Why UChicago!
with Hannah and Christian
00:00:01 Hannah Skaran
Hi and thanks for tuning into this UChicago podcast, where I'll be chatting with some current students about why they love UChicago and what brought them here. My name is Hannah Skaran. I'm the multimedia producer for the admissions office,
00:00:14 Hannah Skaran
And I'm also an alum of the college.
00:00:17 Hannah Skaran
Today I'll be chatting with two current students.
00:00:20 Hannah Skaran
I hope you enjoy their insight and perspective.
00:00:25 Hannah Skaran
Thank you both for being here on the UChicago podcast where we talk to current students about why they chose UChicago as their school for four years.
00:00:36 Hannah Skaran
I'd like you both to
00:00:37 Hannah Skaran
Go ahead and introduce yourself with your name, your year, where you're from, and your major if
00:00:43 Hannah Skaran
You have one.
00:00:44 Christian
I'm Christian, I'm a second year here at the college.
00:00:47 Christian
I'm from Los Angeles, CA and I'm double majoring in romance languages and literature, as well as cinema media study.
00:00:54 Hannah
And I'm Hannah.
00:00:55 Hannah
I'm a third year here in the college.
00:00:57 Hannah
I'm originally from Carmel IN and I'm majoring in sociology and taking classes
00:01:01 Hannah
At the Booth School of Business.
00:01:03 Hannah Skaran
Great, that's really neat.
00:01:04 Hannah Skaran
That Booth program is a great opportunity I.
00:01:08 Hannah Skaran
Had a lot of folks back.
00:01:10 Hannah Skaran
When I was a.
00:01:10 Hannah Skaran
Uchicago student I knew he's sick.
00:01:13 Hannah Skaran
Way back when I took classes and booth.
00:01:16 Hannah Skaran
So again thank you both so much for joining me today.
00:01:22 Hannah Skaran
I want to jump in first and I think first let's talk a little bit about your UChicago experience overall, and then we can broaden it to thinking back to your high school applicant brain.
00:01:33 Hannah Skaran
Sorry to make you do that, but sort of getting back into that headspace and thinking a little bit about who you were in high school and why you chose UChicago
00:01:42 Hannah Skaran
And how that sort of fits into the student that you are now.
00:01:45 Hannah Skaran
At UChicago, so.
00:01:47 Hannah Skaran
What is one of your favorite classes for the core or for your major that you've taken so far?
00:01:53 Hannah
I can start us off for this one.
00:01:55 Hannah
My favorite class formed the core, but it also kind of informed my major is one of our core social sciences sequences.
00:02:04 Hannah
It's called self culture and society.
00:02:06 Hannah
It's a ton of students.
00:02:08 Hannah
Take it here.
00:02:09 Hannah
I took it with Professor Anbil, who's incredible.
00:02:11 Hannah
She chairs the department.
00:02:13 Hannah
S
he is also a psychoanalyst, which is super cool when you're reading Freud, but I had a really fantastic experience in this course for multiple reasons.
00:02:21 Hannah
I think it was the first time that I had ever.
00:02:23 Hannah
Really studied sociology like read these really fundamental texts and I love them.
00:02:28 Hannah
I thought they were so interesting and eventually that brought me to my major, but I think I also really enjoyed this course because
00:02:35 Hannah
The way that the class was set up was really, really seminar style like we would sit in a circle and talk about what we
00:02:40 Hannah
Read and students brought in all sorts of different contexts because it was a core course and we weren't all the same major or the same year or.
00:02:48 Hannah
Had the same background.
00:02:49 Hannah
So I learned so much about the text we were reading, but also about so many other things that students would bring too.
00:02:55 Hannah
So our attention in class that related to the text that we were reading, that could be anything from pop culture to other fundamental texts to anything in between and, and I think it really taught me what academia and intellectual thought can look like.
00:03:10 Hannah
It can be very creative and very unique and I just I absolutely loved that.
00:03:16 Hannah Skaran
Do you have, and not to put you too much on the spot, but do you have an example of a student who made a connection that, given their background compared to yours, that you might not have thought of otherwise?
00:03:29 Hannah
Uhm yeah, I kind of have a more broad connection, but we had a student in class who was just super into pop culture and a lot of times we would talk about like music examples.
00:03:41 Hannah
I think that happens like I remember even doing that in high school, talking about lyrics and such.
00:03:46 Hannah
But sometimes, even like current events, so we were talking about.
00:03:51 Hannah
This really interesting case about a student who had.
00:03:55 Hannah
Basically, we've been posting lots of like social thought journals around their campus.
00:04:01 Hannah
I don't remember what school this was at, but there was an article a student actually like brought this article to class 'cause they thought it was so interesting and we were in the middle of reading Durkheim who is just like one of the sociological fundamental
00:04:16 Hannah
Authors and you wouldn't think that this article and that text that we were reading had anything to do with each other.
