<p>what are the hardest and easiest majors at UChicgo in terms of GPA, and manageable courseload? now I hard and easy is extremely subjective and different people are good in different things, but on average, some majors would usually be seen as easier in terms of getting a better GPA or more manageable classes, etc.<br>
just like UChicago is usually seen as a “harder” school than most others, what are the easier and harder majors? I’m curious about that and do not believe in majoring something just because its easy, but still it’s something worth finding out. Thanks!</p>
<p>This has got to be the most un-Chicago question ever.</p>
<p>I’ll tell a story. My daughter had a bunch of friends who were TAPS (theater) majors. She took a class with some of them. For the two major assignments for a grade, people could choose between writing a paper or producing and staging a scene from a play in groups. For the first assignment, she went in with her friends on doing a scene. When it was over, she swore never again – the amount of work that her group had put into staging their 10-minute scene had been insane, easily 3-4x what she would have spent researching and writing a 10-12 page paper.</p>
<p>I imagine that TAPS is not one of the hardest majors at Chicago. </p>
<p>I don’t know of anyone there who punched a clock, academically.</p>
<p>“This has got to be the most un-Chicago question ever.”</p>
<p>It’s a legitimate question for those with wide-ranging interests who would like the major that is most likely to result in a high GPA for graduate school.</p>
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<p>@ JHS: Wow, that’s actually very . . . interesting. (And sorry, I’m probably going off-topic now, but I’m curious.)</p>
<p>Hypothetically, if a person wanted to take a theatre (acting, specifically) class but has absolutely no experience or skill in acting (as in, that person’s acting is complete and utter crap), would that person be doomed to stress and failure?</p>
<p>And yes, before you ask, that person is me. I’m a bit interested in dramaturgy and acting for reasons of my own, but, um, I make Keanu Reeves and John Barrowman look fabulously talented, to give you a measure of my abilities.</p>
<p>@ Elastigirl: Don’t quote me on this, but I’ve heard Economics (though it’s more a math major with a focus on economics, I believe) is one of the hardest. Understandably, of course.</p>
<p>silverturtle, you mean law school or medical school, the only places that seem to care much about overall GPA. And it’s not a legitimate question. Really, it’s not. It horrifies me to imagine that law schools and medical schools may actually be admitting people who think like that.</p>
<p>neltharion, I don’t actually know much more about TAPS than I told you. I’m not certain that they even HAVE acting classes, although I guess there is probably one or two. (Remember, in general Chicago’s brand stands for no professional training here.) Look at the course catalog to see whether the courses exist, and whether they require auditions.</p>
<p>Thanks! I actually did check the course catalog and the website, and they have some Intro to Acting classes (and other interesting courses; stage directing, anyone?) that I might just take a look at. Guess I’ll have to talk to some theatre people when I get there.</p>
<p>S1 said his core art course was one of the more challenging courses he has taken, a major design project and a 12 page essay to defend it was the final. He loved it, though. My guess is that one person’s easy major is another person’s nightmare. I read somewhere that there is a music theory course that many consider the most difficult course taught in the college, (yep, even more so than the math department’s Honors Analysis).</p>
<p>I’ve heard International Studies is pretty damn easy, but don’t really have much to back it up. I also know a few Geography majors who graduated with really high GPAs, so that might be an easy one. Taking an easy major to get a high GPA is a really un-Chicago thing to do, though.</p>
<p>Yeah, I’ve heard that IS is a pretty easy major too. I know people in there who have GPAs way higher than I’d expect them to be.</p>
<p>Easy? Hard? Depends entirely on the person, not the department. </p>
<p>UofC is not like some state U where engineering is toughest, sciences next, social sciences easier, humanities easiest. On second thought, except for engineering, maybe it is, in that GPA seems to rise a bit from sciences to social sciences to humanities. </p>
<p>If you want another way to look at this question, take a look at the catalog and see what GPA is needed for departmental honors. You might assume that a department that has a higher GPA requirement has a higher average GPA. You might assume that the higher average GPA is because the major is easier. </p>
<p>Of course your assumptions may be wrong.</p>
<p>I would think it would also depend on the classes you take. For instance, in Math you can take either “Calculus 151-152-153” or “Honors (or Honors IBL) Calculus 161-162-163” the latter being more difficult. Same thing with analysis where you can take regular, IBL or Honors. Same thing happens in Physics where you can take 131-132-133 OR the honors route 141-142-143. etc. etc. etc. Of course, these honors classes don’t continue forever – but, at least the first year or two, a major can be made a lot more “difficult/easier.”</p>
<p>You can also go for honors in a major which means you have to have a pretty high GPA and take some sort of original research course.</p>
<p>All this to say, I think it’s what you make it. Though, any major at UChicago is going to be difficult.</p>
<p>“silverturtle, you mean law school or medical school, the only places that seem to care much about overall GPA. And it’s not a legitimate question. Really, it’s not. It horrifies me to imagine that law schools and medical schools may actually be admitting people who think like that.”</p>
<p>I was indeed referring to law school and medical school. The fact that you are horrified by the reality is irrelevant; the question is legitimate, as a student with equal interests in two subjects would be wise to take the subject in which it is traditionally easier to get a high GPA if he or she wants to attend law or medical school.</p>
