Considering that my information is somewhat out of date:
- My daughter and most of her friends took the Core Biology class. They were contemptuous of it, and all of them wished they had taken more rigorous regular Bio (because, of course, they were University of Chicago students, even if they were also painters, cartoonists, and actors). For them, Metabolism was literally beneath contempt.
- My kids both took Self, Culture, and Society. It was a great core course.
- Physics for Future Presidents didn't exist when my kids were at Chicago, but the name suggests a play on the traditional "Physics for Poets" course. Which means no one will expect you to know a lot of physics or a lot of math going in.