<p>I realize now that what I wrote could be misinterpreted. I was not telling a story against any undergraduate involvement in graduate courses, it was more one against undergraduate involvement in professional school courses, where the undergraduates are not imbued with the professional school culture, and not particularly interested in the practical things on which the professional school students focused. I imagine that’s why, at the GSB, they have separate undergraduate sections of some of the classes open to undergraduates.</p>
<p>As an undergraduate, I had almost exactly the same experience and nmd’s daughter, except in the humanities. I attended a public lecture series by a famous professor, went to his office hours to talk to him about it, and wound up with him as my advisor. He let me audit his main graduate course the next year (about 1/3 of which was comprised of other faculty members), and set up an independent study so that I could write a paper and get credit for it, without being officially registered in the course. (I also never, never opened my mouth in that class. I was not good enough. It was massively intimidating.) And when I was in law school, I audited a graduate seminar on feminist literary theory (about which I knew a fair amount – I wasn’t intimidated there) that also included three undergraduates, who were active participants, and whose participation was enjoyed by everyone.</p>
<p>At Chicago, my daughter has taken several courses that were cross-listed as graduate and undergraduate English courses. But, really, everyone is on the same page in such situations, and there isn’t a huge difference between a well-read, confident undergraduate and a first-year graduate student.</p>