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<p>Not true at all. Many people at the U of C (myself included) start heavy research in their first year, usually over the summer, but sometimes during the school year as well. The Core isn’t as restraining as it’s being portrayed - it’s just a few extra classes, and it’s usually easier to get good grades in these classes than in other strictly major courses. The Core is more of a fun, deeper-than-usual introduction to various branches of academics. Plus, you can’t become the pretentious ******* that all U of C-ers dream to be if you don’t know your Marx and Kant. (Kidding, of course.)</p>
<p>I think UChicago and NU are probably similar in difficulty. I would say Chicago is slightly harder since the students tend to spend more time in the library and even so, have slightly lower GPAs on average than NU. That’s just personal opinion, though. You’ve probably heard more about low GPAs at Chicago than at NU for the following reasons:</p>
<p>1) Chicago students like to complain about how hard the school is.</p>
<p>2) Some students think that since Chicago’s well-known for being rigorous, a 3.3 GPA at Chicago will be sufficient to get into the top law/med/business schools. Not always true, although I do often hear of people with pretty low GPAs (think 3.0, 3.1 range) getting into the lower Ivy Leagues for graduate school.</p>
<p>3) GPA is seen as less of a measure of intelligence at Chicago than at NU. It’s pretty taboo to equate intelligence with GPA at Chicago. Although somewhat taboo at NU as well, it seems much less acceptable at Chicago. Therefore, people sometimes talk about their low GPAs because they think they won’t be judged, whereas those with high GPAs usually keep their mouths shut.</p>