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The fall 2020 acceptance rate for University of Chicago is 7%. That means, out of _____ applications received in 2020 , _____ students were offered admission. The number of males who applied was _____ vs the number of females which was _____.
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Describe the students at your school.
University of Chicago students are self-selecting in that they are ready to enter an intense learning environment and become a resident of the city of Chicago; if you think you belong there, then you probably do.
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What are the academics like at your school?
We are delightfully hardcore here. Be prepared to be surrounded in class by a lot of students who did the readings more carefully than you. While it can be intimidating at times to be surrounded by students who are so darn smart, it's also refreshing-- I mean, when else in life will I have the opportunity to be in this kind of environment? Part of the reason I wanted to come to a school like Chicago was to be surrounded by a group of students who really cared about what they were learning, not students who found the path of least resistance to the highest grade. This is definitely a "learn for the sake of learning" environment.
There are a lot of legendary profs here, both on the research side and on the teaching side. I've been very happy with the quality of education I've gotten here-- no doubt I've been pampered throughout high school, so I came in with expectations that I think are unrealistic of most universities, but Chicago really delivers. Professors and the grad students I've had have been more than happy to slip into fuzzy roles as well-- as an English major, I've gotten plenty of advice on how to think about writing papers and how to construct good arguments.
Most classes are taught by profs, and at least in English, you can avoid taking classes with grad students entirely. However, I have found my grad students just as cool as my profs.
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What is your overall opinion of this school?
The undergraduate body is small-ish (4500 students or so) but it's impossible to get to know everybody or do everything. As a third-year, I continue to meet lots of new people who are in my year. I feel like if I went to a school with a fourth the number of undergraduates, I wouldn't get that experience.
I divide my time between Hyde Park and the rest of the city. Sometimes I'll go downtown 2-3 times a week, sometimes not for a month. People like to complain about Hyde Park (five places to buy books, zero places to buy pants), but I like it very much just the way it is... though yes, being able to buy pants here would be nice.
If you come here, don't expect people to be patting your back about how awesome/smart you are. Yes, this school is prestigious, but only in certain circles (i.e. if people care about the name on the degree, like law schools, consulting firms, academia, they'll know the school and know how awesome it is) but I'm telling you right now that Joe the Plumber thinks we're the same as UIC or Chicago State. To me, that's also a blessing of sorts-- I didn't want to go to a school where students were overly self-satisfied with the name on their sweatshirt.
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What should every freshman at your school know before they start?
I would tell myself to be a little more outgoing as a freshmen. Making friends with other freshmen when you start college is a great way to make lasting friendships throughout college. Making friends with a peer in the same situation makes it easier to transition into college because you have a go-to person who is probably undergoing the same difficulties in terms of transitioning. Being involved in a univeristy is key to social networking that can potentially help you in the long run; i belive that a student should be as outgoing as possible as well as open-minded.
If a student isn't interested in expanding their horizons, then college becomes a chore and it makes it feel much longer than it really is. Being open to change leads to new experiences and college is all about the experience.
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What are the most popular student activities/groups?
Again, the social activities are diverse as the students. There are frat parties every weekend, and while they get "lame," they can still be fun. There are also movies, concerts downtown, dinner downtown, on-campus events. Apartment parties.
The one thing about the party scene is that students don't really put a lot of energy into it. This is a good thing rather than a bad thing-- students don't feel pressured to binge drink or rush certain frats and women don't feel pressured to hook up. This also means that frat parties can feel like bar mitzvahs with beer. That's why I think apartment parties tend to be more fun-- it's with people who know each other slightly better hanging out together and dancing rather than a sketchy and anonymous basement.
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Is the stereotype of students at your school accurate?
See and ye shall find. You will find a segment of students who do little else but work, but my impression is that a) that workload is self-imposed (i.e. nobody's forcing you to take honors analysis!) and that b) sometimes work can act as a safety blanket for people who are a little afraid to socialize. I feel like on any given night, I can find people hanging out, watching TV, and playing midnight soccer, and I can also go to the Reg and find people working very hard. Which one is the "right" U of C?