00:04:23 Hannah
Uhm, but we were able to put them in conversation in so many different ways.
00:04:28 Hannah
Really, really, abstractly.
00:04:30 Hannah
I think it was a little bit tough, but I think that was almost an exercise for us in how all these really abstract sociological fundamental thoughts can be applied to pretty much anything.
00:04:43 Hannah
Which I later learned is like a hallmark of UChicago sociology, and I had no idea then.
00:04:49 Hannah
So that's not super specific of an example, but I think it was one of the coolest classes I ever took because we were all like working really, really hard to make something work in ways that were significant and substantial.
00:05:01 Hannah Skaran
No, that's a great example. Thank you so much. That definitely captures, in my opinion, a big part of the UChicago experience and especially you know the ideas that are embodied in the core curriculum for sure.
00:05:12 Hannah Skaran
Now Christian, thank you for waiting so patiently.
00:05:16 Hannah Skaran
Please go ahead and talk about one of your favorite classes, either in the core or for your major.
00:05:22 Christian
I would definitely say that I have two favorite core classes, so one is my Italian class that I took from my language requirement, which kind of like Hannah helps inform my major because at first I was just going to take the one year and just be finished with it.
00:05:36 Christian
But now I'm in Italian 202 because I just love learning about the language and the country and the culture and everything and it just really made me.
00:05:43 Christian
Wanting to go to more events with the Romance Languages Department and everyone in that department is so nice and so welcoming and it really made me like want to be a part of that department.
00:05:51 Christian
I want to take more.
00:05:52 Christian
Classes and get to know these professors a lot more.
00:05:54 Christian
So that's what put me on the track to be a romance language major, and then also my other favorite classes.
00:05:59 Christian
When I took last quarter called plant animal interactions from my bio topic and I'm someone who kind of is not the best person when it comes to STEM.
00:06:08 Christian
So like I try to avoid STEM classes at all costs, but of course with the core like you do have to take some classes and so I was kind of hesitant to take.
00:06:15 Christian
Yeah, so I just chose plant animal interactions because I thought I'd just be like boring, but not this information that I could just get through for 10 weeks and then move on to the next class.
00:06:23 Christian
But I ended up really enjoying it for like the first week because the readings were they weren't.
00:06:28 Christian
It wasn't like a huge textbook.
00:06:29 Christian
There were articles.
00:06:30 Christian
They're like different things written by scientists that were easy to read and easy to understand, and it wasn't.
00:06:36 Christian
Like by a biology course where we get like dive too deep into the bio and like get lost in all the chemicals and everything.
00:06:42 Christian
So I really appreciated that and I just like love learning about plants and how they protect themselves even chemically or physically against predators.
00:06:49 Christian
But then they also somehow managed to trick animals.
00:06:51 Christian
It's a pollinating for them and just learning how complicated plants actually were and then.
00:06:56 Christian
Like towards the end of the quarter, right?
00:06:58 Christian
And then buying plants of my own for my dorm room 'cause I was just like I love plants.
00:07:02 Christian
Now I need to buy plants and like I just used to have them around me.
00:07:04 Christian
They're so cool, they're so amazing.
00:07:06 Christian
I know my friends who know that I'm not the biggest STEM fan like they would always be surprised when I just come to them.
00:07:12 Christian
And talk about what I learned about in class and just really get excited about it.
00:07:16 Christian
So I just love that aspect of it because I think that just is a testament to how the core can push you outside of your boundaries.
00:07:23 Christian
And like you might end up finding something that you love that you may not have given a chance.
00:07:27 Christian
Before, because you're so used to liking it, or not liking certain things.
00:07:33 Hannah Skaran
Definitely I.
00:07:34 Hannah Skaran
I think it's really interesting to hear you talk about how you weren't much of a stem person beforehand, but you sort of had the the perfect core experience that I think a lot of students do of, like, OK,
00:07:45 Hannah Skaran
I'll take this subject because I have to, but I don't really want to.
00:07:48 Hannah Skaran
And then you end up being exposed to something that you find really interesting and you never would have thought of.
00:07:53 Hannah Skaran
Before and I think that's such a cool story and I love that you have a room full of house.
00:07:57 Hannah Skaran
Plants now that's great.
00:08:00 Hannah Skaran
Thank you both for giving me a really good idea of what goes on in your classroom experiences.
00:08:05 Hannah Skaran
This is really helpful and I like that we have different backgrounds on this episode of the podcast.
00:08:11 Hannah Skaran
We've got sociology a little bit of business kind of thrown in there.
00:08:14 Hannah Skaran
We've got some romance languages, so some pretty very different fields.
00:08:19 Hannah Skaran
And I.
00:08:19 Hannah Skaran
Think it's really interesting though, to see how you guys still have some similar or at least parallel sort of experiences in the classroom.
00:08:27 Hannah Skaran
Now we're going to pivot to talk about things that you do outside of the classroom.
