Hey guys,
I’m a recently admitted international student who is looking forward to attending UChicago in the fall but I have some questions regarding the dorms, specifically BJ. I would be very thankful if someone could give me a rundown of the dorm and what’s its like to live there and answer some questions that I have.
My questions are:
What’s the house culture there like? Are the students close?
How far away is it (and it looks to be pretty far) from where the classrooms are and from the Reg (which seems to be the main library used for studying)?
How much character does traversing to and fro from class to the dorm build during winter?
4)What are the high-lights of this dorm?
5)What are some downsides to it?
In general people are close, like, most people’s friends are from the house, if they hang out with people they’re going to hang out with their house first, etc. Some people say the house culture is a bit culty and I’m not going to dispute that but how culty definitely depends on the house.
Not far, lol. One block from the quad, 10 minute walk from the Reg, right near a dining hall.
Eh. It’s fine. It’s not as bad as people hype it up to be. There are some other areas that are worse wind tunnels (like under North, sheesh, that’s awful).
As close to living in Hogwarts as you’re going to get. Everyone’s weird, but not in the way you’re probably expecting. It’s a very social dorm - most people leave their doors open and hang out in each other’s room even though it’s all singles. You get a single! Bathrooms used to be awful but they just renovated them, front desk people are wonderful and they will become your friends (in other dorms people don’t seem to talk to them as much sadly). There’s a lot of gorgeous wood paneled study rooms with fire places. There’s a theater in the basement. The building looks like a castle. The rooms are in general pretty big, especially Dodd-Mead and Linn-Mathews which have massive rooms. Almost everyone who lives in BJ is glad they’re there.
Some people don’t like the cultiness. If you’re in one of the smaller houses (the houses in general are pretty small, but some are extra small) and you don’t like anyone you’re kinda SOL. Party scene is kinda eh (though this also depends on the house) - a lot of people don’t like drinking that much and like partying even less, though there are all-dorm parties every three weeks or so.
That’s BJ in a nutshell. I live there, but I guess that’s obvious. If you have any more questions, feel free to ask or PM.
@JBStillFlying Hard to say. Probably decent if they deposit before Ivy Day, though it’s impossible to know how ED will change things. In the past BJ was always one of the first to fill up, but people could get in if they deposit before the overnight/the bulk of people are making their decisions.
So DD said she was in a 7th floor room (the tower) with stairs only access. Cool rooms but rather difficult access. Not running in/out of your room multiple times a day.
There’s literally only 3 rooms that high in the entire dorm, and they’re usually taken by upperclassmen b/c Chamberlin uses the common area up there as a second lounge and they want to make sure people living there are okay with that. Almost all first years are on the first two floors, but sometimes they’ll be higher. Because the biggest rooms are top floor or half floors, it’s really rare to have first years all the way up. Top floor is 4th in Salisbury, Linn-Mathews, and Dodd-Mead, and 5th in Chamberlin (well, they have the tower too), Vincent, and Coulter.
Anyways the exercise is good for you and your o-aides will be doing most of the heavy lifting the first day. I live on the top floor and I do run in/out of my room multiple times a day. My room size makes up for the mild inconvenience, lol. Basically if you’re ambivalent to stairs, you’ll probably be fine. If you hate stairs, probably should choose a different dorm (Snitchcock has no elevator either I believe).
You are correct it doesn’t per the description on the website. My D17 placed her deposit a few days after getting accepted ED2 so was likely in the bottom half of the class enrollment-wise. She would love a single (but not I-House). Her top two choices are Snitch and BJ, but I don’t think she could specify house so is risking a double if she gets her first choice (singles are in Snell only; Hitch has both but frosh mostly in doubles is what the website said). I think both Snitchcock and BJ are way cool dorms and would suit her personality so hopefully she’ll get one of them. She’s cool with a double if it comes to that.
When I was in college, my dorm was built into a hill and I would typically enter in “A” wing at the bottom, walk up two flights of stairs to get to the A-balcony, and cross over to the common areas before descending a flight the stairs in “C” to get to my wonderful basement single. Our dining hall was up the hill a bit. You had to climb a hill to get to dining, then you had to climb a flight of stairs to get to the food. This forced exercise definitely helped keep the freshman-10 from turning into the freshman-15 or -20.
@JBStillFlying She’s probably in the top half, actually. I doubt most EAers have committed - by definition, they’re considering their choices - and I’d be flabbergasted if they accepted half the class ED1. You are correct about Snitch’s room situation - and sounds like she is likely to get a room in one of them.
@HydeSnark Is there any reason to prefer BJ over Snitchcock if you’re an ED1 applicant who deposited a day after the decisions came out other than the fact that you’ll definitly get a single (which is of utmost important to me)? I mean Snitchcock seems to be placed in a much more convenient location. Thanks.
@ScrnNme Well…singles. Smaller houses, better lounges and study spaces (in my opinion). They’re pretty similar dorms, reputation is that BJ is a bit more social but I’m not sure I believe that, Snitchcock is more social than people give them credit for (at least Hitchcock, lol)
@HydeSnark Do you have any anecdotal evidence that suggests that Housing does or not read the info written on the housing applications (at least this year, there’s a place to write in “other info”). E.g., if student says BJ is first choice, and then requests to be placed in one of the larger houses of BJ [for the reason you stated; 40 is a little small to be assured of finding a friend].
Supposedly you can’t request specific houses (but, well, you could write whatever you want in the box; whether they pay attention or not is another question).
My question, though, was if you could just say that you’d prefer to be in one of larger houses in BJ. (Or say, a house in the range of __ to ___ to students, which would encompass the larger ones in BJ.)
Does Snell have a reputation for not being social? A colleague of my husband has a kid who is a first year in Snell and loves it. Super-smart kid (aren’t they all). I’d think that if it were unfriendly that would be hard on first years. Sounded to me like it struck the right balance of social and private/studious (for him anyway). This is kind of what my own kid is looking for so she specified Snell-Hitchcock as first choice. I think she also likes the idea of being on the quad and near the library.
@Lea111@JBStillFlying Yeah, they won’t listen to a request to be in a certain house. Not sure if they’ll listen to a range request like - but there is a way to cheat it: the only houses in BJ that don’t have any gendered floors are Linn-Mathews and Dodd-Mead, which are also the biggest ones. So say you don’t want gendered floors and rank that really high and you are a lot more likely to end up in a bigger house.
Snell does have the reputation of not being social - or at least of having a lot of super studious people that like privacy. I know very little about Snell (I know more about Hitchcock, and it’s not like that to say the least), so I can’t really say much beyond that reputation.
I’ve heard of people having house requests fulfilled, can’t hurt to ask. Second everything @HydeSnark said about BJ. @ScrnNme Snitchcock has had a pretty big problem with illegal drugs (including hard drugs) in the past few years FWIW - it’s a bit more of a strange, self-selecting beast than BJ, in which you get a wider variation of people since it’s bigger and easier to get into.
Also - in general the distance difference is much smaller than you think. The UChicago campus is very compact in general, moreso than it looks on maps, and there’s nowhere on campus you can’t get to from BJ in 10 minutes bar Campus North. BJ is closer to the quads than North and about as close as Max.