Questions about U of C

Colleges & Universities University of Chicago
1

<p>The National Survey of Student Engagement publishes a booklet called College. What you need to know before you go.</p>

<p>I have some questions about the U of C (actually, a LOT of questions):</p>

<p>I want to go about asking these questions in small bites.</p>

<p>I want demanding intellectual and creative academic work.</p>

<li>In what ways do faculty challenge students to leave their comfort zone in order to excel?</li>
<li>What types of assignments are given (papers, exams, problem sets, research projects, etc.)?</li>
<li>How much reading is assigned per class? A good estimate is good; I know it depends on the class.</li>
<li>In what ways are students given the opportunity to express themselves creatively in assignments?</li>
</ol>

2

<p>I’ll start off with a few. My answers are by no means authoritative, but I’ll do the best I can in giving complete answers.</p>

<ol>
<li> In what ways do faculty challenge students to leave their comfort zones in order to excel?</li>
</ol>

<p>Every prof I’ve had here so far has made an excellent devil’s advocate. In the classroom and in the dorms, don’t expect to get away with saying something as universally agreed-upon as “I think George Bush is terrible,” without somebody asking you, “Oh really? How so?” Students and professors like to challenge each other’s ideas (students challenging profs, profs challenging students, students challenging students), and while it can be frustrating at times, part of the reason you are here is to learn how to build an argument. U of C is anti- “nodding head” phenomenon-- you’ll see passionate debates around you and a lot of people on both sides of contentious issues on campus (I’m thinking of Coke and divestment from Darfur in particular).</p>

<p>My social science professor made it clear that in class, rather than having us talk about all the reasons we thought Marx and Freud were wrong, he wanted us to recreate the arguments that they set forward. He told us that before we can criticize a text in any real way, we have to understand it thoroughly and completely. Thus, we spent a lot of time assuming that Freud’s thoughts on ***** envy and the Oedipal complex were valid consequences of certain premises. Fun fun fun.</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Depends on the class, really. Math, Physics, Chem-- problem sets and exams; humanities-- papers; social sciences-- papers and exams. U of C tends to be light on exams compared to what I’m used to in high school, but I think that’s a general trend in colleges… only one or two exams for any given class.</p></li>
<li><p>Depends depends depends. Also, depends on how challenging the readings are. 30 pages of Marx are absolutely dreadful, but 200 pages of readings for civ might not be that bad. In college, you also learn that you aren’t expected to read everything that’s assigned, and in many upper classes, there will be suggested readings. The whole idea is to enrich and inform discussions, which is why they can be numerous and optional; it’s not like you’re going to have reading quizzes on inane details from these readings. I had one class in which the amount of reading completely varied based on the next week’s lesson-- sometimes just one 5-page article, sometimes 200 pages from a book.</p></li>
<li><p>A lot of the core classes require journal entries. Though they can be annoying, they are a terrific way to let your mind wander and also establish a connection with your professor about how you think. For what they are, I think that any kind of formal essay-writing requires creativity of thought, and if you have an essay topic that wasn’t assigned, I’ve found that profs are pretty lenient in letting you do what you want to do.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>One of my friends in Greek Thought and Literature (humanities core) was assigned to write a Greek Tragedy. She wrote hers using characters from Desperate Housewives. Another social sciences professor asked his students to write a paper in which they brought Adam Smith back from the dead and discussed what they thought he would think about globalization and other current issues. Even in an academic sense, there are ways to have fun.</p>

3

<p>All i can say is that after taking intensive japanese this summer there, they make you feel retarted. Best Teaching method ive ever encountered. So the teacher is teaching, stops what she is doing, puts down her chalk, walks over to me (or any other student for that matter), invades personal space, and asks you some question in japanese, putting you in the hot-seat, and you have to answer it using some grammatical concept or vocabulary u learned 30 minutes before, only briefly, and then forgot about.<br>
You feel like an idiot with no answer, as the professor guides you through what you are supposed to say, ever so slowly, until by the time you are done, you are so embarrased, that you study all night long (not literally) and study everything that you know you will encounter the next day, even though you arent supposed to know it, so that you never get embarrased again.</p>

<p>WOW, longest run-ons ever. But yes, as for professors, they are absolutely 100% amazing, knowledgeable great.</p>

