Parents of First Years: what do you kids think about their dorms? How did they deal with a bitterly cold winter? Do they find their walk to classrooms and dinning hall convenient?
Your response will be deeply appreciated by all prospective students, admitted students and their parents.
My son in BJ loves it. The strong house culture and single rooms have made his first year a good combination of fun but with the personal space he likes. It’s an older dorm with no AC, but it’s been warm enough in the winter and he says the maintenance team is on top of any issues.
The dining hall is right next door and although he’s getting a bit bored of the food, the dining hall staff are kind and caring. Walk to class is not a huge deal.
I’ve never seen him so happy. He’s had a great experience here.
My son in North thought the dorm was good. No issues with the walk to class in the cold. One of his EC activities was South of the Midway and that didn’t bother him.
More importantly, he felt the dining halls were good.
My son is in Max P and he says the dorms are good. He said Max P is very ‘comfortable.’ The walk from Max P to Barlett dining hall and the library is very short, and he really likes that. He said the dining hall food is good, although when he got home last week, he actually appreciated the taste of vegetables, compared to the dining hall at Barlett, where sometimes, it doesn’t taste like anything. I’m guessing frozen food is used which would account for the tastelessness?
He sometimes goes to the North dining hall, which is newer. He said Cathay Dining hall probably has the best food.
He didn’t have any opinions on the weather. He said 'it’s fine.’
He also likes the Reg (library) now. (Although he acknowledges that not everyone likes the Reg.) He said there are many spots to study in there.
When he applied to Chicago, the food, the weather, quarters, and dare I say, the ‘Core’ were not criteria in his consideration, let alone a deal breaker.
He really loves the school. Not related to dorms, food, or weather, but he is so impressed with the students. Sitting in his Hum/Sosc classes with freshmen and sophomores, he thought to himself, ‘Wow, powerhouse right here.’
Son is in North. Initially we were very upset that he was in a double since he had stated on his housing app that he preferred a single in any dorm. He was worried about sharing a room, but it turned out great. He and his roommate get along wonderfully and it helped him to meet an entire group of guys that he otherwise might not have. Housing really did a good job matching him with the “perfect” roommate.
He will be renting an apartment next year rather than staying in the dorms. He is looking forward to having his own bathroom (or at least only sharing with one person), a dishwasher, and his own bedroom.
North dining is easy - perfect on cold/rainy days. The food was fine - breakfast is his favorite meal, he goes to the omelette station to avoid the “fake” eggs. The dining staff are wonderful as well. He did purchase a few pots/pans and cooks in the “kitchen” in his house and I see UberEats and Jimmy Johns charges regularly.
I highly recommend the micro-fridge - my son mentioned over break that he is happy to have a microwave in his room. We also purchased him a coffee/espresso machine which has gotten a lot of use.
He likes North as it is close to the gym and classes - although the house culture is lacking. I don’t think he does much with his house, which is fine as he has made quite a few different groups of friends.
The room in North is clean and spacious (as far as a double goes). It was easy to add storage under the lofted bed and in the closet. No complaints about noise or cooling (although they did open the window quite a bit on cold days due to overheating).
Weather has not been an issue, although we did purchase a new warm coat that has made the cold tolerable.
Overall, this first year has been fine as far as housing goes - an adjustment to be sure, but no major complaints!
My son is in RGG (formerly known as South). Loves being at UofC, loves his classes & professors and is so engaged! He has really enjoyed the community of his house. He’s kind of tired of the food too, but he loves the ease of the dining hall and that there’s always a friend to eat with at the house table. He’s in a double with a really sweet, kind kid - they did a great job of matching the boys - they don’t necessarily hang out in the same social group, but they get along wonderfully and have similar habits so living together has been incredibly smooth sailing. We are thrilled with his experience there so far. It’s better than we could have ever imagined!
DD is in International House. Although it was not her first choice – it’s a hike to dining at Cathey dining hall and the quad and is mostly singles – she has really enjoyed it! I haven’t heard any complaints about the location/walk times. I House is on 2 shuttle lines, I think, which she has used in the super cold weather. It’s a beautiful, charming older building with a leafy courtyard, large paneled lounges and a library on the first floor, plus a cafe that takes meal swipes for a quick breakfast (but only cash/Maroon dollars for the evening).The building underwent some renovation last summer. It has little study rooms, music practice rooms, yoga studio in the basement.
