2013-2014 University of Chicago (Pritzker) Application Thread

[NickNaylor]

Congrats!

So here's a quick run-down on the advantages of grad housing from my perspective. I haven't actually lived there, but I did look into it at one point.

-reasonably priced - definitely cheaper than what you would expect to pay otherwise
-one of the buildings is connected to the university internet, which is awesome; just so you know, ISP options in the Hyde Park area are TERRIBLE, so this isn't insignificant IMO
-neighbors are also U of C grad students - this isn't an advantage for me personally, but I understand why people would want that
-many of the buildings have various utilities included, which is obviously nice

As far as finding a roommate, there are a couple of options. First, check out the U of C marketplace (
http://marketplace.uchicago.edu/). This is essentially a modified version of Craigslist that requires university affiliation in order to post to it. There are also lots of postings for rental opportunities generally, so that'd be another place to check out if you want to explore housing options outside of grad housing. Failing that, a Facebook group will be made for you guys shortly if it hasn't already. That'll really be the place to find a roommate if you'd prefer to have a classmate as a roommate.

Hope that helps!

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[MilkIsGood]

Ive lived in grad student housing for the past 2 years. I didnt want to mess with crappy management and also wasnt able to visit any apts beforehand, so grad housing was a safe choice. Another big plus is that if you have a maintenance problem, they come within 15 minutes to look at it.
The apts arent luxurious though, and some of them are kinda old, like mine is.

 

[Tijou]

Hey guys! I just got elected to Phi Beta Kappa at my school and I was wondering if that was enough to send a letter of update in addition to my continued interest of course?

 

[NickNaylor]

Hey guys! I just got elected to Phi Beta Kappa at my school and I was wondering if that was enough to send a letter of update in addition to my continued interest of course?

Congratulations. Definitely worth a mention, though as you suggest I'd use it more as an opportunity to re-express your interest in the school more than anything else.

 

[everest888]

Fingers crossed for more continued movement soon!!!!!!

 

[ubicaritas]

Fingers crossed for more continued movement soon!!!!!!

Bump! Last year a few continued applicants were hearing back about acceptances right around this week... Any news? I'm going crazy at work.

 

[Jacksel]

Withdrew! it was a tough decision, hope it goes to one of my fellow SDNers

 

[ldiam]

So, D-Day is approaching, and as I'm reviewing my options, I want to get some opinions from current (or accepted students) about probably the most obvious question: Why Pritzker? I wasn't able to attend revisit, so all of my opinions come from my interview day way back in September. I would love to hear about Pritzker all over again to remind me why I loved my interview so much.

Also, a more specific question. How do you feel about the curriculum? I always saw myself at a more PBL/integrated systems curriculum school and, while I think Pritzker has some awesome and unique classes, it is more lecture-based.

Thanks in advance!

 

[PlumbLine]

So, D-Day is approaching, and as I'm reviewing my options, I want to get some opinions from current (or accepted students) about probably the most obvious question: Why Pritzker? I wasn't able to attend revisit, so all of my opinions come from my interview day way back in September. I would love to hear about Pritzker all over again to remind me why I loved my interview so much.

Also, a more specific question. How do you feel about the curriculum? I always saw myself at a more PBL/integrated systems curriculum school and, while I think Pritzker has some awesome and unique classes, it is more lecture-based.

Thanks in advance!

Hey Idiam - I am sure that you were hoping to get input from a current student, which I am not, but FWIW, and seeing that there haven't been any replies, I thought I'd mention a couple things. 1) I learned at revisit that there actually is a fair amount of small group learning involved, similar to what other schools call PBL. For example, on the Pritzker website there are links to student schedules for each year. In the M1 year you will see that there are small group sessions multiple times per week. 2) did you consider calling Admissions to ask if you could speak to some current students? 3) the Pritzker Podcast has at least one episode that talks about the curriculum, and has multiple student perspectives.

Hope this helps. Good luck with the decision!


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[futuredoc2zero1four]

Withdrew today. Good luck!

 

[ubicaritas]

I've noticed that membership in the Pritzker admitted students fb group has gradually decreased from about ~150 last week to 124 right now. Can anyone comment on how the the fb group membership number compares to the actual number of accepted students? Like, how many of those remaining 124 are actually non-2018 students/admins?

Amusing/torturing myself as I cross my fingers for 'continued' movement.