4

<p>I want to become intensely involved in my education.</p>

<ol>
<li>How do students receive help selecting classes?</li>
<li>How often are things learned in class discussed outside of the classroom?</li>
<li>In what ways do students work together on solving problems in and out of class (e.g. study groups, people study alone)?</li>
<li>Are internships pretty easy to find and available?</li>
</ol>

5

<ol>
<li><p>A few ways: advisers (the advisers are great-- they are FULL-TIME advisers whose job it is to help students out with academics, financial, and social situations-- they are not preoccupied college professors. My mom’s favorite thing about UChicago is the advising system, actually. She was really dismayed by the lack of advising and support my brother received at Cornell). Also: upperclassmen, other students, courseevaluations.uchicago.edu. Though course evaluations are closed to the public (they used to be open, and as a high schooler, I would read through them), they are really helpful. They ask about the strengths and weaknesses of a professor, whether the workload, readings, and grades were fair, what should be changes for the future, what readings were the most and least helpful, what they took away from the class, and if they would recommend the class to others or take another one from the same prof. Ultimately, the choice is yours, but there are a lot of resources to help you along the way.</p></li>
<li><p>All the time! It also helps that as a first-year doing Core, you’ll be surrounded by other first-years who are in different classes but reading similar texts, so discussion about what you are reading comes quite naturally. Some humanities classes eat together after class, invite each other to parties, and hang out to talk to the prof. It helps that there are lots of little coffee shops scattered around campus and one in the basement of the main academic building, so that there’s a natural place to gravitate to with your friends or your prof after class. What I also love is that my friends talk about things they’ve done even after they’ve handed them in-- “how did you do that math problem?” “How did you answer that question?” etc.</p></li>
<li><p>I’ve helped my friends out with their essays and they’ve helped me out with mine. My housemates and dormmates get together to work on physics and math problem sets all the time; my friend went to lots of study sessions in people’s apartments for a class he was having difficulty with. (I was actually on his AIM one time without realizing it and I get this message saying “Hey, how’s the astrophysics going?”) This school is too challenging to be competitive about grades and to keep to yourself. Also, competition is just… bad form, the same way you wouldn’t wear an orange jumpsuit to a cocktail party, you don’t compete for grades or brag about them afterwards.</p></li>
<li><p>A lot of my friends work at law offices downtown. The CAPS career office is helpful, as are your own internet searches and queries. Over the summer, CAPS offers a bunch of Jeff Metcalf internships, which are coveted. A lot of my friends also have on-campus jobs, which help them make connections and get great opportunities over the summer and during the school year. One of my friends just e-mailed a bunch of professors randomly and she scored a great internship on one of the university’s top research projects.</p></li>
</ol>

6

<p>Thank you, your answers are awesome. They give very good insight, and I really appreciate your thoughtful answers. Thanks again to unalove and BIGTWIX. I find comfort in the fact that you find your professors “absolutely 100% amazing.” And knowing that things learned in class are discussed outside all the time gives me reassurance that I will fit in with the student body. You guys are awesome. I will apply.</p>

<p>I did check out the uncommon essay questions, and I think I’ll have a lot of fun with them.</p>

<p>If I have any more questions, I’ll ask. You guys are definitely the ones to ask.</p>

7

<p>One more question, which is very important. </p>

<p>Would you call the people at U. Chicago fierecely independent and aggressive, people who won’t hold your hand for you and expect you to be pretty much on your own? Or are they more supportive?</p>

<p>At first I thought that people would be really supportive, but then I realized that it is Chicago, the 3rd largest city in the nation. </p>

<p>If the student body really is supportive, that’ll give me more reason to apply. If it’s more high-strung, that’ll make me think twice.</p>

8

<p>I don’t think that Chicago as a city is brisk and unfriendly, like New York is, but then again I’d also separate the students from the school.</p>

<p>There are many words I might use to describe a typical UChicago student, but “aggressive” wouldn’t be one of them. I don’t think that Chicago has a warm and fuzzy student body, but at the same time, there’s a lot of support for you as a person and you as a student, through advisors, resident heads in the houses and dorms, etc. In my house, at least, we had an upperclassmen that represented almost every major (classics, biochem, math, physics… lots of physics, English, human development, etc.) and they served as informal mentors for first-years. </p>

<p>Certain dorms with a strong sense of house community (B-J, Breckinrige, Snell-Hitchcock) tend to be more supportive and have more of that warm and fuzzy feel to them.</p>