00:08:30 Hannah Skaran
So Hannah, I'll let you start.
00:08:32 Hannah Skaran
What are some things that you like to do outside of the classroom and this could be an RSO that you're involved in a house activity, a tradition, or things that you like to do in the city.
00:08:43 Hannah
Oh yeah, such a broad question.
00:08:45 Hannah
I think there are so many answers to that and one thing that's really unique about coming to college that I didn't realize before I got here is that your schedule is so flexible and I have so much more time on my hands than I thought I would in high school.
00:08:58 Hannah
But uhm.
00:08:59 Hannah
I think like some of my favorite stuff to do includes the arsos I'm involved in that I really love, one of which is.
00:09:05 Hannah
Campus catalyst which?
00:09:06 Hannah
Is a pro bono nonprofit consulting organization?
00:09:09 Hannah
I really enjoy doing that work.
00:09:11 Hannah
It teaches me a lot.
00:09:13 Hannah
It's really rewarding.
00:09:14 Hannah
It's really fun.
00:09:15 Hannah
I love the people I work with.
00:09:16 Hannah
With some, but probably my favorite thing to do in my free time is explore the city.
00:09:21 Hannah
I love Chicago.
00:09:22 Hannah
I think it's such an interesting city.
00:09:24 Hannah
If you have the chance to read the book Devil in the White City before coming to Chicago.
00:09:28 Hannah
If you ever do, please read it.
00:09:30 Hannah
It taught me so much about the history of Chicago and gave me kind of a really interesting angle from which to look at the history of the city.
00:09:38 Hannah Skaran
But the city of.
00:09:38 Hannah
Chicago also burned down like not too long ago and got totally redesigned.
00:09:42 Hannah
I just think there's so much cool, interesting history there and and it made it a city that's really full of neighborhoods, which all have really distinctive like cultures and events and stuff going on all the time.
00:09:55 Hannah
And I love to just explore different areas of the city.
00:09:58 Hannah
Because there's so much more to it than our campus and downtown, so that's prob.
00:10:03 Hannah
Really, one of my favorite things to do in my free time is just to go find a new part of the city.
00:10:07 Hannah
I haven't been to before and I really do drag my friends along with me for that I try to get downtown like once or.
00:10:13 Hannah
Twice a week.
00:10:14 Hannah
Pretty kovid, so yeah, that's probably where I.
00:10:18 Hannah
Place the most.
00:10:19 Hannah
Priority in terms of my free time, but I also love you know Netflix.
00:10:23 Hannah
Watched Bridgerton recently like everyone else.
00:10:27 Hannah Skaran
Of course, a must watch for sure.
00:10:30 Hannah Skaran
Christian. What are some things?
00:10:31 Hannah Skaran
That you like to do outside the classroom.
00:10:34 Christian
Uh, like Hannah, I'm involved in a number of our SOS like the Italian club where we just like go and talk in Italian and eat pizza or like some other Italian food and just spend time together.
00:10:46 Christian
It's just a great way to connect with other students for learning the same language.
00:10:49 Christian
And also I get culture, credit for class or it's really knocking out two birds with one stone.
00:10:54 Christian
I'm I'm also like involved in like.
00:10:56 Christian
The paintball club.
00:10:57 Christian
Which is in like limbo now because of COVID.
00:10:59 Christian
But the paintball club as well took me paintballing my first time and it was like so great.
00:11:04 Christian
We just spent the entire Saturday last year paintballing.
00:11:07 Christian
It wasn't as painful so I thought it was going to be, but I'm more painful than one could expect this.
00:11:13 Christian
It was weird, but it was like.
00:11:14 Christian
It was like it was lots of fun, uhm?
00:11:17 Christian
And like I think my most my favorite activity and I was like I'm president of my House council.
00:11:21 Christian
UM, and so like every week and during house meeting or House council meetings and like coming up with events to connect to keep us connected with everything being online and everything.
00:11:30 Christian
And right now we're actually having it.
00:11:34 Christian
We're actually doing our quarterly transition to playing assassins.
00:11:37 Christian
Under our House, which is like a big complicated game of water tag and so like all, and they sort of.
00:11:44 Christian
And so you get.
00:11:45 Christian
So if you're playing assassin, you get a target.
00:11:47 Christian
Any other, spray them with water to eliminate them, and the last assassin standing winds and we just started at 12:00 AM last night and so all day today I've heard people running up and down the halls trying to get each other and like, obviously like we're like playing like water, guns and everything.
00:12:01 Christian
So like it's still socially distant, but everyone involved.
00:12:04 Christian
It's so nice to hear them running up and down the hall and just like hear all the first years.
00:12:08 Christian
Who whose first year isn't like going as exactly as expected, still bonding with one another and still getting involved in house traditions like that?
00:12:16 Christian
So do being able to do things like that as.
00:12:18 Christian
House President is really great.