She absolutely loves her house. They do lots of fun activities together like outings in Chicago, interhouse competitions (broomball, midnight soccer, etc), and I often see Snapchats of them having fun in their house lounge playing video games, watching movies, eating, etc. She likes her RA and has made some very good friends. She is not a partier, so the house culture has been important to her, as she would not be the type to venture out to big off-campus parties. Because the Reg is quite a walk unless she is already on the north end of campus for a class, she often studies at Harper and another reading room (can’t think of the name) and in her single. She is going to stay in I House next year.
P.S. I really hope they improve the “Residence Hall” info on the website - it is woefully lacking in helpful info. Newbies, feel free to ask questions on this thread ? And CONGRATULATIONS on choosing a great university!
This is a little off-topic, but inasmuch as dining halls and libraries have been mentioned… Do students work part-time in either of these kinds of facilities? Not the most glamorous of jobs but worthy, necessary and traditional - and a paycheck, even a small one, is always welcome.
Thank you parents for your responses.
Just for curiosity: has anyone on this UChicago forum ever stayed at Snitchcock himself/herself or had kids that lived there? Somehow over the years I have never heard of any Snitchcock (past or present) resident telling us the inside scoop of this famed if a bit eccentric residence hall.
@marlowe1 - at least some of the libraries offer work-study jobs so only open to kids on FA who have been allocated work-study. Chicago city wages so not as small a paycheck as it used to be!
I was slinging hash in the dining hall for every semester I was on campus. It’s a great job. Haven’t seen an undergraduate working in a dining hall (not even dining card swipe) for years now but that might be by choice - with all the food allergies and so forth, working the caf. line might have special regulations.
@85bears46 - it’s the smallest and oldest of the dorms. There might only be 120 or so total. It’s in the heart of the campus so it seems to attract the super-studious, at least the kids we know who were there are that way. They clean up on Scav. hands down and are very into it. The OA’s told us a couple years ago that there are “mandatory” Scav. meetings during O-Week but I suspect that was just trash talk. BJ does very well at Scav. and has a critical # of participants but they haven’t beaten Snitch since I can remember.
My son will be trying for Snitch (first choice) and my D did try but both want(ed) singles. We know kids who have gotten singles as first years but they sent in their enrollment right away in the early round. Now that it’s more of a lottery not sure how it will turn out. We’ll keep you guys posted.
In the recent past, at least, Snitchcock was seen as the epicenter of University of Chicago Classic.-- full of people who were brilliant, quirky, and creative, and in some cases maybe a step or two onto the autism spectrum, and in other cases maybe a tad too intellectual for their own good. (Of course, there were many perfectly social and tolerably intellectual people, too.) It has dominated Scav notwithstanding its small size by getting close to 100% participation, by being way overrepresented in the corps of judges, and maybe by being a little brilliant, quirky, and creative. Other bits of Snitchcock culture included teas where people present independent academic research they have done and from time to time intolerance of the sort of partying that goes on regularly in other houses. You could get kicked out of Snitchcock for behavior that, in practice, would not get you kicked out of any other dorm. Snitchcock also had – maybe still has – an all-female floor. If it’s still there, it is probably the only vestige left of separate housing for women.
For a long time, Snitchcock was the only dorm with anything like a four-year dorm culture. It was the only dorm with more than a couple fourth-years who weren’t paid RAs (and undergraduate RAs were never assigned to their original houses). Its low turnover and small size meant that there were fewer spots for first-year students there than in any other dorm, and those slots mainly filled up with diehard UChicago enthusiasts who were accepted EA and committed before Christmas to enroll the following fall.
The four-year nature of Snitchcock really made it a key repository of UChicago folklore. Every year, there were people in Snitchcock who had been friends with people who had started at Chicago seven years earlier. In most dorms, the effective institutional memory horizon was more like 2-3 years.