<p>I’m debating between UChicago, NW, and Dartmouth; I’ve heard notorious rumours of having to learn unnecessary and useless things at UChicago, that makes one’s social life miserable. Can anyone confirm? I’ve also heard that UChicago girls aren’t as attractive, in general. I’m scared of grade deflation too. I’d trade its “prestige” for the easiness of life at Dartmouth or NW.</p>
<p>There are like 9 million threads answering all of your questions.</p>
<p>It’s “where fun comes to die,” which if you get it, it’s a joke meaning that there’s a lot of work, but the work can be pretty fun. While the work is “life of the mind” rather than “immediately applicable to a specific job,” most people who’d enjoy U of C, including the humor, wouldn’t characterize the work as unnecessary or useless. </p>
<p>I have a daughter there, and I think she and her female friends are really attractive. The boys tend to look a little nerdy, but a lot of them will grow out of or into that. </p>
<p>Some people get great grades without suffering, others get okay grades without suffering, and still others work really hard for their grades. If you want good grades, you can get them. Just like at other schools, it’s an extremely rare person at Chicago to work so hard that their social life completely dies.</p>
<p>Dartmouth and Northwestern are wonderful and extremely prestigious schools. If one of them fits you better than Chicago, then go for it. Assuming those are your choices, you’re incredibly lucky–just take one.</p>
<p>Thanks for the post, Seashore. For me at least, the “life of the mind” is probably my least concern after burning out in high school. I’ve heard that it’s not unusual for students to get a C, and I was wondering how hard it is to get an A. I’m someone who is almost OCD about completing work, so yes, my social life would die pretty easily.</p>
<p>It could just be that your daughter and her friends are anomalies in the looks department. I guess now that I think about it, the attractiveness of the girls doesn’t really matter that much. I’m just worried about the quality of life and students’ complaints.</p>
<p>Fun does not die here. It is a particular brand of fun, but it is certainly not dead.</p>
<p>Socially, I am quite happy here. My social life revolves around the house system and people I meet in my classes, not parties. Academics are a permanent part of life here, but that doesn’t mean that that life isn’t fun. </p>
<p>As for grades: I, personally, am able to consistently maintain above a 3.8 with a reasonable amount of effort. There are weeks in the quarter when things can get rough, but overall I don’t feel like I study very much at all. (Of course, maybe this is because I love some of my classes so much that they don’t feel like work). </p>
<p>Find the place where you feel the most comfortable, but don’t write off UChicago based on the assumption that life here is miserable–it’s not.</p>
<p>I should add that I, too, burned out in high school. UChicago has reenergized me, though; I took three classes each quarter for the entirety of my first year (this is still a full load of classes, by the way). The combination of a less crowded course schedule and the opportunity to explore topics that truly interested me was exactly the recovery period I needed from my burnout (induced, in my case, by eleven AP classes and exams).</p>
<p>Wow, this is a tougher choice than I expected. I guess I bought too much into the rumours of UChicago.</p>
<p>LongDarkRoad has it exactly right; at Chicago you are reenergized, are reminded of what your mind is capable of…in the end, you have the opportunity to grasp what it means to pursue something you love.
But it does take work [and of course not all pursuits are created equal in difficulty].</p>
<p>What about pre-med or finance? Are grad school adcoms tough on UChicago students?</p>
<p>LongDarkRoad, what’s your major? I’m probably going to major in the humanities (possibly even ISH), and I know that at other schools these majors are easier grade-wise than say, those in the sciences. Is this the case at Chicago, as well? I too, would also like to know how much the overall grade deflation relative to other schools is overblown (if at all), and whether grade deflation hinders graduate schools admissions.</p>
<p>[1] It is not that grade deflation occurs at Chicago, it is that grade inflation occurs at Harvard, Stanford, Brown, etc… Think about it.
[2] Yes, high grades are easier in Anthropology, or Social Studies, say, than they would be in Economics…and those in turn would be easier than Mathematics, Physics, Philosophy, etc… The intellectual difficulty of the subject does matter…Think about it.
[3] The high grades in Anthropology, Social Studies, and so on, at Chicago, are not quite so easy to come by as at Harvard, Stanford, Brown, etc… After all, grade inflation is not quite so perfectly ridiculous at Chicago as has been achieved elsewhere…Think about it.
[4] University of Chicago graduates do superbly in seeking admission to serious graduate and professional programs. It seems that these programs care about students who have grown to significant strength in their proposed fields of study, who have shown a capacity to see “potential” transformed into genuine power. This in contrast to those who, excepting the strongly self-motivated, have spent four years at HSB feting themselves over the wonders of freshman admissions.