00:12:20 Christian
Especially now when fostering a sense of community is even more important than before.
00:12:26 Hannah Skaran
I love that.
00:12:26 Hannah Skaran
That sounds that sounds like a blast.
00:12:28 Hannah Skaran
That's a great house tradition, actually.
00:12:30 Hannah Skaran
That segues perfectly into the next question.
00:12:33 Hannah Skaran
I was going to ask you, Christian, since you are a House Council President.
00:12:38 Hannah Skaran
If you could tell us more about the house that you are the House Council President for and some more of your activities.
00:12:46 Hannah Skaran
Or traditions that are some of your.
00:12:47 Hannah Skaran
Favorites and I.
00:12:48 Hannah Skaran
Think students might also be interested in hearing about.
00:12:51 Hannah Skaran
About your dorm community.
00:12:53 Hannah Skaran
How you connect with other houses and things like that.
00:12:56 Hannah Skaran
So if you could go ahead and just elaborate more on that, I think I'd.
00:12:59 Hannah Skaran
Love to hear more.
00:13:01 Christian
Sure, yeah, the housing system is definitely my favorite party.
00:13:04 Christian
Be Chicago.
00:13:04 Christian
I could literally talk about it all day if I had to, and I wouldn't complain at all.
00:13:09 Christian
But I'm in Shorey house in International house, one of the residence halls on Campus International House, where I House as we call it, is about a fire 10 minute walk from the main quad.
00:13:20 Christian
I'd like to measure my walks in song, so like.
00:13:22 Christian
Usually it's like a three minute walk from the main quad.
00:13:24 Christian
Uhm 3 no.
00:13:26 Christian
It's not three minute I'm sorry.
00:13:27 Christian
Three song walk from the main quad uhm?
00:13:31 Christian
And yeah, it's like just a really.
00:13:32 Christian
It's one of the oldest residence halls on campus, so it is a really old building.
00:13:36 Christian
When you walk in, I like heard people describe it as like a really old Grand Hotel and I think it lives up to its name because when you walk in, there's like a huge lobby with a grand piano on the right side, unlike like newer dorms.
00:13:46 Christian
The dorm rooms, like we do still have, like the old fashioned keys and everything, and this is a really nice.
00:13:51 Christian
Floating and it feels really homey.
00:13:52 Christian
Which is why I moved back in for my second year uhm.
00:13:56 Christian
And yeah, I love it so much.
00:13:58 Christian
Being House Council president is like so fun because I get to connect with all the people in my house.
00:14:03 Christian
Shauri House is like one of the smallest houses on campus, so we typically only have like about 54 to 55 people a year, which I think really helps with House culture because we're such a small house, everyone at least knows of each other.
00:14:16 Christian
Or had seen each other in the hallways were in passing and we only make up.
00:14:19 Christian
About two floors of of our house.
00:14:22 Christian
And like honestly, the house launch is my favorite place on campus.
00:14:25 Christian
Hands down, you never know what you're gonna get into when you walk in.
00:14:28 Christian
You can why they walk into like a really.
00:14:29 Christian
Heated smash tournament.
00:14:31 Christian
Or you can walk into a Just Dance competition.
00:14:33 Christian
You can walk into people doing piece sets in the back.
00:14:35 Christian
You can walk into debates about religion and sociology.
00:14:39 Christian
You just really never know what you're going to walk into with the house lounge.
00:14:42 Christian
So I just love that because I think it's a great depiction of house culture and also just you Chicago as a whole, because there's always gonna be someone doing something.
00:14:49 Christian
That I love in the lounge.
00:14:52 Christian
And yeah, so like house traditions like that, we love to do that.
00:14:56 Christian
I think we're starting today.
00:14:57 Christian
Actually we're gonna.
00:14:57 Christian
We're gonna start going to Reynolds club to get $1.00 milkshakes because a lot of the first years haven't had their first one little milkshake.
00:15:03 Christian
And for me personally, like they have a $1.00. Mugs have like a Kung Fu grip on me. Every Wednesday I have to go as soon as I remember. It's Wednesday my day and my week.
00:15:12 Christian
It's instantly made better because I get those $1.00.
00:15:14 Christian
Shakes so we like walked to Reynolds club together and we have the first years participate in that.
00:15:20 Christian
We do like different zoom, zoom online games and we watch different movies together and everything we do yoga on the midway when the weather is nice and like we're all spread out and doing that together so it's nice just to be able to spend so much time with your house because a lot of my friends are from my house.
00:15:34 Christian
From last year that I do still keep in touch with.
00:15:36 Christian
So it just makes it really great for me, specially especially as.
00:15:39 Christian
A first year when you may not.
00:15:40 Christian
Know anyone on campus?
00:15:42 Christian
So like and your first introduction is the housing system and all these people who are from different areas around the world and have different interests in different subjects and everything.
00:15:50 Christian
And somehow you're able to still get along with them.