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<p>I don’t think there is any major that’s “traditionally” easy. Perhaps “traditionally” easy graders, but not “traditionally” easy classes or majors. And to determine the easy graders, evaluations.uchicago.edu is your friend. But don’t come running to me if you hate your class and complain that it’s too easy or too babyish!</p>
<p>Here’s the way I see it: if you want to go to law school/med school and do well professionally, you’re going to be working very, very hard there and very, very hard after you graduate. So there’s no reason to expect that you’re going to slide through undergrad and then have a good professional school waiting for you at the end of it. You don’t slide through high school to get into a top college, so I don’t see how people think they can start sliding in college and still end up in the same place…</p>
<p>Then again, your undergrad experience can take you many places-- law, medicine, and business are only three of many options.</p>
<p>discussions like this fascinate me because behind the OP’s question is an assumption that professional school (in contrast with grad school) admissions is a game of some sort. </p>
<p>The game rules seem to be:</p>
<ul>
<li> go to a top school</li>
<li> get a very high GPA</li>
<li> buff your CV with a few selective ECs or some other frill</li>
</ul>
<p>result: you get a ticket for a top med/law school</p>
<p>In other words, play the same game that one did for undergrad admissions.</p>
<p>In the real world, things are much more nuanced, especially at the top schools. It is true that a high GPA is more or less essential for serious consideration, but the many exceptions call even this assumption into question. The problem with the “easy major” issue is that it assumes the adcom for the law school (for example) don’t look beyond the GPA and/or don’t have an understanding of the factors for true excellence from particular colleges. The latter may be true for some relatively unknown place, but is NOT true for U Chi or any other elite university. In other words, it may come as a shock to some folks, but real humans (egad, faculty!) actually make these decisions, not a programmed computer formula. </p>
<p>So while it is true that only kids with high GPA get into top programs, it is not the GPA that drives their admission, it is the fact that these are truly top people, as reflected in their GPA, test scores, recommendations, activities and so forth. In other words, truly outstanding candidates tend to do well in a lot of things because they’re good and because they’re motivated, not because they look for the easy way to get by. In fact, I’d argue that most of these top applicants took the most difficult path, and did well anyway, like one guy I know - bio major. Took honors O-chem (reputedly one of the hardest science courses), probably the only non-chem major to do so. Fell in love with french after being “forced” to take a language 1st year. Decided to minor in French, and even took grad level courses in french 2nd year. Kept his GPA over 3.8 to the very end. Now in a top med school. </p>
<p>Move down a bit to the non-elite law an med schools, and you might have an easier time, and might (but probably won’t) snow the adcom. The reason you probably won’t get by is that recs still matter, and most easy paths don’t lead to great recs. </p>
<p>One final note about average GPA. It is not as bad, as near as I can calculate, as folks think. It is surely well over 3.3, probably .1 or so. The college does not release any data, so we need to infer from other sources, such as the percentage getting honors at convocation (UChi speak for graduation commencent).</p>
<p>Newmassdad is right. I know people on the faculty committees overseeing admissions at some top law and medical schools. They would be horrified, too, if you told them they were admitting people who had gamed their way through college to get a high GPA. Sure, a high GPA is probably necessary at the top schools, but there are lots more high GPAs in the world than there are slots at those schools. And, remember, the admissions staffs at Harvard Medical School and Harvard Law School see dozens and dozens, maybe hundreds, of University of Chicago applications every year. I would bet anything that they know perfectly well how to tell a great Chicago candidate from a merely good one, and it’s not solely based on GPA.</p>
<p>As for choice of major, the whole proposition here is a little absurd. Let’s say English majors have higher average GPAs than Biology majors (they almost certainly do). Let’s add to that that medical school admissions committees would affirmatively like to see more non-Biology majors admitted to their med schools (also true). So why aren’t English departments swamped with pre-meds? Well, for one, it’s a little harder to complete medical school application requirements, formal and informal (like participation in research), and not to major in a hard science. And, second, for the most part that’s just not how most pre-meds roll. They don’t LIKE English courses; they would be miserable and probably get crummy grades. And if the gamble didn’t work, they would feel that they had completely wasted their educations.</p>
<p>A Vanderbilt Law School admissions officer specifically said that she looks very little into what major one chose or how difficult it was. She said that if one is interested in multiple majors and wants to eventually attend law school, he or she should choose the major that will most likely yield the highest GPA.</p>
<p>This anecdote alone illustrates why this question is legitimate.</p>
<p>This anecdote illustrates why Vanderbilt Law School may be a little bush league.</p>
<p>I have a good friend who went to Vanderbilt Law School, and he’s a great lawyer and a great guy. He was a Harvard undergraduate. He did not have a lofty undergraduate GPA, but he did very well in law school, and he’s done very, very well in the practice of law. I don’t know, but I would be surprised if Vandy has gotten completely away from that.</p>
<p>I don’t understand your point.</p>
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