UChicago Accepts 13.38% Earl Action

mackinaw
Fri, 28 Dec 2012 17:37:45 +0000

As someone who was a visiting prof at UofC some years ago, and whose son graduated from UofC in 2000, I agree with those who say there’s no contradiction or conflict between thinking about, and preparing for, a future profession and thinking about, well, everything! Many UofC student are truly polymaths. They are skilled in many ways of contending, conversant with many genres, goal oriented but also introspective and open to discovering new things about themselves and everything else. And like undergraduates pretty much everywhere, they have a good chance of changing their major (concentration) more than once before they graduate. This is all to the good, from my point of view as a professor and a parent of a UofC grad (and as someone who attended a LAC).

When my son graduated he tried the “finance” thing (borrrring), he wasn’t interested in law, he didn’t want a PhD (more borrrring, in his opinion – you can see that he learned from me!), he took a spin at a couple of other ways of making a living, and then turned to blogging and journalism. It’s the type of continuous self-discovery, learning, and doing that starts at UofC and extends to later life.

If you’ve been admitted to UofC, congratulations and enjoy the ride. You don’t have to make a definitive career choice at age 18 – or 22, for that matter. With good health and decent luck, you’ve got another 60 to 70 years to negotiate career and life options. And you can change your mind, and change course, at numerous points, even if you’ve got a particular career in mind at this time.