00:15:52 Christian
You're able to eat with them, and even if you don't, house culture isn't like cold pizza, where if you don't get along with your house.
00:15:58 Christian
And you're it seems a bad thing, I think.
00:16:00 Christian
Just a great resource to be there if you want it.
00:16:02 Christian
And if you don't want it, that's also fine as well.
00:16:05 Hannah Skaran
That's great, we always get so many questions about I house, so I think it's it's really helpful to hear that perspective.
00:16:11 Hannah Skaran
And I also love when hearing you speak just now how much you talked about the first years and how much you were thinking about supporting that and making sure that they have a good experience.
00:16:22 Hannah Skaran
And I think that really speaks to a big benefit of.
00:16:25 Hannah Skaran
The the housing setup at Uchicago is sort of that that safety net, so that's really nice.
00:16:30 Hannah Skaran
Hannah, could you talk a little bit about thinking back to when you were in housing?
00:16:34 Hannah Skaran
Which house and dorm you were in and what were some of your favorite traditions and activities when you were?
00:16:40 Hannah
Yeah, so believe it or not.
00:16:41 Hannah
I also lived in my house Christian and I have talked about this so much because we're both obsessed with it.
00:16:46 Hannah
I have still I dyehouse love that place.
00:16:49 Hannah
I had such a fantastic experience I didn't even want to leave.
00:16:53 Hannah
I just really, really love to cook and wanted to be able to do that three meals a day, but I really loved living in the housing.
00:17:01 Hannah
Interestingly, though, we both lived in my House Phoenix House, which was my house.
00:17:05 Hannah
Also the best house on campus.
00:17:07 Hannah Skaran
It's one of those we got a rivalry.
00:17:12 Hannah
Yeah, it's OK. We're civil so it's one of the largest houses on campus with like around 150 people, so a very different experience even in the same dorm than Christian.
00:17:23 Hannah
But I really loved it, so I came to campus, not knowing a single person.
00:17:28 Hannah
And I was really nervous and I had a.
00:17:30 Hannah
Single, which definitely better in terms of my lifestyle.
00:17:33 Hannah
But I was so.
00:17:33 Hannah
Afraid that like.
00:17:34 Hannah
Oh, I don't have a roommate to like cling to during orientation week activities.
00:17:38 Hannah
I was so so.
00:17:38 Hannah
Nervous about that?
00:17:41 Hannah
But my house ended up.
00:17:42 Hannah
Doing that for me and so much more everyone on my floor was really nice.
00:17:47 Hannah
Everyone in my house was really nice and there.
00:17:49 Hannah
Are so many.
00:17:49 Hannah
Like tiny ways that house culture influences the way you adjust to the college experience.
00:17:54 Hannah
Like eating with your house in the dining hall.
00:17:56 Hannah
I did that every meal every day and I got to know so many people and have so many interesting.
00:18:01 Hannah
And random conversations because of that.
00:18:05 Hannah
I think my favorite thing about my house.
00:18:06 Hannah
We have lots of like little traditions like ice skating and hot chocolate nights and stuff.
00:18:11 Hannah
But my favorite thing is that there were always people in the.
00:18:13 Hannah
Lounge and even in like the larger areas of my house, like the library that anyone can study in and and I never stayed up alone like if I was staying up late.
00:18:24 Hannah
Studying or if I was really having trouble with an essay or paper.
00:18:27 Hannah
I never did that alone.
00:18:28 Hannah
And usually it's because other people were working too.
00:18:31 Hannah
But I remember one time.
00:18:33 Hannah
My friend Sam just stayed up with me because I was staying up and I got later and later and I was.
00:18:38 Hannah
Like no go.
00:18:39 Hannah
To bed like I just mismanaged my time.
00:18:41 Hannah
I just have to finish this paper and and he stayed up with me and then our other friend Elliot joined us and he was like, yeah, I was just studying in my room.
00:18:48 Hannah
Might as well be here and then we went to the House kitchen and made eggs.
00:18:53 Hannah
Like one in the morning to you know keep us going and then we just all stayed up and studied.
00:18:58 Hannah
I finished my paper.
00:18:59 Hannah
It was one of my better ones.
00:19:01 Hannah
Kind of shockingly, but it was just like such a specific example of the support that I feel like I get from living in housing.
00:19:09 Hannah
Every single day, I never felt like I went through any part of the college adjustment process alone.
00:19:15 Hannah
My RH is were fantastic.
00:19:17 Hannah
RH is being resident heads.
00:19:18 Hannah
They're like the cool aunt and uncle for your dorm and and they would host study breaks and we would listen to like they were super super into like Russian classical music.
00:19:29 Hannah
So we would listen to a lot of that.
00:19:31 Hannah
And they would make us food.
00:19:32 Hannah
I stayed over Thanksgiving at their at their place, in our dorm.