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What is the stereotype of students at your school?
Bookworms, nonsocial, elitist, pompous, spoiled rich kids, fun comes to die here, there is nothing to do, everyone goes to the reg on Saturday night
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Here's your chance: Say anything about your college!
My school requires students to think critically in all their their classes. My coursework has focused more on reading and writing than any of my friends' at other schools--writing well and often is necessary. The students have a quirky sense of humor (look up the T-shirts we make; if they make you laugh, you'd probably fit here). Everyone comes from different regional and socioeconomic backgrounds, and no one cares at ALL. If anything, we're more interested in people who are different, and we don't try to fit others into boxes for our own comfort.
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What is the stereotype of students at your school? Is this stereotype accurate?
The University of Chicago is known for, well, being intense. This is pretty true - we're hard working, ambitious and dedicated to the Life of the Mind, and you'd be hard pressed to find a student here who doesn't go to the library, or isn't a bit of a genius.
But if you come to UChicago and expect 'fun to die' the second you step on campus, please don't. Because despite the nerdy stereotype, we aren't just nerds about our academics. We're nerds about EVERYTHING.
Nerds are people who are dedicated, fascinated and compelled by a subject. True, this can be taken to apply to the kind of subjects you can get homework in, but we also love Scavenger hunts, athletics, circus skills, gourmet cooking, Greek life, creative writing, orchestra and fashion shows. We go dancing downtown and on apple picking trips. We study in Paris and South Africa. We do yoga at sunrise by Lake Michigan, laugh at the on-campus comedy groups, sing. We ice-skate and roller-skate and know our Plato back to front.
If you're interested learning lessons that expand beyond the (ivied) walls of your classrooms, this is the plac
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What do you consider the worst thing about your school? Why?
The weather and the lack of breaks during the academic year.
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What's unique about your campus?
opportunity
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What's the most frustrating thing about your school?
The most frustrating thing about my school is also the best: Being constantly surrounded by the some of the most brilliant people of our generation. I'm intimidated at the worst of times, but I've never been more inspired.
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What's the one thing you wish someone had told you about freshman year?
I wish I'd known more about my priorities; I wish I'd taken a gap year to figure things out before I got here.
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Describe how your school looks to someone who's never seen it.
Going to the University of Chicago is like going to graduate school four years early; it's an enormous workload and there's very little social life on campus.
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What do you brag about most when you tell your friends about your school?
The thing I brag about most is the academic rigor. In detail, I highlight the high expectations that professors had, the goals students set for themselves, and the quality of work that was encouraged. My undergraduate career prepared me well for graduate school. The expectations that were set helped me focus, work hard, and learn more about my capabilities. The skills I acquired at the University of Chicago have proved valuable adn necessary for graduate school.
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What kind of person should not attend this school?
Any student who cares more about their GPA than the actual material learned should not attend the University of Chicago, which is known for having one of the lowest average GPAs in the nation. Expect to spend large quantities of time in the library reading, studying, and preparing for all of your classes; there is no such thing as a ?slack class? at this school, and, as such, you will be assigned a healthy amount of work for every class. Any student who wants to specialize in a field of study immediately should not attend this university.
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Describe your favorite campus traditions.
Intelligent, hardworking people.
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What kind of person should attend this school?
Someone who enjoys a challenge and wants to experience something new and different.
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Why did you decide to go to this school?
I wanted a highly intellectual place without all the inter-student competition; I wanted my dorm mates to care about learning but help me and talk with me about the work, not constantly be trying to out-perform me.
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What are your classes like?
Classes go by fast because of the ten-week quarter system, so professors usually plunge right in to the material. As an English major, I attend mostly seminar (small discussion) classes of about 8-15 people. I have about 100 pages of reading per class per week, which is definitely manageable. For these kinds of smaller classes, attendance is important because it also affects your participation (you can't speak if you're not there, duh), but for bigger lecture classes, skipping a couple isn't noticeable.
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