Does UChicago live up to its "extremely hard" reputation?

TheBanker
Wed, 18 Mar 2015 03:54:01 +0000

The administration has taken many steps to improve the undergrad experience, and this is reflected in more relaxed grading policies. While I don’t have statistics, I think the average GPA is now 3.4-3.5. As an economics major, I came to UofC expecting a brutal curve, since I had heard the economics classes were curved to a B- average. In reality, the curve has been better than expect — think a B+ average.

Remember that Chicago is on the quarter system, and often times professors will cram material into one quarter that would fit into a semester at other schools — this is the big reason why classes feel rushed. Relatively speaking, I think Chicago is on par with the more rigorous Ivies such as Princeton and Columbia.

Also, Hyde Park is pretty boring, so you might not have many other things to do besides study. You can definitely choose easy core classes — there are quite a few of them. But if you want to breeze by your college years, this is not the place to be.