 

[ChemEngMD]

I've noticed that membership in the Pritzker admitted students fb group has gradually decreased from about ~150 last week to 124 right now. Can anyone comment on how the the fb group membership number compares to the actual number of accepted students? Like, how many of those remaining 124 are actually non-2018 students/admins?

Amusing/torturing myself as I cross my fingers for 'continued' movement.

As people withdraw their acceptances they are being removed from the group by the admins.

It has been dropping pretty steady with about 10 people gone in the last day. I don't know what the current make up is of accepted students to current students...we'll know better soon I'm sure.

I think there will be movement from the continued group soon.

 

[MilkIsGood]

I've noticed that membership in the Pritzker admitted students fb group has gradually decreased from about ~150 last week to 124 right now. Can anyone comment on how the the fb group membership number compares to the actual number of accepted students? Like, how many of those remaining 124 are actually non-2018 students/admins?

Amusing/torturing myself as I cross my fingers for 'continued' movement.

Just counted it up for you. There are approx 34 current students in the fb group.

 

[unique-like-everyone-else]

So, D-Day is approaching, and as I'm reviewing my options, I want to get some opinions from current (or accepted students) about probably the most obvious question: Why Pritzker? I wasn't able to attend revisit, so all of my opinions come from my interview day way back in September. I would love to hear about Pritzker all over again to remind me why I loved my interview so much.

Also, a more specific question. How do you feel about the curriculum? I always saw myself at a more PBL/integrated systems curriculum school and, while I think Pritzker has some awesome and unique classes, it is more lecture-based.

Thanks in advance!

As an alumnus of the College and current wait-listee, I'll offer my two cents. UChicago likes being different. Whenever I asked the admissions staff about changes to the curriculum the overwhelming sense was one of resistance to the small group approach. They love their lectures because they love their lecturers. I took a class as an undergrad: human developmental biology. It was systems-based, and each system was presented by a different neonatologist who specialized in each respective system. Pritzker has resources. Not only in the form of facilities and money, but also in their faculty, and they WILL utilize those resources. This, of course, has its ups and downs. I believe both lectures and small groups have their merits and are valuable so I prefer an even split. I'd say Pritzker is about 90/10 in favor of lectures.

I have a lot more to say, but won't bother everyone with my rambling. Feel free to pm me if you want to discuss it further.

 

[HelloWorldSDN]

I'm going crazy. Any news from anyone continued?

 

[everest888]

Nothing here. I'm dying, too.

Just got off of the Duke waitlist and am working myself up to the incredibly difficult decision to turn them down. Chicago (the city) is really the best option for my SO and I. A call from Pritzker would be a dream-come-true.

 

[everest888]

It seemed like there was so much more continued movement on SDN last year. I know the sample isn't necessarily representative, but I'm still surprised. Perhaps they had a really high yield this year?

 

[ChemEngMD]

It seemed like there was so much more continued movement on SDN last year. I know the sample isn't necessarily representative, but I'm still surprised. Perhaps they had a really high yield this year?

Not that this means anything but last year there were 75 students at second look and this year there were close to 120. I do not know if they managed a higher yield or not but interest seemed to be higher judging by those numbers.

Just counted it up for you. There are approx 34 current students in the fb group.

Are you basing this off of your personal knowledge of the individuals or whether they listed Pritzker in their public Facebook info?

 

[everest888]

According to the person I spoke with at Pritzker, the class is presently full.

 

[ubicaritas]

Perhaps they had a really high yield this year?

Yeah, that's what I fear. If MilkIsGood's count was correct, then that leaves around ~86 accepted students remaining in the fb group after May 15th. And this doesn't include those accepted students who might not have a facebook account...

ChemEngMD's statement about second look numbers seems to correspond to a high yield as well.

It does seem that Stanford and a couple of other schools are running behind schedule this year, so perhaps that might explain the higher yield relative to last year. Regardless, looks like we have a bunch of waiting to do!

 

[HelloWorldSDN]

According to the person I spoke with at Pritzker, the class is presently full.

Here's hoping for waitlist movement at other top schools!

 

[MilkIsGood]

Are you basing this off of your personal knowledge of the individuals or whether they listed Pritzker in their public Facebook info?

Personal knowledge of the individuals who are current Pritzker students

 

[metview]

I was happy to see Pritzker drop in the rankings because I thought that would lower their yield and mean more continued movement, but I guess not.

I forgot about that. I guess I made a mistake deciding on Pritzker.

