<p>My mom is convinced that if I go there, I will get murdered or raped. It doesn't help that we live an hour outside of Chicago and see all the horror stories on the news. I know it's not the best neighborhood, but considering my lack of interest in being outside more than I have to, will I be safe there? What's the worst that has happened to you?</p>
<p>Have you visited uchicago campus? If so, what did you observe?</p>
<p>We visited the campus this summer. I think if you stray too far the wrong direction, you’d be in a lousy part of town, but the campus is fairly self contained. There are plenty of ‘blue light boxes’ to call for help, and the dorm security seems good.</p>
<p>There are lots and lots and lots of threads on this subject if you search. Opinions vary, based largely on the predisposition of the person with the opinion. Hyde Park is relatively sleepy and safe, but it is still an urban environment. Most University of Chicago students don’t stay in Hyde Park or on the campus exclusively – they travel around Chicago, to other neighborhoods safe and maybe a little edgy.</p>
<p>No undergraduate has been murdered in at least 30 years. (There have been two murders in the past 30 years: one of a faculty member, inside a building – i.e., not street crime – long ago, and one of a graduate student off campus but near it in a mugging gone bad not long ago. In the second case, the perpetrator was caught within days.) If there have been rapes on campus, they have been committed by other students, not outsiders.</p>
<p>I haven’t visited yet, but I’m starting to feel more reassured. Hopefully my mom is too, lol!</p>
<p>Don’t oversell it. If your norm is the far suburbs, and you stand around on a street corner near (but not on) the campus, it may well feel sketchy and urban. Street crime does exist – mainly muggings – although it’s not likely to happen to you and your mom during a day visit. The main part of campus itself feels pretty green and safe but it’s not enclosed at all, and it’s open to the whole community.</p>
<p>If you take a look at similar threads, of which there are many, you’ll see that this is an ongoing discussion. </p>
<p>As for me, a mother of a petite daughter, I found the area to be leafy green and much nicer than I’d anticipated. I had no qualms about her returning alone as a high school senior and no hesitation about having her enroll. If you have no urban street smarts, you’ll want to learn some. But it’s not a big deal, and they cover it in in O-Week.</p>