00:19:36 Hannah
And I just yeah, I really felt supported.
00:19:38 Hannah
The whole process.
00:19:39 Hannah
And I.
00:19:39 Hannah
Think I think if I was still there now, I would be having a great time as well.
00:19:43 Hannah
But I think especially for that first, like really formative few months and years adjusting to college housing was so important to that experience.
00:19:53 Hannah Skaran
Well, I love it.
00:19:53 Hannah Skaran
Two people from the same dorm, but talking about really different parts of that experience and the different houses and the little differences in traditions and things like that.
00:20:03 Hannah Skaran
I think that's so.
00:20:04 Hannah Skaran
Great yeah, both my house. We did not plan this dear listener it just it just happened this way. Very exciting so now I think we've gotten a pretty good sense of EU Chicago experience once you get here now I'm going to ask you to think.
00:20:18 Hannah Skaran
Back to your high school selves.
00:20:20 Hannah Skaran
When you were college applicants, what?
00:20:24 Hannah Skaran
First drew you to U Chicago as an applicant and Hannah, why don't you?
00:20:28 Hannah Skaran
Go first with this one.
00:20:30 Hannah
Yeah, absolutely.
00:20:32 Hannah
I think they're kind of I kind of have two answers to this question, the first being.
00:20:37 Hannah
You Chicago is on my radar because I'm from the Midwest and I wanted to probably study something in the social sciences.
00:20:44 Hannah
New Chicago is one of the best for that, and it was really pretty so, so it was like pretty high up on my list for a lot of logistical reasons.
00:20:54 Hannah
But when I really decided that you Chicago was like my top choice.
00:20:57 Hannah
Really where I wanted to go was when I came to visit.
00:21:01 Hannah
And I sat in on an open house and I got to actually sit in on a class. And this was Professor Ada Palmer's Italian Renaissance class.
00:21:08 Hannah
And I walked in like, not remotely interested in the Italian Renaissance, and I walked out wanting to major in the Italian Renaissance.
00:21:15 Hannah
Because the class was.
00:21:16 Hannah
So incredible, and I felt so transformed and.
00:21:20 Hannah
And it was just nothing.
00:21:21 Hannah
Like I had experienced before.
00:21:22 Hannah
I'm from a really massive high school with 5000 students. Some size used to big courses, mostly lectures.
00:21:30 Hannah
You know, writing my formulaic essays and whatnot, and I got to sit in on this course and most of the students in the course weren't majoring in history or Italian or anything related to the course, and it also wasn't a core course, so everyone there was just.
00:21:43 Hannah
Kind of taking it 'cause they thought it would be cool when some people were majors, but regardless of why they were there all the students.
00:21:50 Hannah
Treated the environment with such respect and were so engaged in the content, even though, like I really couldn't understand it in high school, I was like you're a math like what are you doing here?
00:21:59 Hannah
Why, why?
00:22:00 Hannah
Why are you here?
00:22:01 Hannah
And they were so engaged and excited about the class.
00:22:05 Hannah
They basically were put like a text was put in front of them and the professor said, you know, read this.
00:22:10 Hannah
What do you guys think and the way that they?
00:22:15 Hannah
Dissected that information and by the end of the class like an hour and a half later, we were at a thought process that I could not have arrived at in a million years on my own that I couldn't even imagine.
00:22:25 Hannah
You know, thinking of from seeing.
00:22:27 Hannah
That text and I walked out of the classroom and I was like that's what I want.
00:22:31 Hannah
My college experience to look like like I want to be in that type of classroom.
00:22:35 Hannah
And and ultimately, that's what made me decide.
00:22:38 Hannah
You know, you Chicago is my first choice.
00:22:39 Hannah
That's definitely where I want to.
00:22:40 Hannah
Be and I thought.
00:22:43 Hannah
That's like a nice story, but it's a lot about like my my gut my intuition, uhm?
00:22:48 Hannah
But I really do feel like that has been proven true in my time at Uchicago, and that as a high schooler it taught me a lot about myself and what I valued, and that helped me.
00:22:59 Hannah
Also, in even the application process or just like learning a bit about me, which I hope you know everyone does in their college application process.
00:23:07 Hannah
But yeah, I think that you can see what I saw in that classroom in a lot of ways by listening to this podcast maybe.
00:23:14 Hannah
Or like looking into students who go here or the kind of classes that U Chicago offers.
00:23:19 Hannah
I think there are lots of other ways to kind of arrive at that conclusion, but that's what really showed me that you know, U Chicago was the place for me.
00:23:28 Hannah Skaran
I think that's solid advice.
00:23:29 Hannah Skaran
You know, going with your gut is actually a pretty good way to go.
00:23:33 Hannah Skaran
What about you, Christian?
00:23:34 Hannah Skaran
What first drew you to your Chicago as an applicant?
