物质学院，周达
After five weeks in uchicago, I find that uchicago and Shanghaitech have lots in commons such as easy class disciplines and plenty of teamwork. Also, there are three major aspects where uchicago differ a lot from Shanghaitech: time usage;class atmospheres; public spaces. Here I want to talk about the differences.
First of all, uchicago enjoys a reputation for its heavy schoolwork. And they even narrow their normally ten-week-long classes to three or five weeks in summer sessions. But uchicago students still have plenty of time to enjoy after-class life such as going to jazz concert in Millennium Park or going to Cubs baseball game. But on the metro to it they will take out books or Kindle to read for a while. That’s a big difference from us. Shanghaitech students seem to prefer starring at phone screens or talking to each other, is quite normal but wastes too much time from where I stand. As far as I am concerned,I have decided to buy a Kindle and start to read more in my spare time and especially the little “span ” time from now on.
Secondly, the class atmosphere is quite different. In the Introduction to Money and Banking class that I took there is a girl who often interrupted lecturer’s speech and raised inspiring questions. Though it may be disturbing to students who like to closely follow lecturer’s thoughts, I think I do learn a lot more thanks to her questions. And the lecturer also enjoys answering her questions and often encourages her to ask more. Comparing to her,Shanghaitech students seem to ask too less. From my observations,it is not lack of innovation but lack of confidence that causes this phenomenon. Often students do not dare to state their ideas which are brilliant in public. We still have a long way to go in this area.
Last but not least,uchicago really has much more public spaces than Shanghaitech. Right now we only have libraries, self-study rooms, and the first floor of dorm. But in uchicago there are plenty of public spaces that we can share thoughts or just have fun together. Cafes, lawns, even corridors inside buildings can be great places to learn together. In the dorm, there are sofas in every floor’s public spaces, some of which has TVs and others have X-boxes. In Shanghaitech, students have enough private room and maybe we need some public spaces to meet others.
All in all, Shanghaitech has been very similar to uchicago in many areas which really makes me very proud. Wish the newly-built campus as gorgeous as uchicago.
