Post your houses here!!!

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Chicago ✅
1

I got Behar House!!! DREAMS DO COME TRUE! It could be a stroke of luck, could be because I requested it, or could be because the housing officers were impressed with my grades/admissions application… but I got my dream house!

Can’t wait meet all of my fellow Class of 2021ers!! What houses will you all be in?

-FunkyMonkey22

2

Congrats on getting your first choice of house! Hope it turns out to be everything you’re hoping for and more.

However, important note: I’m pretty sure there’s a rule against posting personally identifiable information, and your house is pretty close to that. The number of first-years in a specific house, with a specific major and (if you’ve posted this stuff) gender, location, etc. can’t be more than two or three.

Making it easy to track you down via online profiles is, generally speaking, not a great idea.

One thing’s for sure: you can rest assured your housing placement had nothing to do with your grades. Or your essays. Or anything admissions saw, except stuff that was also on the housing application. If housing took any of that into account, they would’ve done their best to find me a comfy room in Timbuktu.

3

@DunBoyer do you know if any social media sites are by res. hall or house? Are they closed groups?

4

@DunBoyer - whoops - forgot the rest of my question: how separate are the houses from one another in the res hall (separate wing, hallway, secured area, etc.) and can students still access other parts of a dorm even if that’s another house - say, to visit or study with a friend? Does the res. hall ever come together as a unit for anything or are activities pretty much house-specific?

5

@JBStillFlying

Social media/house-wide events

Every residence hall has a Resident Dean (the Resident Masters until recently) that organizes neat hall-wide events occasionally. This includes low-key stuff like gathering in the RD’s apartment for buns or churros, as well Quantrell lectures (a chance to have dinner with and hear from some of the university’s standout professors) and more involved one-time events (last year we had Casino Night, a BJ-wide water balloon battle on the Midway, and more). To coordinate all this, the RD’s run a hall-wide group that will probably be posted to house Facebook pages sooner or later.

Every house has a Facebook group. If your kid is in the Class of '21 group, housing will add everyone they can identify sooner or later. If they haven’t added her yet, they may not do so until Monday - despite the economics department’s strenuous objections, housing staff are allowed to clock off and see their families at the end of the day.

Houses will also communicate by e-mail, for those who don’t have Facebook.

B-J housing logistics

Houses are built in such a way that to go to another house, you need to step outdoors. Rooms and hallways within the same house are all connected by indoors hallways/through the house lounge.

We have two areas, Burton and Judson, that aren’t part of a house. They’re equipped for studying on some floors and leisure on others, and are occasionally used for house meetings or as a place to relax. Students can always access these.

Students can definitely visit other houses to visit friends (studying is more likely to happen in Burton or Judson) or attend parties. They can also walk into any house they want, anytime they want, all by themselves - it’s just a little weird. Some houses are more insular than others, but people from all houses can (and do) interact fairly regularly in a small-ish dorm like B-J. I’d say I knew a solid 50% of the hall by the end of the year (some in passing, some quite well) and knew most people by sight, though I’m rubbish with names.

I have some passing familiarity with the layout of other dorms, particularly South, but actual residents can probably tell you more.

6

Thanks @DunBoyer this is very useful. Obviously each dorm - and perhaps each house - is a bit different depending on culture but reading your experience gives a lot of insight into how the house relates to other houses and to the overall res. hall.

7

Congrats @JBStillFlying! I got in the Coulter house, BJ. Does anyone know anything about Coulter house? What is it like? @DunBoyer

8

:))

Would Friedman have approved this slacking off? Perhaps the economics departments needs to beat the housing staff until morale improves. :wink:

9

@ucbmxx I can’t personally speak to the stuff only housemates will know. Of all the houses in B-J, I probably interact the least with Coulter people. They seem to generally be an insular group - but this was my impression as an outsider, and that was last year. First-years make up roughly 50% of each house, so house culture can see major shifts almost overnight, particularly in smaller houses due to the small sample size involved. Dorm culture is a little more stable due to self-selection based on stereotypes and more tangible factors (North and Max P are next to both gyms and frat row, so they attract higher shares of athletes and aspiring bankers. South and B-J are near Logan and blocks from the real South Side, so they attract more artsy and activist types). Plus the fact that students get a say in dorm assignments, while housing may or may not consider someone’s house preference, so house assignments are more random.

