<p>There's a very good chance that this is a "dumb" question, but I was wondering what the athletic scene is like. Is it as non-existant as one might think??</p>
<p>DIII.. not a sports school...
University</a> of Chicago Athletics</p>
<p>Athletics is certainly not the focus of the school, but it is present. I might be a little biased because I am an athlete but even though we are a DIII school we still have football games and basketball games and all the typical athletic events. Not that many students come to these events but some do. Friday night for instance, was Beach Night at the Men's and Women's basketball games. There was a raffle and prizes for the best costumes and I would say about 1/3 of the crowd was made up of students who were not athletes. Athletics aren't a huge deal here but you can still catch a game with some of your friends if you want to, it just won't be the same as if you went to a DI school.</p>
<p>Not just DIII, but part of the UAA. U Chicago helped found this conference of mid-sized research universities that are large enough to be DI but that wanted a different focus to athletics --one that recognizes that academics should be the priority, even for athletes. There is a very good discussion of the UAA and U Chicago in Bowen's book "The Rules of the Game" about college athletics. Compared to the Ivy League and NESCAC, UAA schools do not exhibit the same "athletic divide." Athletes at UAA schools are admitted with pretty much the same academic credentials as non-athletes, do about as well during school, and graduate at the same rates with the same degree of academic achievement. That was one of the main reasons my daughter (who is a U Chicago athlete) chose U Chicago over other comparable academic options.</p>
<p>Cool. I guess I figured that since the school seems to place a huge focus on academics the maybe athletics in general would fall to the way side, and wouldn't be a very big deal. Obviously athletics aren't going to be as big at UC as they would be at say, Duke University. </p>
<p>Does anyone on here know what the athletic facilities are like on campus?</p>
<p>I love them!!! Although I have never been in Henry Crown and I don't know much about the outdoor facilities for the outdoor sports teams but Ratner is really nice. Everything is very clean and the weight room has any machine you would probably ever want to use, is kept clean, and aside from when sports teams are lifting isn't incredibly crowded. The gyms are fairly typical and you see many basketball games, badminton games etc going on in them (although I'm not sure what the hours are on those). There are also treadmills upstairs. The pool is gorgeous as well. It's an olympic size pool with a diving well and a shallow area where people who aren't the best swimmers can stand up and do water aerobics or just walk up and down the lanes. The pool isn't open all the time though because the swim team has to practice. I think it opens at six in the evening though. The locker rooms are also pretty nice and you can choose to rent a locker for the year if you plan to work out a lot and need somewhere to keep your stuff.</p>