workload when they pick their first batch of courses, so you might be left with a quite light schedule if you only take three.</p>
<p>The challenges of Hum+Sosc are overstated. Each tends to read about three books (~100p/wk), and requires little more than the three main papers (usually in the 3-10 page range, increasing). Both are, compared to most other classes, low workload.</p>
<p>The quarter system and the ability to take 3 or 4 courses was a Chicago invention so that students are free to let time vary (nothing special about 4 years) while taking the total number of courses necessary. This also why there is a graduation ceremony every quarter.</p>
<p>Again, We can’t tell you what will work for you. It depends on the course, the instructor and YOU. </p>
<p>Maybe a better way of looking at things is this: Why rush and cram everything into the first quarter? You have 15 more to worry about. I would say your primary task first quarter is to get settled into the U, make friends and learn the routine. </p>
<p>FWIW, I never heard anyone say “Wish I had taken another course last quarter…”</p>
<p>Alright thanks. I guess I’ll just look over the course summaries and wait until I talk with my advisor until I decide. Although I must say taking 3 classes first quarter looks tempting; not because I want to slack, but because I will be running Cross Country for the team, and it’d be nice to have some leisure reading time and time to make sure I get the most out of the 3 classes I’d be taking.</p>
<p>I say go for four classes for fall quarter, mainly because you’ve just returned back to the school mindset from that summer daze and are more willing to work. Winter, I suggest taking four as well. Spring, it’s you’re call.</p>
<p>I did 4-4-3. Also, I took SOSC and HUM together and it was intimidating at first but the name of the game is TIME MANAGEMENT and BALANCE. Do your work and let loose. </p>
<p>Example:
Friend - “How many shots have you had?”
Me - “I think six”
Friend - “How many pages of reading did you do?”
Me - “Probably half”
Friend - “That calls for at least three more!”</p>
<p>Also, take core bio as soon as you can. The quicker that gets out of the way, the better your life will be. Seriously.</p>
<p>Premeds do not take Core Bio. They take three quarters of one of the Bio major Fundamentals sequence (20180s or 20190s or AP5 Bio). Also, Core Bio is supposed to be very easy, not hard.</p>
<p>Core Bio is not difficult, it is just extremely time consuming. At least 8 hours class/lab time every week. Annoying is the term I’m looking for.</p>
<p>If you want Core Bio to be interesting without the extra coursework a real Bio class implies, take Larsen’s accelerated section. It has less lab time (though more lecture), less work, and the man is full of amusing anecdotes.</p>
<p>Ignore the placement-suggestion test. The class is ranked as the hardest, but it requires knowledge of what a cell is, what an atom is, and little else. My high school non-honors freshmen Bio class was canceled half-way through the year, and I felt as prepared as I needed to be.</p>