text | Shirley
From Muse International Education
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Hi everyone, this is Shirley. I am currently studying in a high school in the United States. This summer I spent three weeks at University of Chicago University of Chicago. Because I wanted to add some activities to my U.S. undergraduate application and was interested in media, I decided to apply for the immersion summer program (a short-term summer course offered by the University of Chicago to high school students) at the University of Chicago Sociology.
There are thousands of summer schools. I chose the summer school at the University of Chicago because among many universities, the University of Chicago has relatively high requirements for summer school students and the sociology of the University of Chicago is also relatively famous. Regarding the summer school application at the University of Chicago, you actually need to complete all application requirements and procedures from the official website of the University of Chicago. Preparation for the application requires TOEFL scores, teacher recommendation letters, and documents required by the University of Chicago. A tip for friends who want to apply for the University of Chicago Summer Campus is to apply early for popular courses and majors.
The University of Chicago, a school located in the third largest city in the United States, has always been known for its dangerous surrounding environment and harsh academic atmosphere. Because the school campus is next to a black area, the area is relatively dangerous.
Although the security situation has always been worrying, the "monastery"-like learning atmosphere here has impressed many like-minded academics. Every year from June to August, Metropolis Chicago welcomes students from all over the world.
This summer I was fortunate enough to spend three weeks at the University of Chicago in the immersion summer program of (a summer short-term course offered by the University of Chicago to high school students).
01 Different programs at the University of Chicago
The summer school at the University of Chicago has many different programs. In addition to the immersion I participated in this year, there are also Pathway, Summer college, Research in the biological sciences (Ribs) and so on.
Among the four most popular programs I mentioned, all except Summer College are open to all students in grades 9-11, but none carry college course credits. Only Summer College has course credits for , but is only open to 11th grade students. The time for different programs of
is also different. Immersion and pathway are both 3-week courses, Ribs is a 4-week course, while summer college is and ranges from 3-5 weeks depending on the course you choose. The description of immersion on the
official website is "transform your passion into your expertise", which means that this is a program for one major.
So for immersion students, you can only choose one course for three weeks. Unlike immersion, which is the study of a professional knowledge, pathway is "explore different facets of a subject area" (explore different aspects of a subject area).
But similar to Immersion, Pathway is also a course that lasts three weeks, and the schedule is exactly the same as Immersion. As can be seen from the name of Ribs, "Research on Biological Sciences" is specially developed for high school students who are interested in biology.
Since the biology major of the University of Chicago is one of the best in the United States, Ribs has always been very popular but it is also difficult to apply. Ribs lasts for 4 weeks, and there are many experimental opportunities during the course.
is different from the first three programs. Summer College is the most relevant to college life. Students can choose two courses, and each course can be taken three times a week, so the degree of time freedom will be relatively high.
02 The so-called "harsh"
Regarding the harsh academic atmosphere at the University of Chicago, there is a popular saying called "where funs come to die" (a place where fun comes to die). Before arriving at the University of Chicago summer campus, I had heard that studying at the University of Chicago, with a full GPA of 4.0, top students can only get 3.2.. Although it is exaggerated, it also shows that the teachers here The rating is extremely harsh. What I really realized from the beginning was not the perverted ratings, but the amount of reading at the University of Chicago.
The course I chose this time is called "Imagine the modern city".When I first chose this course, the University of Chicago official website classified it as Sociology, which is sociology.
So when I arrived at the University of Chicago with the mentality of exploring social issues, I found that the course code of this course said "ENG" in front of it, which meant that this course was for English majors. I felt desperate in my heart. After all, wants to be exposed to some sociological knowledge this summer, rather than improving his English ability. And the teachers in the English department have always been the scariest . The main teaching method of the
course is seminar (discussion group), which means that the class participation points in this course account for more than half of the final grade. Therefore, it is necessary to speak actively in class.
Unlike many other courses, the course I chose requires only one book, which is "The Great Gatsby".
When I first saw this news, I was relieved, because I had read this book as early as a year ago. But only needing one novel book does not mean that the amount of reading in this course is small. On the contrary, my professor has many pdf versions of various obscure articles waiting for us in .
03 A Difficult Beginning
"The Man of the Crowd" gave me a shock on the first day. Compared with the forty or fifty pages that students in other classes have to read, the reading amount of six pages is not that scary, . However, my professor requires us to read intensively for all reading, and clearly requires us to print out all materials and Mark it as you read it. In the first class of
, he told us that because the reading materials he chose were very difficult, we needed to read each article at least twice. With the mentality that I might not understand anything the first time, I turned over the first piece of paper.
However, it took me almost half an hour just to read the first page. It wasn’t just the obscurity of the language that forced me to think over and over a sentence, but also because I didn’t want to have nothing to use in the discussion when I needed to speak in class the next day, so I also put a lot of effort into annotating it. of effort.
It took almost three hours to read the six pages on the first night.. I originally thought that after spending so long on this article, I would not be able to lead the discussion the next day in class, or at least I would not be unable to keep up with the professor's pace. However, the truth is always so cruel that it makes me want to cry.
was in class the next day. The professor led us in a discussion at the beginning, but I was dumbfounded by the various questions he asked. None of my notes matched his question.
