<p>While I realize that the niceness of dorms is not a major factor in college choice, I am a bit curious. I will not be able to visit UChicago again and, when I did visit in the fall, they did not show us any of the dorm rooms. However, in the past two days I have visited both U of I and Wash U and can certainly notice a big difference in the dorms. At my friends dorm room at U of I, I felt like it was just a part of a big apartment complex. However, Wash U had a beautiful pedestrian area around with large and spacious rooms that seemed quite modern. </p>
<p>How is the University of Chicago in this respect? Does it depend largely on which building you choose to live in?</p>
<p>I feel quite spoiled regarding housing. I live in an older dorm, but my single room is the size of most doubles that I have seen at other colleges. The buildings vary widely in their accomodations, however: there’s Pierce, with its TINY rooms but great sense of community; Broadview, with its private bathrooms, Stony Island, with apartment-style living much farther from campus; there’s Max, with its modern and garish orange brick; there’s the brand-new South Campus Residence Hall, sometimes referred to as “the house that Ikea built” or the “furniture gallery”. There’s BJ, the oldest (but no less popular) Hogwarts lookalike with two-room suites instead of traditional doubles. It really depends on what you want–how far from campus you want to be, what kind of bathroom arrangement you prefer, etc. </p>
<p>I think it is somewhat to the detriment of the university that they do not show a dorm room on the tour. It leaves many a high school senior expecting the worst. The reason they don’t, I think, is because the housing options are all truly different from each other and somewhat far apart; the administration would be hard-pressed to designate a “typical” U of C dorm room. But don’t let the dearth of an in-person visit dissuade you, for you’ll definitely find something that will work for you. </p>
<p>Side note: I believe the Princeton Review regularly lists the U of C in the category for “Dorms Like Palaces”.</p>
<p>and of course, there’s Hitchcock House, a beauty of Neo-Gothic and Prairie. We have corn cobs and apples instead of gargoyles; it’s pretty chill :).</p>
<p>The dorm that was a real dump, The Shoreland, was closed down a couple of years ago. It was a beautiful hotel back in the 1920s but had become an SRO before the university purchased it. It has been replaced with South Campus. Go to the housing section of the university’s website and check out the photos of the dorms.</p>