okay so i actually was just looking at my uchicago transcript because i'm a masochist and i realized that you chicago is very hard i know i know this isn't new information if you've seen any of my other videos but seriously though it got me thinking there are so many people i met on campus who genuinely like did not like that atmosphere they couldn't handle it and when i say handle it i don't mean they're not intellectually capable of handling it i meant they should not have to put themselves through trauma to graduate from a top institution and there is trauma on campus as it is on any other campus like i'm sure every campus has issues but you chicago's seem to be specific so i wanted to just have a quick real talk about whether you chicago is a hard school in all of the different senses and whether it's something that you think you'll fit into and if you already got into use chicago and you already accepted it prayers be with you just joking i actually i love campus so much so let's get straight into it so you will definitely be surrounded by absolutely the brightest minds i'd say that's the best thing about you chicago but this comes at a price also we are outside because nature is my passion it's nature the good stuff it's not the right place if you like being a big fish in a little pond you're constantly gonna be surrounded by people who you might feel threatened by or competitive with if you are a competitive person and i'm not competitive at all i like soaking up other people's knowledge and uchicago is the best place to do that so if you have that feeling of wanting to be the best person in the room wanting to feel that superiority not in a bad way because it's a thing you know people have different preferences on how they learn better and you are essentially in the midst of the future of the globe these are the best of the best people at any of these institutions so if you're someone who would rather be a big fish in a little pond you chicago is not the place for you because yes we only have like you know sixteen hundred to 2000 people in each year every single one of those 2 000 people are just so extremely intelligent in their own way there's always going to be people you're going to learn so much from and you cannot compare yourself to them so before you get to campus get that out of the equation no comparisons because it's about all of you collectively becoming better becoming more cultured more globalized and just better people overall so think of it that way and you chicago will be the best place for you the next thing i uh we have to talk about okay i've heard so many people say this about you chicago just random people i just met they were like oh i met someone from uchicago and like on the way from bar x to bar y in new york city when we were all going out they were talking about politics yes not politics specifically but like when it comes to everything at uchicago a discussion is not just a discussion and small talk is never small it is essentially argument's galore and we probably are the definition of socratic discourse even if someone's like hey what's up you start an argument and not in a bad way it's it's in a way where you are always constantly learning something there's always something you're gonna learn in every conversation you have it's something that's so unique to campus because that's honestly one of the biggest things i missed i stopped learning from the people around me once i graduated and i always loved uchicago and i always knew when i was on campus that i was going to miss it but i didn't realize how much because i moved to florida guys it was it was florida i i'm not even going to say anything after that it was florida it was bad i didn't like it and i really think i missed the peer-to-peer interaction the discourse the discussions it was mind-blowing how much i learned from professors from peers from random people i met in random classes that i probably never talked to again or people i met at bar night where even bar night at u chicago is filled with socratic discourse it's just really fun so if you're someone who doesn't like talking about things or defending your opinions maybe this is not the right place but if you already said yes become that person defend your opinions and be willing to be open to hear others because honestly most of the things i thought when i went to chicago were not right and i'm probably still not right but i am learning every day and that's what the school is great for now moving on to academics yes it is hard okay i've gotta say it is very rigorous compared to other institutions and this has been proven multiple times in every interaction i've had with people outside of uchicago when i was recruiting for jobs the first thing they would be like was oh you went to uchicago don't they have great deflation like yes every employer knows this so you don't have to be worried about your gpa because they literally bump up your gpa by two to three points like point two to point three just to compare you with other applicants like they know that's how hard you chicago is and this happens in the consulting workforce like this actually happens so yes it is rigorous yes we don't have great inflation and literally when i was asking an mba student who goes to wharton i was like do you think that you know my qualifications are good and she was like you should call go undergrad you're good so don't worry about it like grade wise you'll be fine like people know it's hard and honestly if you got into chicago i know you're mostly gonna get a's anyways because you probably you're gonna work 24 7. just kidding but they really dive into theory so this is something that i feel like you chicago prides itself in they are an extremely theoretical like institution and that kind of leads to their teaching style being more leaning towards research and theory which is essentially like almost expecting you to go to grad school and you know half the people don't go to grad school but that is the way everything is set up so that whole research heavy and theoretical and you know socratic discourse aspect kind of hits in every part of the discipline like in stem-related classes in humanities in math really everything so if you're not okay with theoretical things and you like being a practical person like we don't have a school of engineering that's how theoretical we are we don't even have engineering we have molecular engineering which is our one engineering degree which is essentially physics with a bit more emphasis on the electric side of it but i will say it really is totally possible to get straight a's i think my last two years in college i averaged like a three eight like i had maybe like two b pluses and one regular b and i think it was in music because i had to take it for a core course and i didn't like it but you'll be fine the biggest issue i would say with people at uchicago and it being too hard is that people most of the time don't like what they're doing and then they keep doing it anyways and this is a massive issue like people don't tangent when you're taking courses you know you absolutely hate the material but you know growing up you told everyone you're going to be a physics phd or you're going to go to med school or whatever and you go to college you realize you absolutely don't like it and you keep taking the courses anyways of course it's gonna be hard if you're doing something you don't like it's gonna be hard and there's a lot of societal expectation that's put on you when you go to a place like you chicago because people expect a lot from you but you have to like what you're doing i promise you if you're going to switch you want to switch early on in your career before you even have a career essentially before you're like you know at age 30 completely burnt out so i know i talked about courses i talked about the things that you would like and not like about campus but really i met the smartest people the nicest people and people i have learned so much from like i took one cs class my junior year and i'm a data scientist now and one of my best friends i would go to his apartment at 7am in the morning ask him coding questions because he was a cs major and that's literally my career now and when i think about uchicago yes i remember all of the difficult times i have had many difficult times and i talk about in other videos i remember the tragedies of the sleepless nights the crying and the not feeling good enough and the crazy imposter syndrome but that is far outweighed by the number of positive experiences i had on campus the friendships i made the student body that i'm so proud to have been a part of and the amount i learned about the world about global issues about things that need to change in society i want to be a part of that change and that really came about at uchicago growing up i always knew i wanted to help people and i knew that was really important to me but when i went to uchicago i realized this was possible and i could actually craft a path that i'm proud of that i'm happy to be a part of and it's because of these amazing people i met around me so i loved not being the smartest person in the room i loved having arguments about literally everything which i still do it to this day and honestly i'm pretty happy i went through all of the rigor at u chicago because that makes literally everything else in the world easier like if i get my mba it's going to be easy because it's not physics that you chicago so with that said that's pretty much it for what i think about you chicago whether it's hard whether you're gonna fit in and i will see you guys at the next video don't forget to comment a high down below see ya