Elena Schroeter Photo: G. Lyon© Project Exploration

Elena Schroeter graduated from Curie High School, located on Chicago's west side, in 2002. She is now in her third year at the University of Chicago at the age of 21. She has been involved with Project Exploration for the past six years. Elena was a Dinosaur Giants Team Member in 1999 and took part in the 2000 Advanced Paleontology program. I recently spoke to Elena about her college experience at the University of Chicago.

Ryan: Can you describe how the college application and admissions process was for you?

Elena Schroeter (ES): It was stressful and hard to fill out the college applications. I actually had my mom helping work on them.
I carried around a folder that had all my college applications—and only my college applications. I tried to keep my things very organized, but it was very hard to get copies of my applications. As a high schools senior, it's not easy getting access to a copy machine.

My recommendation letters were very good though. My science teacher wasn't liked by many of the students. They made fun of her in many ways because they would always get in trouble and never get good grades. I didn't have that problem with her; I got good grades and behaved well in class. I read the letter she wrote for me and it was the best recommendation that I had received.

The one part that I think was most stressful was filling out the financial aid forms. They were very tricky and complicated to do, but I eventually worked through them with help from others. I actually remember sending in the deposit for housing and I received my financial aid statement and I was receiving a lot less than I expected. I found I checked the box for commuter student instead of a residential student. I wrote them a letter saying that things were hard enough filling out college applications without me making stupid mistakes. They ended up saying it happens a lot and not to worry about it because they would fix the problem. I ended up receiving my financial aid statement again and I got $8,000 more than I was told the first time. Overall it was a big learning experience for me.

Ryan: Why did you choose to attend the University of Chicago?

ES: I plan on going into paleontology later on and the U of C offers many classes to help me get there. They offer a geophysical science course, a course that is not offered at many schools, and the department for geophysics is great. (paleontologist) Paul (Sereno) is there, so that's also a plus. I wanted to go to a big-name school, but I didn't want to leave Chicago to go to the Ivy League schools. I fell in love with the campus and wanted to live in the dorms. The school is close enough to home for me to go back if something comes up, but it is far enough for me to be independent. One good thing about living so close to home is that I can go home for holidays too, and if my friends don't have enough to go home for the holidays they come over. My mom cooks for twenty people and we end up eating on the floor and hanging out. I guess you can say I chose the school because of its reputation, its geophysics department, and the convenience.

Ryan: Why did you decide to major in geophysical science? ES: I want to go into paleontology, but I didn't want to major in biology and have classes with all the pre-med students. I wanted a class that was challenging and where I could learn, but I didn't want it to be surrounded with cutthroat pre-med students. I wanted to take classes that would help me enjoy school and not worry about other people. Ryan: Do you have a minor? ES: No, but I am trying to get my B.S. degree in geophysics instead of a B.A. This means I have to take extra science and math courses, but I planned on doing that anyway.

Elena (center) with the Junior Paleontologists jacketing a T.rex fossil in Wyoming Photo: G. Lyon © Project Exploration

Ryan: Can you describe your classes and professors? 

ES: First there are your core classes that are basic and pretty easy to understand.  They are the basic math, science, social studies, humanities, etc. They are fun classes and make you well-rounded and open your eyes to things you never would think of. I actually took an art class taught by a grad student. It was good because he was old enough to be experienced as a teacher, but young enough to understand where we (the students) were coming from. The class made me see art in a different way and it was very interesting. Then there are hard classes.  These classes are very demanding and require a lot of work.

My lab classes actually had me going into the lab on my spare time to work on experiments. The teachers are very good in these classes, but there is just a lot of hard work to be done to do well in school. Then there are the weird classes that have good teachers, but the teachers are sometimes just a little weird. My mineralogy class was one of these weird classes. The class was very good and I learned a lot, but the teacher's grading system was very weird. He would ask a question and I would give an answer and he would say, "That's right, but I was actually looking for this," and he wouldn't give me any credit for a right answer. The class was good and he was a good teacher but his way of grading was just weird. 

All my geophysics classes are great because everyone is so nice and close knit because it's so small. I haven't had any mean teachers but I did have a calculus teacher who didn't help me very much. I would ask for help and he would turn the question back on me and all I could say was I didn't know. He didn't give me any help at all; I guess you can say this was the closest to a mean teacher that I have had.

Ryan: What are your extra curricular activities? 

ES: I really don't have much free time because of all my labs that I have to do for class, but I do try to get a little in on the side. I work at Project Exploration 15 hours a week, sometimes a little more and sometimes a little less. I almost joined the rugby team but didn't have enough free time to join an actual sports team. I try to fill my time with unorganized activities like going to the gym or playing intramural sports. I like playing intramural sports because there are only 5-6 games a quarter and I only have to show up for games that I can play. There is no commitment to the team and it doesn't take up a lot of time. I was actually asked to play a volleyball game once because they would have to forfeit if they couldn't find one more girl to play, so I played the volleyball game. I try to get to the geophysics department meetings whenever I have free time. I'm going to try to go to more of those this quarter. One thing I really like doing is reading paleontological newspapers. A few of us from school get together and read these newspapers and discuss them whenever we can.