Can someone give more info on Stony Island? There is not a lot of information on CC, and from what I’ve read, it seems to be a dorm to avoid?
@pomegranate19c I stayed in Stony for my overnight. One person that lived there claimed it was the “best dorm”, so there are definitely differing opinions. It’s the by far the farthest dorm from campus–maybe a 20ish minute walk to the quad? So it’s pretty isolated from campus, which puts off a lot of people, especially because winters are cold and freezing, and you have to walk a long way for food unless you cook. Stony is all apartments for 4 people with two double bedrooms, a kitchen, bathroom, living room, and balcony. If you want a more independent living experience and want to cook for yourself (I’m pretty sure you get the apartment meal plan after your first year, so you don’t have unlimited swipes in the dining halls), you might like Stony, especially since no other dorms except North and South have apartments. It definitely isn’t for everyone, but there are some that find it a great dorm for them. There are shuttles/buses that run there so you don’t always have to walk and you do get your own living space–good if you want to host lots of friends at your dorm to hang out or party. Many people get put there because they put their deposit in late/the living arrangements they wanted were full, which is why it might come off with a bad vibe. But if apartment life is something you want and you don’t mind being kinda removed from campus, don’t be put off by what other people say about Stony.
Thank you so much for the reply, but do you think people that live in Stony miss out on a lot of stuff? Is the house close-knit? Is there AC, and are there laundry facilities in the building?
My understanding is that some people really like being off campus in larger apartments with their own kitchens and living rooms, while other people don’t.
I know that when they recently closed other off-campus dorms (Breckinridge etc.) the residents of those dorms were quite unhappy about it, in large part because they felt that their dorm was more close-knit than the bigger dorms on campus. They may also have liked having some physical separation between the stresses of school and the relaxation of home.
So the question really is - what do YOU want?
It’s a block from a Metra station and a block from the 6 bus stop. It’s easier to get downtown from there than from any other UChicago dorm. Lots of kids find they like that. In addition to the apartment-style living, with kitchen and living rooms.
What tends to happen is that the kids who are living in large, on-campus dorms tend not to remember there is anyone living in smaller, off-campus dorms. They assume the kids in those dorms are weird, folklore develops about how weird and insular they are, with no basis in fact. The on-campus kids talk about how crappy the off-campus dorms must be, and there are a lot of on-campus kids, so that becomes the off-campus dorm’s reputation. Meanwhile, the kids living in the off-campus dorm are perfectly happy with it. Or not, but not for the reasons that the on-campus kids imagine.
They do get grumpy about their house having a crummy reputation, and about friends on-campus not wanting to come all the way to their dorm for anything. Or not even knowing where their dorm is and how to get there, which is not uncommon, unfortunately, especially since Stony is not on most of the campus maps.
Thanks guys for the detailed replies! Hopefully I’m not going to be the only weird freshman picking this dorm 