To current and former students, parents, and other interested / knowledgeable persons: What are your thoughts about 3rd year students living in dorms versus apartments? If selecting apartment living, what are some important things to consider? Thanks.
I would consider safety and convenience.
It should be close to the main campus - preferably north and east side and close to bus stops (short walking at cold night) and grocery stores (no dining hall service). Most of the apartments students are seeking are in those areas. 53rd, 54th, 55th.
Thanks Eddi. By the way I just noticed that the title of the thread includes the “word” versu instead of versus. Yikes! No wonder no one is replying!
Parent of recent grad here… S moved out of the dorms 3rd year. Eddi would have approved of the location. But I think S mostly just went with the flow–there seemed to be a pipeline from his house in the dorm to the apartment building. There also seemed to be buildings where many of the students were in the same EC.
Thank you for the input Motherbear. Does your son think moving out was the right decision? Approximately where did he live?
I don’t think he regretted moving out of the dorms. He still went to some events at his house. He lived near 57th and Harper.
Funny. I thought what kept people away from the thread was the socioeconomic connotation.
Agree with eddi on features and location. When S1 called in February of 2nd year frantically requesting permission (and money) to put a deposit the next day on an apartment along with his other 3 roommates we were hesitant. Then he said that they would be the first tenants on this 100% remodeled building and that it was only 3 blocks north of campus. We sent the money…
As motherbear said before, many other people from their house or dorm moved in also into the building.
Thank you for your input J’adoube and motherbear332.
I think one of the advice I can think of is that you do not rent an apartment on the first floor due to security and theft concerns.
My kids both moved off campus their second year. Neither they, nor we, ever regretted it, not for a minute. They had either equivalent space for much, much less money, or much, much nicer space for somewhat less money, that was convenient to campus and public transportation and basically safe. (One kid got mugged once walking home at 1:00 am in August when no one was around. He was shaken up for a few days, and then got over it. Where he was mugged was basically right by a dorm; he could have been going to the dorm if he lived in a dorm.)
It helped that they both liked to cook, for themselves and others, and they both spent the summers after their second and third years in Chicago, so they were not having to subsidize someone’s sublease except for the first summer. They spent their third and fourth years, sequentially, in the same apartment, with apartment mates, and I loved that apartment! As one kid said, “I live in a building with real people, people who have jobs, and kids, and dogs.” They liked that. But my other kid spent his second year living in what was effectively a theme house for one of his main ECs – a small building with four apartments, and at least 2/3rds of the occupants of each was heavily involved in that activity. That was fun, too. It was literally across the street from a dorm.
Their social lives didn’t suffer at all; few of their friends lived in the dorms, especially after second year. They spent about 80% of their waking hours on campus anyway, and some of the rest travelling around the city with friends. During #2’s last year, however, the university changed the rules for students inviting guests to eat in the university dining halls, and that adversely affected camaraderie for a club sport in which he participated. The whole team used to have dinner together after practice two or three evenings a week, but after the rule change it became impossible to do that. As a result, the upperclassmen and the first- and second-years did not get as close to one another as they had in previous years. But the kids in the dorms suffered more from that than the upperclass-people off campus.
Excellent input JHS. Thanks.