April 10-11 Visit: False Impression?

Colleges & Universities A-Z University of Chicago ✅
41

<p>Hosts can really stink, and first impressions are lasting. I know some very nice people here with whom I connect very well, there are others I will speak to, and still others who are "not my type." Students really run the gamut, so don't think your host was what all the students here are like.</p>

<p>I think the U. of C. does a crappy job concerning activities for prospies. I have been to a few of their prospie days, and, honestly, from my experiences with them, I would not attend the U. of C. But, I live here and know what the University is like every other day of the year, and I love what I see.</p>

<p>Sorry you guys had sraooy visits. But Chicago is still great, I promise. :)</p>

42

<p>Sraooy? Is that a typo?</p>

43

<p>I'm clinging to that. Stubbornly, because despite this, I still really really want to go.
Only now it's just: I want to go.
No really really.</p>

44

<p>I'd say I went from really really really down to really want. I'm determined not to let my stay taint my image of the great University I know Chicago to be...I'm going to go with Katharos on this one - and trust that life at Uchi isn't like what I saw...</p>

45

<p>did anyone have a good time? I'm kind of dreading my overnight after all of your comments.</p>

46

<p>gambadent -</p>

<p>It's a hit and miss. If you want to get boozed up, go to the frat parties they'll undoubtably be having when you visit. If you don't it can get kind of lonely (at least in Max-P). If not, you can go to the Reynolds Club for the activities fair and have some fun there. Just don't get lost going back to your dorm in the dark...</p>

47

<p>gambadent-
<em>grin</em>
It'll be marvelous for you because you're dreading it. That's usually how life works out.</p>

<p>Anyway, keep in mind that I only covered the bad. Lots of times when I was alone I walked up to other prospies, and introduced myself and we hung out for a while. The other prospies were really great which is another reason why UChi is still on my list.</p>

48

<p>Just a few notes:</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Hosts are NOT paid. They have a little trouble getting them sometimes since the overnights are during the week. Hosting (at least doing it well) makes it pretty hard to get much work done, so a lot of people choose their own work and stuff when they'd otherwise love to host. </p></li>
<li><p>On a week night, most students would normally spend a good chunk either studying or doing their own activities (extra-curricular, etc.). Parties are definitely not the norm for a Monday (or Thursday) night. Normal would be reading/doing a problem set for much of the time, with maybe a house study break or something mixed in and some general socialization. </p></li>
<li><p>Your host is just one person. I stayed with someone who was probably the most opposite of what I expected in a student here (two years ago). But I looked around and noticed a lot of people who made me feel a lot more comfortable. </p></li>
<li><p>In the fall, there is a whole week set aside basically for meeting people. And in that case everyone around you will either also be brand-new here or here for the sole purpose of helping you get to know the place.</p></li>
</ol>

49

<p>I am sorry, Pyramid, that your hosts were so inhospitable. The Snitchcock hosts did not, to my knowledge, misplace any prospies or starve them. My son's batch, at least, didn't do to the frat parties. They played a board game or two in the green room (the Hitchcock lounge) and talked with their prospies a lot about a variety of subjects.</p>

50

<p>this is a myth. hosts do not get paid.</p>

51

<p>After reading all the complaints on this thread, it makes me think the hosts should be paid! Hopefully, someone with some say from Chicago will read this thread.</p>

<p>With all their reputation for great economics, shouldn't it occur to them that if perhaps they paid their hosts, they would give prospies a better experience and hence increase their yield? Yikes.</p>

52

<p>Actually, I'm not sure paying would help. The people who would be good hosts are either already doing it or have strong incentives not to. The main element in being a decent host seems to be caring a bit about it. People who aren't already hosting think the opportunity cost of hosting (sacrificing preparation for an exam, not doing a problem set, etc.) is higher than the value of hosting (meeting a new person, fun on a weeknight?). There would be two groups of those people:</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Those who would value meeting new person, etc., but not higher than the cost of hosting. They are already judging the cost of hosting to be higher than the value of it, even though they would like to meet a new person. A modest financial incentive probably wouldn't make them change their mind about that.</p></li>
<li><p>Those who don't value meeting a new person at all. They aren't already giving more weight to studying/socializing without a prospie/etc. They might decide to do it for the money, but would likely be poor hosts.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>The money would only be an incentive for MORE hosts, not better ones. And, for the reasons above, those additional hosts would most likely be no better than those that are hosting right now. Unless there were a significant incentive for bieng a good host, which would be really hard to implement with any fairness, paying hosts wouldn't make them better.</p>