00:23:39 Christian
Well, in high school I was a part of an after school program college prep program for first Gen income students, and so like every every spring break we would go out of state stored different colleagues and everything just to show us that like there are other schools we can apply to besides like Cal States and UC's. So my junior year of spring break, we came to Chicago.
00:23:58 Christian
And I didn't know any schools in Chicago, it was just.
00:24:01 Christian
It was just a free trip one week into in Chicago.
00:24:03 Christian
So like I'm going, I don't care if I like the schools or not. I'm I'm going to be in Chicago for the first time ever and EU Chicago was like my was the 2nd.
00:24:11 Christian
School we toured and.
00:24:12 Christian
Like I had never heard of it before.
00:24:14 Christian
But like we stepped foot, I think we came actually from the I house side, 'cause I.
00:24:17 Christian
I remember the sign.
00:24:18 Christian
And I just I don't know.
00:24:19 Christian
I love the buildings and I loved how it looked and I was like OK like this.
00:24:25 Christian
This school looks looks really cool.
00:24:26 Christian
That's old but also looks nice when you like.
00:24:28 Christian
Look at all the newer buildings on the tour and everything and it's like that.
00:24:30 Christian
Perfect blend of like old and.
00:24:32 Christian
New buildings that I would.
00:24:32 Christian
Love at a college, not to mention like Chicago.
00:24:35 Christian
Itself is just really great, so I was already feeling the environment.
00:24:38 Christian
Like during the information session, I don't know each new slap slide that the present the presenters showed.
00:24:44 Christian
I got more and more excited.
00:24:45 Christian
I was like I've never heard of the of the core curriculum.
00:24:48 Christian
I was still kind of confused when I left.
00:24:49 Christian
I'm not gonna lie, but it I was excited to research it and to like see come to learn more about it and then when we got to the housing system I was just I just fell in love.
00:24:59 Christian
I was like.
00:24:59 Christian
Oh my gosh, this is so great are you tell me I'm going to have a house, a community on campus so I can like hang out with and spend time with.
00:25:05 Christian
And it was just so exciting and I just love the emphasis on like collaboration and community that I just found throughout the presentation throughout the tour and everything that anyone said about Chicago.
00:25:18 Christian
When I was on campus, just referred back to that community collaboration and as someone who was born and raised in LA and had never lived anywhere else like that's why I really wanted a place that I could be able to call home for the next four years and not feel miserable at because I chose, oh, because oh, because this is a top school, I chose it.
00:25:32 Christian
But really, I'm kind of miserably here when I'm.
00:25:34 Christian
Going here and Chicago has like and I and so I applied Eddie.
00:25:38 Christian
And I was like, OK, if you Chicago, robust.
00:25:40 Christian
Like if I don't get in here I don't know what I'm gonna tell anyone because this this is my dream school.
00:25:44 Christian
This is where I want to be.
00:25:45 Christian
I can't believe I didn't know about it before last year and like obviously I got it and everything and it I feel like each Fargo has.
00:25:52 Christian
Lived up to like my expectations and and completely, Sir.
00:25:55 Christian
Ask them just because.
00:25:57 Christian
I do feel like I do.
00:25:58 Christian
Feel like this is a second home and I do feel like I have a great and strong community even with people who have only had one class with.
00:26:05 Christian
They're like I'm taking my my 5 psych.
00:26:08 Christian
My physical science class this quarter, and so a few students are students that I had last year from my humanities class, and so I'm just like.
00:26:15 Christian
Messaging them on Facebook like hey, do you Remember Me from last year and they're like, yeah and I remember they.
00:26:19 Christian
They also like aren't the best at stem so we're, uh.
00:26:23 Christian
Meeting later this week to discuss P sets and different and notes like that.
00:26:27 Christian
And it's just super easy to reach out with students and staff and just make friends and everything because everyone here is so willing to help you.
00:26:33 Christian
They're selling to give you advice I I can't even count how many times I've been in the lounge in my first year and said, I don't know what social I'm taking next year.
00:26:41 Christian
Can someone help me?
00:26:42 Christian
And so many people recommend it?
00:26:44 Christian
Self, and I've said the same thing and I said like it's just so great and that's why I'm in self this year because so many people are just willing to give you their experiences and give you their knowledge.
00:26:53 Christian
Whether that's like staff, faculty, student.
00:26:56 Christian
Anyone and it's so easy to ask questions.
00:26:58 Christian
I feel like no one judges me when I ask a question.
00:27:01 Christian
It did.
00:27:01 Christian
It took me a while to to get comfortable doing that up because I was like oh everyone around me seems to get it.
00:27:07 Christian
So why am I going to be the one to ask a question and be the odd one out?
00:27:09 Christian
But I remember like after my humanities class last year, I would talk to a student and say, like I was confused about this one part and they're like, Oh my gosh.
00:27:16 Christian
I was confused too.
00:27:17 Christian
Let's go have lunch and discuss how confusing both were and I just bonded over over things like that and so it's definitely more comfortable asking questions.