[5] If you want the sleep of reason, then Chicago is not for you. There are many famous universities, with much fascination to high school seniors and their parents, whose opportunities and time you may happily and freely squander. Sadly for you, though, Chicago is not quite so advanced in this respect…Think about it.</p>
<p>I just want to mention… I remember the first Off Off Campus show of this year (which was free) involved the joke. Mr. “Fun” himself came to visit and then proceeded to die. ha ha</p>
<p>The general impression I get is that it’s fairly manageable to maintain a 3.5+ average around here. The only reason I have a 3.2 is because I obviously slacked off, skipped class, started assignments too late, and didn’t bother to study. There is a clear reason for all of this, which is that I’m an idiot, which hopefully doesn’t apply to you.</p>
<p>The classwork isn’t too bad as long as you’re motivated. If you hate reading and serious studying in general, you will have a terrible time here. The truth is that some aspects of the Core may seem superfluous, pretentious or high-brow to a lot of people, then again perhaps those people are missing out. I base this opinion on having been made to study theories on the nature of the primitive, the universal basis of religion, the mechanism of change and continuity in culture, and the politics of discipline and punishment as a part of a mandatory educational requirement. The most hilarious part of this education is the fact that you’re made to question you taking part in it in the first place. Maybe this doesn’t necessarily help you start a career but it does make life more interesting.</p>
<p>You can definitely have a social life. But it’ll probably involve a lot of academic jargon and nerditry. ha ha ha</p>
<p>I had to make the decision between UChicago and Dartmouth. Definitely go look for where you fit in and try to get a feel of who your fellow students will be. UChicago tends to have an intellectual type feel to it, which I really enjoy. I like the feeling about being around people who actually have a legitimate love for learning and will actually want to talk about things we learn in class. I like the UChicago “wit” (you may have heard about UChicago Scav, the epitome of UChicago nerdy culture). I feel like you don’t get that at other universities. Coming for the outer perspective, NU and Dartmouth both seem more sporty, and more “traditional” in a college sense. They definitely have a more active drinking culture and fraternity life, which turned me off from Dartmouth. That is not to say there isn’t a partying culture here as well.</p>
<p>The Core is a pretty long tradition at our school and has been little modified. It really centered around the humanities and reading philosophers like Socrates, Aristotle, Marx, Adam Smith, etc… Really consider if taking these Core classes is something you want to do. Perhaps you may be more interested in pursuing a pre-professional route and don’t want to bother with Core classes (ex. you want to get started right away taking classes for your major).</p>
<p>Also consider location. Both NU and UChicago are near a large city with lots things to do, which Dartmouth is in a small town far away from any kind of city life, but also has more options for nature related activites.</p>
<p>All 3 schools are on the quarter system, which is notoriously more rigorous than the semester system. Dartmouth, I know, has a funky way of scheduling their academic year, but I’m not to sure of the specifics. Also consider that NU has a very strong arts and music/drama performance program, so you also get different feel from that crowd.</p>
<p>Dartmouth, you can thank me in September. ;)</p>
<p>Chicago, you can thank me in June, 2015 :).</p>
<p>I) Grade deflation occurs more as a decrease in the standard deviation of GPA’s than in the means. That is, it’s not that it’s harder to get a good grade, but rather it’s more difficult to get stratospheric grades.</p>
<p>II) Concerning the impact of grade deflation on post-undergrad education, you have to differentiate between professional schools and graduate academic schools. For med/law school, GPA is going to be very important, while for B-school it will be eclipsed by work experience and other soft factors. For PhD programs, on the other hand, it’s research research research that’s going to get you accepted. As a professor I spoke to once described, “I don’t care if you can get great grades in school; if I don’t know whether or not you can do research, I can’t take a risk on accepting you.”</p>
<p>Northwestern is where the UofC rejects go.</p>
<p>Well, to give Northwestern its small measure of “due”, if you are interested in Engineering then you should go to Evanston and not Hyde Park. Also, if reenacting a Frat House B-Movie has been a life’s ambition, then Northwestern takes the honors. Other than that… :)</p>
<p>Okay so there is just a lack of grade inflation. Would this make getting a 3.8+ GPA for law school admissions considerably more difficult than it would be at other, grade-inflated schools?</p>
<p>Thank you for the replies. UChicago and Dartmouth are both excellent schools. Right now, I’m leaning towards Northwestern because of its more manageable courseload, its beaches, its social life, and its ideal location (not near the ghettoes, not in the middle of a forest). Its strange that I haven’t heard from any Northwestern supporters. Northwestern is pretty chill right?</p>
<p>Northwestern is pretty chill, I have several friends who go there. They tend to be a little Big Ten-ish, football, etc. Their extracurricular’s are very intense and competitive, while the social scene is dominated by Greek life much more so than UChicago (probably comparable to or slightly below that of Dartmouth). Fun place, although it can get kinda exclusive at times (walking around Evanston looking for a party freshman can get into for several hours was not my idea of a good time. although my friends have since made more contacts in the frats, so things could certainly be different)</p>