Tell me about UChicago?

JHS
Thu, 31 Oct 2013 11:29:44 +0000

My kid #1 really loved the idea of the Core; her top college choices were Columbia and Chicago for that reason. By the middle of her first year, she hated the Core – thought it was too much like high school, over-broad, with lots of people in each class who really didn’t want to be there. She envied people who got to take only classes they wanted to take. She was really critical of the lack of academic rigor in the special Core science courses. By the time she finished college, however, and certainly in the years since, she has really appreciated how the Core gave everyone at Chicago common frames of reference, standards for judgment, and vocabulary, something that makes it much easier to have meaningful discussions with people you don’t know well.

My kid #2 went to Chicago thinking the Core was at best a necessary evil, an annoying thing to get through in order to enjoy what he loved about Chicago. He fell in love with his Hum course and its teacher, and his writing fellow, and thinks it was one of the best academic experiences of his life. He had more problems with his Sosc course, except (a) the second quarter of it completely changed his academic focus and life plans, and (b) six years later, he is romantically involved with one of his section-mates. He also completely loved his Arts and Civ Core courses, and liked the Bio topics courses so much he took one after he had already satisfied the Core Bio requirement.

As they say, your mileage may vary . . . .