@FutStudent My schedule, which is pretty typical for a math major, has me in class for between 2 and 4 hours a day, depending on the day. You’ll be in class longer if you have a lot of required discussions or labs.
Homework takes up a non-insignificant amount of time. Expect something like 25 hours a week between all your classes, more if you’re taking hard classes (Honors Analysis, for example, infamously has 20 hours a work in just that class).
…on and this title is not accurate anymore because I am now a second year.
Wow
FWIW, my first year DD spends more hours in class than I would have anticipated. I think she has 19 hours a week for a 4 course load (only one of which is STEM). By contrast, I think I spent more like 12 hrs/week in class taking 4 courses as an undergrad at Harvard (on a semester system).
Just curious.
Those 19 hours per week are in class only, right? How about the outside classroom hours?
Just to expand on what I said before, how much time you spend in class (obviously) depends a lot on what you’re taking.
Here are two fairly standard first year schedules with very different times:
21 hours a week
-Any hum (3 hours a week)
-Math 130s (3 hours of lecture a week, 3 hours of required discussion with a TA)
-A language (most meet every day for an hour, so 5 hours a week)
-Gen Chem (3 hours a week of lecture, 4 hour lab)
9 hours a week
-Any hum (3 hours a week)
-Math 150s (3 hours of lecture a week)
-Sosc (3 hours a week)
So there can be a large range. The system does allow you to make it easier or harder for yourself, you don’t have to throw yourself to the dogs your first quarter just because you can.
Right – 19 hours is in class only. Too early to tell what she averages outside of class. Lots of reading for HUM, lots of writing for French, Chem has lots of moving parts (labs, p-sets, tests) and there are weeks (like this one) where everything seems due (lab report #1, prelab #2, p-set, test). Linguistics seems like a reasonable mix but there hasn’t been a major assessment on the horizon yet. Up working until 11 or midnight most nights. Has taken one weekend day (and another weekend night) off thus far. Classes start at 8:30 or 9 every day of the school week (M-F) for her.
So it’s not brutal but it’s kind of relentless in the sense that there’s always something you should be doing (to keep up – not to get ahead).
DD never had to work in HS so decided to ease into it first quarter:
Hum 3 hours
Calc 3 hours
Physics 4 hours class + 4 hour lab (just starting this week)
So 10 hrs class with 4 hr lab = total 14 hr/week. So far have had one ‘I’m not sure I can do this’ text but not much otherwise.
Planning on taking 4 classes next quarter but will see how this goes first.
Also important to note that time in class really doesn’t amount to much…this schedule is fairly suicidal and doesn’t spend that much time in class:
Hum (3 hours)
Sosc (3 hours)
Honors Analysis (3 hours)
Honors CS (4.5 hours)
Adds up to “only” 12.5 hours per week of class but good luck surviving that. You’ll have two classes that both have average hw loads of 20 hours/week and hundreds of pages of reading every week from sosc and hum probably with essays every weekend from 3rd to 8th week.
From what my child tells me “There is no time to navel gaze” at UChicago 
Child is too busy with problem sets, tons of reading, attending a few RSO’s, trying to get some exercise,trying to understand the City/College better etc. Sleep unfortunately, is getting bumped to a low priority right now. And it is only two weeks into the quarter!
This is one of the challenges of the quarter system. The pace is frenetic, but then you get to take more courses and get done with courses faster.
I was frankly worried about this quarter system. My S was in a school with semester system and I felt that this was a good pace for him but even still somewhat hectic at times. A felt like the quarter system would definitely up the pace of adjustment. Remember that they have a lot of transitions going on. It’s like warp speed. My D definitely has been feeling inundated this quarter but my hope is that she will learn to adapt and come to accept that her GPA may not be as high as she had been aiming for. The jury is still out for me personally in terms of thinking that this quarter system is a good idea. I know that a lot of schools in the Midwest and Northwest have this system. People there may be more use to it.
It will get worse before it gets better - probably before finals.
Some factors are here:
After a while most students will adapt and adjust (including my own D). After the first mid-term they will find the grades may not be as bad as they thought (really). I think the first quarter grading is relatively easier (observation) since the college does not want to scare off too many students. Other colleges have easier grading policy for the first semester too. I do not think there are many classes having so-called curves for core.
BTW the college has great tutoring services (Harper Tutors?). If a student is stuck at Math, Physics, Chemistry she should ask for tutoring service sooner than later. The tutors are usually upper-class men.
Think about the big picture. Most students have survived (the first quarter LOL) and graduated eventually. I think somewhere around 60% have 3.25+ GPA (general honor).
But it will easily get you into grad school.
There are a lot of people who play it safe and take the nicest graded classes possible with their eye towards impressing some finance recruiter. The percentage of class that does this has risen in recent years, leading to higher GPAs. Then there are a few departments that pretty much promise you they will give you good grades (like the math department), but severely limit which classes you can take and will make you drop if you can’t handle it. But many, many classes here still gives out A grades sparingly. I think most professors still have the old UChicago grading philosophy, there are just more classes that don’t and more people who pick and choose those classes.
“But many, many classes here still gives out A grades sparingly. I think most professors still have the old UChicago grading philosophy, there are just more classes that don’t and more people who pick and choose those classes.”
Well said.
I think over 60% have had 3.25+ GPA upon graduation for the past few years. However many students should have higher than 3.25. There are no break-downs regarding GPA AFAIK.
Sure, 3.25 will be hard to get into good law and medical schools. But I do not know how many 3.25 students apply for law and medical schools. Even at other schools higher GPA is not a given. E.g., Princeton or MIT students have to earn it. Chicago’s GPA is comparable to its peers but its students work harder to get it, I think.
Like other posters have said these days many Chicago students strategically pick classes for their goals (be professional schools or employment or just relax a bit). It is hard to know the percentage of those students.
So Chicago is still a hard school and its students are working harder. But I do not think they are suffering due to rigorous workload. The post-graduation results also have been improving significantly in recent years.
As a parent I personally would like the college to ease the workload a bit and relax the students a bit. But they do not listen to me. Lol.
My son has been constantly working in his first year and there was an essay due every week from the 4th week of a quarter. However he said the work is less stressful than the IB diploma program in his HS, partly due to the more interesting courses in College.
DD tells me that for 1st year Physics lab, the experiments and the write up is done during the 4hr session and turned in before she leaves. No outside work. However, the chemistry lab apparently requires large amount of outside work. Also, her Hum section focuses on writing and less on reading while others are quite reading heavy. So lots of variation even among ‘similar’ schedules.