is u. chicago a fit for me?

hmlee
Thu, 19 May 2005 02:43:42 +0000

The only things that might not fit your description are…

Neighborhood: The U of C has a great location with respect t the city of Chicago - that is there are many events and activities right at your fingertips. However, the specific neighborhood of Hyde Park is much less collegey than many other university neighborhoods (imagine a scale with towns like Madison on one end and neighborhoods like hyde park on the other…) That is not to say, of course, that you won’t find interesting things to do and places to go in Hyde Park, it’s just that you should be prepared to travel into the greater downtown Chicago area for fun. The CTA is well equipped to get you there, for the most part. Depending on where you’d live, you can take various buses or the L up into the city rather easily and inexpensively.

The only other hitch is the core. However, I think you should be more open about the idea of having a core. While it is true that perhaps in your first year you have little flexibility - the majority of all first years take a course sequence that looks something like: Hum (humanities), Calculus, Science, language/major course/other elective, you still have quite a bit of wiggle room, and the core can actually expose you to new subjects that you would not have considered majoring in without it.

To give you an idea of the flexibility, while I was enrolled in calculus and hum and physics my first year, I was also able to take a political science class first quarter in which I was the only first year - out of maybe 30 (the class was mostly 3rd and 4th years). Then in winter quarter I was able to take another poli sci class from a rather well known professor (John Mearsheimer) that was mostly 2nd, 3rd, and 4th years. You should not view the idea of the core as a restrictive thing - rather, you should view it as a way to broaden yourself to types of learning and experienes that would normally not fall within your academic comfort zone.