00:27:25 Christian
Because if if no one else asks them, I can guarantee like someone else has that same question or similar question.
00:27:31 Christian
And it's just such a great community to be.
00:27:33 Christian
A part of.
00:27:34 Hannah Skaran
I'm so glad you got to go on that trip to Chicago and find the school that clearly suits you really well and that you are doing really well.
00:27:43 Hannah Skaran
In my last question is if you have to sum it all up, why did you choose Uchicago and how would you describe your experience so far?
00:27:54 Hannah
OK, I will attempt to start us off.
00:27:59 Hannah
If I were to sum it all up neatly, I would say that I chose Uchicago.
00:28:04 Hannah
Because it allowed me to pursue several things that I was interested in, or several of my passions you could say.
00:28:13 Hannah
Via the core via my majors via Rsos registered student organizations.
00:28:20 Hannah
Via living in this city.
00:28:23 Hannah
Yeah, I think ultimately, that's why I ended up here and how is it going so far very well.
00:28:29 Hannah
I feel I have been able to, you know, pursue those things that I knew or thought I was interested in in high school.
00:28:35 Hannah
Some of those lasted, some of them didn't.
00:28:37 Hannah
I have found completely new things that I Love Actually, my love of cooking.
00:28:42 Hannah
I've always enjoyed it, but I recently took a chemistry of food and cooking class.
00:28:46 Hannah
For my 5 requirement, I'm also not a huge stem person and that like taught me so much more about cooking than I knew and it's really ignited that passion in me that I didn't realize was as deep as it is and I've just discovered new things through the core through the college environment here that I didn't know I was interested in and been able to pursue those.
00:29:07 Hannah
Without giving up the things that I knew that I was interested in when I got to college.
00:29:11 Hannah
So I think that it definitely held up to that expectation, but also really guided me well in different directions I.
00:29:19 Hannah
Never felt like I was.
00:29:21 Hannah
Giving something up too soon or taking on a new thing too soon.
00:29:24 Hannah
I just think that the way the college experience is structured here, the housing and the quarter system and the core really really worked well for for me at least, great.
00:29:34 Hannah Skaran
Great, well I'm glad Christian.
00:29:37 Hannah Skaran
Why did you choose you Chicago and how would you describe your experience so far?
00:29:41 Hannah Skaran
And I I know you've talked a lot about this already, so whatever else you want to add, go ahead.
00:29:46 Hannah Skaran
Now is your chance.
00:29:49 Christian
Uh, yeah, it's something like just the the collaborative community and everything.
00:29:54 Christian
I'm just echo what Hannah said.
00:29:55 Christian
I really feel like you Chicago was a place where I could explore other interests just because it is liberal arts college and it's all under the college, and so we're not like divided into something into different schools or anything.
00:30:06 Christian
And so I came in thinking I was.
00:30:09 Christian
To be appalling science major, and that obviously that quickly changed.
00:30:13 Christian
I just love how you Chicago allowed me to take classes as electives, and even like in the core to help me explore other interests.
00:30:19 Christian
And really allowed me to grow.
00:30:21 Christian
So even if I didn't like those class and I still remained in Poly side, I still was just gaining all these other skills that otherwise I probably wouldn't have like last year I took a religious studies class as an elective and I'm nowhere near a religious studies major, but I took it because I was like this is interesting and all we did was like study, weird philosophical texts and we like with study.
00:30:39 Christian
Villains and stuff in movies.
00:30:40 Christian
It's like we'd like watch Groundhog Day and Black Panther and Jaws and every.
00:30:44 Christian
Thing like really interesting movies in like study?
00:30:46 Christian
What is a villain are?
00:30:48 Christian
Are they right?
00:30:48 Christian
Are they wrong and everything like that?
00:30:50 Christian
And I was like is this whole cinema meeting sites is like are we just like watching movies and studying characters and everything which is what led me to want to take into the film analysis this quarter which I'm loving by the way we just watched portion of a lady on fire this week.
00:31:02 Christian
It was so great.
00:31:04 Christian
So amazing, so we're studying that and it's just I just love how you Chicago really pushes for exploration.
00:31:11 Christian
Whether in the field that you want to be or outside of that field, just to test things out, and I, I absolutely love it.
00:31:19 Christian
As far as right now it's it's like I said, it's totally living up to my expectations and I honestly just can't wait to explore more classes and to learn and grow more.
00:31:27 Hannah Skaran
Thank you both so much.
00:31:28 Hannah Skaran
For joining me today on the podcast.
00:31:30 Hannah Skaran
I really appreciate.
00:31:31 Hannah Skaran
Hearing your insights, and I hope that this is helpful to any students who are listening so.
00:31:37 Hannah Skaran
Thank you again.
00:31:38 Christian
Thank you for having us.
00:31:39 Hannah
Thanks so much Hannah.