<p>I put in my deposit very late, literally yesterday and many of me fellow uchicago admittees on facebook tell me that since S-H is so popular, I pretty much have a zero chance of getting in and am better off not putting it in my housing form. I liked S-H mostly because it's the most uchicago-ish dorm (from what I've read), has many interesting people and a strong scav hunt tradition, and is close to everything.</p>
<p>I was wondering, can anybody recommend me a dorm that is similar in terms of the 'uchciago-ish' people, though not necessarily close to everything?</p>
<p>I am thinking of putting Max P. as my third choice since its like SH int terms of convenient location, though I hear the people are very different, though I read that it is apparently a good dorm for first years. Is this true?</p>
<p>I lived in both Snell-Hitchcock and Max Palevsky as an undergrad (Snell-Hitchcock is where I was placed; Max P is where I found myself as an RA). The overlap between the two is like a Venn diagram with a huge inner space; there are more of the same sorts of people in each dorm than students like to admit, so there’s a high chance you’ll wind up with the same sorts of friends in either place. That said, Max tends to be a bit more “externally social” while S-H is more “internally social” (most activities on weekends are with people from the House, although this is not a rule; people tend to stick with each other more often than exploring off-campus social activities by themselves or going in to the city with groups of people not from S-H). One dorm that I think is very similar to S-H that students overlook as it is “less popular” (but nonetheless good!) is Breckenridge. It appears far from campus on maps but in reality is really no more than a 10 minute walk from most campus facilities. They have a very similar social structure and strong house community.</p>
<p>Thank you Grace, your Venn diagram analogy reminded me that while I definitely should spend time and effort in researching and applying for housing, it doesn’t really matter so much in the grand scheme of things and I shouldn’t worry about not getting into my first choice dorm. If anyone else have more views, I’d appreciate them too!</p>