<p>I’ve heard a couple of pretty unpleasant, persisting stereotypes from some classmates and some enrolled students. I doubt I have any real reason for concern, but I would like an honest second opinion, if you UChicago students don’t mind. Thanks!</p>
<li>Where fun comes to die?</li>
</ol>
<p>I hear that there is a lot of cramming and stressing, camping out in the library and studying until 1 AM because of the quarter system and because of the high demands of classes. I also hear social interactions, especially dating, can be minimal, because people focus more on schoolwork. How true is this? </p>
<li>Where the squirrels are cuter than the girls and tougher than the guys?</li>
</ol>
<p>Ok, maybe this isn’t the most important deciding factor in picking a university (in fact, it’s far from the top), but I think people do prefer going to school with a decent number of attractive students. So, based on your own experiences, is this true?</p>
<li>Where your deflated GPA will hinder your getting into grad school?</li>
</ol>
<p>UC is known as an intellectual boot camp. This, I don’t have a problem with. However, do many people struggle to maintain a good GPA? Do many people have their dreams of med school or law school dashed because they couldn’t hold onto a 3.5+?</p>
<p>Again, thanks for your replies. I hope I didn’t offend any people with these questions, as I don’t have any real, solid knowledge about them and want to have some light shed on them.</p>
<ol>
<li> If you don’t get that it’s a joke, you might not fit in.</li>
<li> My daughter and her friends are BEAUTIFUL. I may be biased.</li>
<li> If that’s really your attitude, I hope you’re never my physician or lawyer.</li>
</ol>
<p>I hope I didn’t offend you with these answers. </p>
<p>Seriously, as idad said, you don’t have to go too far back on the forum to see these issues discussed over and over. Chicago is a FUN place, especially if you love learning, and it is possible to get great grades and go on to a professional school.</p>
<p>Seashore, I don’t even know why wondering about my chances at med school would make me an unfit doctor. It’s a legitimate concern, and med schools rarely take kids with below a 3.5 (the average GPA at UC is ~3.1, according to another thread) so I don’t see why you’re attacking me all of a sudden. P.S. putting “I hope I didn’t offend you” doesn’t give you free reign to berate other people. </p>
<p>I think telling people what they can and can’t do, whether they might or might not fit in is a favorite past time of CCers. If you have any actual, helpful advice, great, but if you’re just here to pass judgment, don’t bother. </p>
<hr>
<p>idad, I did look back a few pages, but I don’t know which threads you are referring to. There’s a lot of threads about essays and admissions stuff, but judging from the titles, I can’t find what I’m looking for.</p>
<p>Is it just me or does the majority of people on the cc Chicago forums are a bunch of snobby ****s who think that if you don’t get a joke or if you are concerned about your gpa than Chicago is obviously not for you. Visit the campus, talk to real students please don’t take the comments of these eltist idiots as the true Chicago or their population</p>
<p>Lol, I have talked to a current student (my friend who went to sr high with me) and an alum (friend from church), and they were so-so helpful (the alum mostly talked about missing UC but didn’t give a whole lot of details). I thought it might be better to get a bunch of opinions so I came here.</p>
<p>Machiavelli12, I’m definitely definitely trying facebook next time. It seems that people have less nerve to diss you when they have to associate a face, a real person with who they are speaking to.</p>
<p>I think you’re perhaps too quick to take offense. Anonymous boards do seen to do that to people. We posters forget that it’s hard to get intent when we think we’re being witty.</p>
<p>But the truth is that the expression “where fun comes to die” is a joke made up by Chicago students. It’s not the dire warning against attending the place that many prospective students seem to think it is.</p>
<p>And the grade deflation question always disappoints me. I think that too many high school students spend too much time thinking about getting into college and not enough time appreciating what they are learning in high school. Likewise, I hate seeing high school seniors already focusing on how to get into grad school rather than on what they’ll be learning as undergrads.</p>
<p>I confess that I am offended by questions about how good looking students are. But I’m a mom. I just can’t help that; forgive me.</p>
<p>I’m sure there are more people reading this than just the OP, so I’ll reiterate my takes on the concerns.</p>
<ol>
<li> Where fun comes to die: questions about stress, workload, “cutthroat,” social scene.</li>
</ol>