As long as a house has the same residential head and a dorm has the same residential dean(s), both provide some degree of stability for house/dorm culture, because one factor (those individuals’ cues and/or events they organize) remains constant. This will obviously depend on the involvement of the RH and RD; some RHs are more active than others, and have more of an effect on house culture. The same is true of RDs.

This may be a cop-out, but it’s best for you to take everything I say with a grain of salt and make up your own mind when you know more. Case in point: one of my fellow first-years was busy bemoaning his house placement before he even met 98% of his housemates. He moved to another dorm within a week and missed a chance to live in the best house on campus. :wink:

10

I see, thank you a lot! Since you’re a current student (obviously) at UChicago, would you mind giving a few tips to a rising freshman? @DunBoyer

11

Important tips, in no particular order:

  • Go to lots of optional stuff during O-week. This is the best time to get to know the University, including various programs/initiatives, majors, extracurricular opportunities, etc. You might make a few friends as well.
  • Find time to explore the city. There's no shortage of stuff to see, things to do, and generally lovely places to hang out (Including Lakefront Trail, the Promontory Point - which we just call the Point - the Riverwalk, Grant/Millenium Parks etc.) You're paying $95 per quarter for the U-Pass (which lets students take the CTA for free during Fall/Winter/Spring quarters) and $15,000 for room and board in a major city - you may as well get something for it.
  • Administrative processes can be slow and unreliable. When you send the university bureaucracy something, do it in written form - documentation could help later if there's a SNAFU. If you need something done ASAP, say so. If you e-mail an office and don't hear back for a while, stop by in person and ask for an update - you'll be 10x as difficult to ignore. The squeaky wheel gets the grease.
  • Be nice to the staff, because A. it's the right thing to do and B. You'll see them again, so if you forget your ID, lose your keys, or otherwise need a rule bent, being nice pays off.
  • If you have a lot of work, studying with others (friends, housemates, classmates) is less productive in the short run but will keep you sane in the long run. Don't brood alone - commiserate together.
  • No matter how godlike you think your metabolism is, put eating and sleeping ahead of work. Going sleepless for 20 hours or more has the same effect as a BAC above the legal limit. You wouldn't write papers drunk (I hope). Don't write them tired. I've done it. It's not fun.
  • We call freshmen "first-years." This might be a recent development to avoid gendered language, or it might be a longstanding UChicago quirk - I don't know.
  • Pick classes that interest you and you'll work twice as hard.
  • Find time to actually do the reading. You'll get more out of your classes.
  • If you're thinking about Greek life, avoid DU at all costs. To quote Obi-Wan Kenobi, you'll never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.
  • Go to house study breaks. They're a good chance to unwind.
  • Don't feel pressured to go on every house outing. Sometimes, you have to work or recover after a tough week, and that's normal.
  • If you want to dodge the freshman 15, portion control is your friend.
  • You won't be the most knowledgeable student in most classes, and A's are harder to come by than in high school. This is normal. Nobody expects you to read a HUM text in the original Greek/Latin/Hebrew. There will be students who've done just that, but their insights are an interesting addition to the class, nothing more. They could still write bad papers and get a B-, and you could still write a great paper and get an A.
  • Don't be evil.
12

@DunBoyer The 1st year, 2nd year, etc terminology was long established in 1963 when I arrived. In my mind it was just one of those many small and some large differences between the University of Chicago and other schools that put a stamp on it: This is a serious place, not a boolah-boolah sort of school! There is probably a more pedestrian explanation, but I like that one. Do present-day students take that same small satisfaction in those uniquely UChicago terms?

13

Thank you @DunBoyer! This is very useful to keep in mind