HP’s been changing a lot. When I arrived the school was sold to us as “five places to buy books, no places to buy pants” and that was absolutely true. Now there are tons of new buildings, new dorms, a bioengineering institute in the works, a Chipotle, a movie theater that’s not Doc Films, clothing and makeup stores which were unheard of while I was still an undergrad. Now there are two semi-fancy restaurants instead of one, and I imagine more will follow. I have a friend who graduated in '09 who said that back in his day there weren’t even shuttle buses on campus. I don’t know if it’s safer or not, but everything’s definitely getting gentrified.
Apartment living: When I was an undergraduate the standard procedure was to live in the dorms for two years and then move out for junior/senior year. I vastly preferred apartment living to being in the dorms, perhaps because I needed to study a lot (see: pre-med) and it’s kind of hard to study when there are drunk kids screaming their way down the hallways at 3AM at night.
MAC property management has taken over EVERYTHING. It’s so so difficult to avoid renting from them, even though they are one of the most incompetent companies I’ve ever met. Not a knock against the overwhelmed employees, just a comment on the state of the company.
If you can afford it, let your kid live in a high-rise. Most undergrads live in crappy apartments that barely have air conditioning, sometimes have bugs and mice, and aren’t very clean. Not only that, but I know a fair number of people whose apartments were on the first/ground floor and were broken into/robbed as a result. If you live in one the high-rises, you don’t really have to worry too much about safety anymore. Laundry is just an elevator ride away and everyone will want to come hang out in your nice cool apartment. Blackwood, Del Prado, Regents, etc.
Four years: Wow, it’s crazy to look back now. I complained a lot but wouldn’t trade it for anything. Even though it was hard, especially during the winter, it was definitely worth it in the end. I got an amazing education (seriously, our education is truly top-notch, even among expensive privates), so many opportunities (research, networking, etc), and a bunch of great friends. I would encourage everyone to balance their schedule so that they are taking challenging classes but also can maintain a decent GPA (>3.3), as grades will still open a lot of doors post-university life. I took some graduate classes while I was at the university–it’s very easy to do so, and in general all you need to do is contact the professor and ask, although they are a beast when it comes to the amount of extra work you have to do. There were times when I really faltered and the university was very kind to me during those periods. The school gave me a lot of support.
Another thing I want to tell everyone: MAJOR IN SOMETHING YOU’RE GOOD AT. Please, seriously. You will save yourself so much heartache this way. Don’t continue along that physics or math major if you’re skating by with Cs.
Also all my fellow undergrads who were all like “don’t worry about your grades! Being an intellectual comes first!” and looked down on me for caring about my GPA mostly seem to regret that mentality. Being broke and semi-jobless will do that to you. Still, it seems to me like most graduates I know, even the ones who struggled with college, managed to find something they liked to do. Lots of people in consulting, banking, trading, med school, law school, PhD programs, etc. Many prestigious names.
Now that I’m out it’s more clear to me why people pay to go to prestige schools: you’ll meet important professors (to give you LORs), get an important school name on your resume, and befriend other students with important parents, who can then get you internships/jobs/interviews. Certainly lots of people go to non-prestige schools, but it is just straight up easier to succeed here because there are tons of opportunities. Having fun, intellectual development, fit, etc. is nice, but that alone wouldn’t be worth the $200k price tag, unless your family is quite well-off.
One last note: my friends in other graduate programs sometimes seem a little sad because the people in their new school aren’t as nerdy as UChicago people. I considered myself very “normal” at UChicago by comparison, came out to the real world, and discovered that no, I actually am kind of weird.