<p>Here is a situation where your individual approach to school will trump whatever you see around you. If you stress over schoolwork now, you’ll probably come to college and stress about it, and if you don’t stress over schoolwork now, nobody’s going to come along and ask you to start stressing about it.</p>
<p>Chicago isn’t easy, but, depending on what courses you’re taking, it also doesn’t have to be that hard. A lot of students are taking classes that they don’t have to take more because they want to and less because they have to. My pre-med friends are taking advanced Arabic and math electives where they could just as easily swim in the baby pool. My classics friend is in honors physics. The culture of the school just happens to be a very academic one, so I think that sometimes when posters have concerns like “OMG people must be so stressed!” it makes us think that the person making that observation doesn’t “get” it. These same friends aren’t particularly into demonstrating how smart they are or how well they do in school-- they watch TV, play intramural sports, etc. They seem like pretty “regular” people.</p>
<p>Social scene: My feeling is that it’s not as if people here don’t have time to party, it’s just that there aren’t a lot of kids who are actively and aggressively into creating a party scene. People still hang out and socialize a lot, but it’s usually not in the “Animal House” fashion. If you want to date somebody and you want to take the relationship seriously, it will eat into the time you spend with other people. So I don’t think that college campuses in general are conducive to dating, but I happen to know a lot of people who date serially as well as seriously. So if you want it, you can have it.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Most people here don’t spend a lot of time thinking about the way they look. They spend more time thinking about interesting things, which makes them interesting people, which makes them attractive. There’s a lot that being smart makes up for that a Lacoste shirt or $50 lip gloss doesn’t. </p></li>
<li><p>I’ve had the opportunity to start considering professional life more seriously and I’ve been pleasantly surprised with how far the University of Chicago goes as a brand name and how seriously prospective employers take that name. NMD’s calculation suggests that about 2/3 of the student body has above a 3.25 GPA, which would suggest that a 3.5 is not uncommon. (I’ve had the opportunity to review resumes of U of C students, and what I’ve seen suggests that a 3.5 is achieved by a sizable population of the student body).</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Seashore, I totally understand that you have a problem with students obsessed with GPA. I myself do care, simply because if I didn’t care, I wouldn’t be able to progress as smoothly through life (sad truth). I have no intention to “game” the system or take the easy way out. I don’t fear a heavy workload and I love to learn, but at the same time, I have to be practical about future goals. Ideally, an adequate GPA and learning go hand-in-hand, and one who worries about the latter shouldn’t have to worry about the former. I hope this is the case. </p>
<p>I’m sorry about those statements, if they were offensive. I myself am inclined to not believe them (after all, UC is my top choice at the moment and I prefer to see all the good I can about the university and its student body). </p>
<hr>
<p>Unalove, thanks so much for your in-depth responses. I do know that employers/grad schools are partial to the UC name, but just how much of that overrides a lower GPA, I have no idea. My parents’ main objection to me attending is the GPA issue, I think, as they are very practical people and the whole “learning for learning’s sake” philosophy doesn’t really fly with them. My dad’s friend had a daughter who made it to MIT, but graduated with a lowish GPA and had her chances of med school shot. She’s getting a degree in bioengineering now, or something along those lines. </p>
<p>Now, this may be a stupid question, but I thought most people start dating seriously in college? I guess it might be tough at UC to date and juggle everything else, so what you said makes sense.</p>
<p>I don’t think that’s true across the board. My very social older brother attended a school that has a very social reputation. He did not date seriously in college, nor did any of his friends, asides from one, who married his college sweetheart soon after both graduated.</p>
<p>I have never listed my college GPA on my resume. That has not stopped me from getting any of the opportunities I wanted to get. It might help that none of the positions I applied for held academic ability at the top of their list.</p>
<p>I started out loving University of Chicago, but I agree with Machiavelli,
the more and more i hear some of the people on these boards speak,
the more i think the stereotype is true, with an added tint of intellectual snobbery that I never thought would exist here</p>