53

<p>Sure it would.</p>

<p>It's not the money, per se, that would improve the performance. The difference is in the psychology of "doing a job" as opposed to "doing a favor." The students who did a bad job of hosting seem to me exactly like the type of students who would be most effected by that psychological difference. The other, better hosts would continue doing a good job and get some money for it on top.</p>

<p>Also, if Chicago had paid the hosts, they would have probably gone to more trouble laying down guidelines, as any employer would.</p>

54

<p>it kind of looks like most people in max p. had the worst time... i don't think anybody in shoreland even bothered going to any of the frat parties or college-planned events, we all just hung out together. it really is a good idea to meet other prospies who'll be near you, because you DON'T know what your host will be like. i didn't meet a single prospie that i didn't like and subsequently made a bunch of new friends.</p>

55

<p>While there may be more psychological impulses to do it better if paid, those impulses still would not likely outweigh the opportunity cost of actually being a good host for the people who don't care about prospies. It would take a rather large some of money before the psychological impact of receiving it would be enough to motivate someone to be a good host. (Someone might feel a little guilty if they were paid and spent the whole night ignoring their prospie, but it'd take a substantial amount before that guilt would make them neglect studies/their own social life). There might be a small difference in the quality of a very limited number of hosts, but the cost would be disproportionately high. The money could be used much more efficiently.</p>

<p>Incidentally, I find it rather U of C-like to be arguing over the economic and psychological factors behind paying hosts.</p>

56

<p>Maroon8- I agree with johnM. Given that some people are reluctant volunteers (I'm assuming this, becuase you mentioned that they have trouble getting hosts), they'll probably feel like whatever they do is magnanimous enough and Admissions can't really specify what they must do because said hosts volunteered.
However, once money is entered into the equation, Admissions can establish guidelines and a baseline of quality. Itll be possible to fire and penalize negligent hosts (they could hand out host evaluation forms to do this). Even those who are motivated by nothing but the money will be forced into doing a good job because if they get a bad review they won't get paid...whereas admissions can't force volunteers to do a good job.</p>

57

<p>Perhaps a better model is that used by housing for the Orientation Assistants. Students wanting to be OA's must submit a resume and application. Students are allowed to eat for free during their OA tenure, as far as I know that is the only compensation other than moving in early. The OA's do a fantastic job.</p>

58

<p>Firing and penalizing is great in theory. Since hosting doesn't happen that often, I'd question the practical results of it. Granting that it might help, though, here's why it's not a a good economic choice:</p>

<p>The number of students who come to an overnight is small, compared to the total number of admitted students. (It's a big chunk of people, but a good number of students never visit/don't stay overnight.) Of those, the number who are truly undecided is somewhat smaller, and of those the number who are so undecided that they will be swayed by specific personal overnight experience (as opposed to the general experience that can be taken in just by having the chance to stay overnight or the whole visit in general) is even smaller. Basically, not that many people are going to base the decision on something the host can control.</p>

<p>Then there's the kinds of hosts:</p>

<p>A. Those who love prospies, would host every week for free.
B. Those who love prospies, host when asked (for free) and put forth a reasonable effort to make it a good experience.
C. Those who'll host when needed, but not do much for the prospie.
D. Those who'll let the prospie sleep on their floor, but avoid them otherwise.</p>

<p>Paying hosts isn't going to change groups A and B at all. Group C might be a little better hosts, and Group D are the people who would get replaced (it'd be impossible to get enough info about Group C to "fire" them, and they would still probably be inferior to the folks who'd do it well for free). </p>