 

[ldiam]

Hey guys! I was very set on Pritzker, but got accepted to another school yesterday. This makes for some difficult decisions in the next four days, so for current students, I have a few questions:

• Why Pritzker? What drew you here and have you found those things to remain true? (I've asked this before, but love to hear again!)
• How do you like the curriculum? Is patient contact emphasized?
• International/Global Health is a very important focus for me. What sorts of things have you or other students done? Is anyone involved with the Global Health S&D Program and able to give me a bit more insight on what goes on with that?
• I wanted to learn a bit more about the possibility of an MPH (obviously from a different school), but haven't been able to find anything online. Help?
• How do you feel about Chicago and Hyde Park? Although I'm from the Midwest, I know very little about Chicago as a whole, which makes it difficult to picture spending four years there.
• Anything else you deem important when making this decision!

Thanks in advance for any responses (and sorry it got a little long)!!

 

[ubicaritas]

Any news from continued folks?

 

[nntrdd]

I interviewed in October and accepted off the waitlist last week with a scholarship. After a very difficult week of changing my mind about a dozen times, I withdrew this morning. I hope the spot goes to someone who has an easier decision to make than I did!

 

[paustel]

Has anyone else received word of either being accepted or being officially waitlisted? I've heard nothing since I was continued in January and the wait is killing me

 

[orphanblack13]

Has anyone else received word of either being accepted or being officially waitlisted? I've heard nothing since I was continued in January and the wait is killing me

I called the office last week and they just said that they are continuing to "encourage people who are holding 2 seats to make a decision" and that they are still actively accepting continued applicants. They said that the class is not officially full yet. I couldn't get any information out of them about when the official wait list would be formed.

Honestly, I'm so frustrated at this point I might just throw in the towel. If they have passed over me every single round since November, I don't know why they would accept me now. I am sick of being led on, especially because they don't reject people post interview, so unless you get in off the continued/waitlist, you will never get a straight answer.

 

[paustel]

I called the office last week and they just said that they are continuing to "encourage people who are holding 2 seats to make a decision" and that they are still actively accepting continued applicants. They said that the class is not officially full yet. I couldn't get any information out of them about when the official wait list would be formed.

Honestly, I'm so frustrated at this point I might just throw in the towel. If they have passed over me every single round since November, I don't know why they would accept me now. I am sick of being led on, especially because they don't reject people post interview, so unless you get in off the continued/waitlist, you will never get a straight answer.

Thanks. I definitely share your frustrations. Hopefully we will hear something soon!

 

[takeshikovacs]

Just a received an e-mail about being placed on the waitlist.

 

[unique-like-everyone-else]

Just a received an e-mail about being placed on the waitlist.

Same here.

 

[everest888]

Also got the waitlist email.

 

[ChiTownPreMed]

Also got the waitlist email.

+1

 

[orphanblack13]

Did anybody actually get a rejection? The email makes it seem as if there is a select group of waitlisters, but I heard that Pritzker doesn't really reject people post-interview.

 

[paustel]

I also got waitlisted. I was ecstatic until I called the admissions office and was told the waitlist includes 335 people. Rush here I come!

 

[ubicaritas]

Got the WL notification today too... Big whoop.

 

[Nefertiti63]

same on thursday with WL email

 

[ubicaritas]

I was ecstatic until I called the admissions office and was told the waitlist includes 335 people.

oh jeez.... I called the office today and they confirmed this number (they said 325 rather than 335, but close enough). Sigh.

 

[unique-like-everyone-else]

There's no way this list is unranked. I doubt they go through the same 335 files each time a spot opens up.

 

[paustel]

There's no way this list is unranked. I doubt they go through the same 335 files each time a spot opens up.

I completely agree. If only they would let us inside of their heads

 

[ubicaritas]

There's no way this list is unranked. I doubt they go through the same 335 files each time a spot opens up.

I completely agree. If only they would let us inside of their heads

I guess I can shed a bit of light on this based on my last phone convo with the admissions office. The way the administrator explained it, when someone drops a spot at Pritzker they'll admit someone from the waitlist who is similar enough to that person to maintain the same class composition. So, they probably have us grouped up according to certain characteristics (grades, extracurriculars, majors, interests, etc.) and when someone similar to us drops then they only look at that person's "family" of similar applicants.

Not too comforting, sure. But it's a reasonable approach. The unfair part, in my view, is stringing so many people along for the waitlist ride... 325 people to fill in the minute cracks in an 88 person class? I'm sure they could have clipped that down to a more realistic number--in this situation, the entire class could decide to drop its spots 3 times over before the school would run out of waitlisters to fill it up.