In the excerpt I read, "The Man of the Crowd," the author describes in detail what he sees as the different small groups of people within the large crowd. I originally thought that the professor would discuss several small categories in detail, but in fact he just talked about this issue very lightly.
He finally focused the discussion on how this article reflects modern society, and the issue of is that I had not thought about at all when I was doing my homework the day before.
In the heated discussions among my classmates, I can only occasionally add a few words "I agree with his point of view" or "I want to add evidence to his point of view", but I have no way to put forward my own ideas. After the class ended, I was full of frustration.
Then we read "The Republic of Plato". Yes, I didn't believe it at first. I started reading Plato's philosophy in a class discussing modern cities. The full text of this article is composed of a dialogue between Plato's teacher Socrates and a man named Mantus . The entire article illustrates Plato's views on what a city needs to be.
But this time, after being confused for almost a week, I finally started to express my opinions during the discussion.
04 Raid in the Classroom
I thought it was finally sunny, but I didn’t expect that it was just the prelude to the storm. This is not the only academic impact that the University of Chicago has brought to me. I never thought that impromptu writing in class would happen during summer school , which means that we are given a set time to write an article impromptu according to the professor's requirements in class.
's reading article today is a very interesting one called "Looking Backward". It tells the story of a person who slept from 1887 to 2000, and when he woke up, he saw the modern city from the perspective of a person who lived in 1887. Having read a lot of obscure philosophies and papers, I was very interested in this article. Because I really like the background of this story, I have been very active in the discussion today, but I am also very happy and sad.
With less than an hour left before the end of the morning class, the professor told us that before get out of class, we would imitate this author and write a story about a modern city in our own imagination, and in the afternoon class, everyone They all share their own stories in turn.
When I heard that he said it would be completed before get out of class, my heart was already half cold. As a person who writes very slowly and has no new ideas, sharing a story that I wrote in 40 minutes with the whole class was a disaster.. So in the end, I took advantage of my lunch break and finally wrote a basically formed story. Although the text of
is not outstanding, it contains my own general design of an ideal city. During the sharing process, the professor will ask many sharp questions about the ideal city we describe.
The urban design I proposed is based on the ""technology center"" as the center, with residential areas and commercial areas scattered around in concentric circles.
When I just finished explaining, the professor immediately asked me why I chose "technology center" as the center, and why I proposed a plan focusing on urban terrain planning, instead of proposing some policies like my other classmates. etc. plan. And I need to use the opinions in all the materials I read this week to argue for myself.
I chose to use the concept of "equality of distance" to answer why I chose the idea of "concentric circles" on the terrain. And I used some ideas from “Looking backward” to explain why “technology center” should be placed in the middle. In other words, if someone in has not studied hard this week, then the professor may have hit in this raid.
After the sharing ended, my view of scientific areas as urban geographical centers also aroused the professor's interest. It can be said that the efforts spent on all the reading materials in the first week were not in vain. This near miss once again proved to me that there is absolutely no possibility of "water" in the summer school at the University of Chicago.
05 It has never been more difficult
But these are not the most troublesome assignments I encountered in this summer school. The title of our first essay requires us to analyze a Beatles song "A Day in the Life" and connect this song to modern cities. Professor
wrote in the requirement: "Not only do you need to analyze the lyrics, but you also need to analyze the rhythm of the song." In other words, different rhythms and music rhythms can express different meanings when paired with lyrics. That’s right, we didn’t even miss music appreciation in this class.
From the time I received the assignment request on Saturday to the submission of the assignment on Monday night, "A Day in the Life" became my single song cycle . As a result, the melody of this song kept ringing in my head for the next week. I spent Sunday afternoon revising the outline alone. After
finished class on Monday, the professor provided us with time to interview him about the composition. But after the conversation, I found that many of my understandings had some problems, which meant that half of the essay I wrote needed to be overhauled. At this time, there are only 5 hours left before submitting the assignment.
So my classmates and I started sitting in the living room of the dormitory building while watching the sunset, and finally caught up with the deadline with tears in our eyes. However, the average grade of the essay produced in this way is only B+. This is the result of the professor's mercy on the high school students in the summer school.
Although the three weeks of classes were like hell, the interesting professors and the beautiful campus made me miss this summer.
, finally, , I still managed to survive in this group of top students.
This article is published with authorization. Muse International Education was founded in 2014. It is an organization focusing on background improvement and long-term education supervision services. It has footprints all over East Africa, , Southeast Asia, South Asia, Latin America, Middle East , and the whole country. It serves more than 200+ families, history students have been admitted to prestigious schools such as Harvard, Yale, Cornell University, Amherst College, Johns Hopkins and other prestigious schools. They have served many American high school students; the founder Zhima Teacher graduated At Nanjing Foreign Studies University and Yale University, the team members are all slash young mentors with backgrounds from famous universities at home and abroad and great imagination. welcomes friends, no reproduction is allowed without permission , INSIGHT sincerely recommends