<p>You wouldn't eliminate too many from Group D anyway, based on the evaluation (there aren't that many overnights to provide opportunities for a bad evaluation), and their replacements aren't likely to be much better given that the most willing hosts are already hosting. Only a few of Group C might, out of psychological obligation, improve their hosting, but I doubt it would be too dramatic. Partly because being a good host is kinda hit-or-miss. If you are really quite different in personality/interest/etc from the prospie, your best move might be to find someone else to handle them. </p>

<p>In order for host improvements to have any utility, the would-have-been-bad-but-are-now-good hosts would have to get paired with the I'm-so-unsure-that-the-decision-will-turn-on-my-specific-overnight-experience propsies. Even if that happened at the average rate, and even if the host-improvement program worked (which I'm skeptical of), you'd be dealing with an extremely low yield. When you consider that the hosts would have to be bad at least once before getting fired, you're making the potential payoff even lower.</p>

<p>Paying hosts would be putting a significant amount of money (and the time of sorting out the evaluations, etc.) into something that, even if it worked, would probably not yield many more students. Given that the effectiveness is rather murky and the costs (both time and money) of making the system work well would be high, host paying would probably be a rather poor economic decision. The resources can be used much more effieciently on other methods of recruiting and more focused efforts by admissions, or perhaps financial aid.</p>

59

<p>O-Aides can be looked at economically, too.</p>

<p>It's not too hard to attract them because the the opportunity cost (best foregone alternative) is usually pretty low. There's not much else to do the 2nd week in September, so why not go back to Chicago? That's the factor that allows them to attract enough people to not have to pay (other than room/board for the week). They do such a good job because the opportunity cost of doing so is low (basically nonexistant). There are no classes, activities, jobs, etc. going on during O-Week, so the O-Aides aren't foregoing anything by putting their full efforts into the job. The fact that its fun and you get to meet new students adds to the appeal and makes them more enthusiastic.</p>

60

<p>Some of your experiance probobly depends on where you get placed when you prospie. If you get placed with a bunch of prospies who just want to go to a party with a bunch of other prospies like the graham bunch, you will have fun if you want to go to a party (BTW, by no means did 90% of graham go out, they are not the most social house on campus and many of them stay in their rooms with the doors locked--I live in woodward on the other side of the building and though graham has longer hallways, you will always find more people with doors open on a walk through my hallway). Likewise if you dont want to go out and party and are with a group like the snell hitchcock group, yuo will enjoy yourself. Usually there is a mix in either direction (graham happend to have a lot of people go out that night. Prospies tend to want to go out and get drunk on their night and if you go to one of the official nights, there will actually be parties (if you go on a random day, there wont be unless its friday). They are free from home and probobly just want to look to have fun for their night (it happens to be a night of few consequences for bad decisions). Most of the people I know who prospied, quite enjoyed it, but they also went out.</p>

<p>As to feeling awkward like you might on the prospie overnights...that WILL NOT happen if you come here. We have a full week of orientation that does not happen at a lot of schools (state schools especially). The house system is strong and we have a full 9 days with which we become friends with our entire house before classes start. O-week was amazing, everybody was in exactly the same situation and we all knew that we would be with these people for an entire year so with the aid of a few carefully planned activities with the house, we became an instant community. Dont worry about feeling awkward, you will be better off than some state school where you dont even know the people down the hall.</p>

<p>For people with bad hosts...sorry. Most people commit to it far ahead of time and there is a high demand for hosts but a small supply. If they have something important to do, they will focus on it. Also, if they dont have a personality that meshes that well, you may not get as much out of them. The last time my house hosted prospies, they were kind of treated communaly. a majority of them stayed together and did things with many people of the house, not just their host. We've got prospies coming tomorrow night and we'll try to treat them the best we can. Hopefully mine is willing to go to a party (not a frat party though...a frisbee party which is FAR superior) since thats where I will be going when it gets late as will many of the more social people from the house. If he doesnt though, he can go with my roommate or others who are perfectly wonderful people but either dont like parties or have something to do saturday morning...hopefully it works out.</p>