Columbia and Uchicago

amykins
Sat, 26 May 2007 12:10:32 +0000

1) This has been covered many, many times. The short answer is no-- Chicago sends many, many, many students on to graduate and professional schools, and they know that the students, by and large, are top quality and prepared to do the work. Chicago students can also redeem a GPA disparity with standardized tests, and what admissions offices for graduate school look for more than anything (so I’ve read elsewhere on these forums) is that students challenge themselves. Chicago has that challenge built-in.

Another note: I know that Harvard gets knocked quite often for grade inflation, but Harvard is the kind of school that runs hot and cold depending on department. Even so, their average GPA is only about 3.4… so either way, you’re not seeing many 3.8’s and 3.9’s. According to my friend who is pursuing a linguistics PhD at Chicago and was at Harvard for undergrad, the first time she EVER got straight A’s was her first quarter… as a PhD student at Chicago.

2) Math is not avoidable; calculus is. You can take stats, computer science, or “studies in math.”

3) About 1/3 of the classes you take in college will be core classes. You can decide if you want to take your sosc core (Columbianese: Contemporary Civ) first or second year; you can decide if you want to study abroad for Civ third year or take it second year; you can decide how long you want to go before you take Core Bio or your Art/Music/Drama.