<p>Move in day is 19 sept and my family is probably staying in a university-recommended hotel in the loop. I'm just wondering how to get all of my stuff to the dorm! </p>
<p>Do you recommend that we rent a car once in Chicago? I think it would be easier to just drive around the city, buy whatever I need, and then just bring it all in one load to my dorm. Will traffic/lack of parking be an issue? Do you recommend doing the car rental? </p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>We did move in with a cab from our hotel and felt that it was quite smart. Cabs were given priority to the front door, while other vehicles had a longer wa’it. It meant that we didn’t do any shopping trips, but that was fine with us–she’d shipped some stuff and bought the anything else by herself later.</p>
<p>In subsequent trips, we’ve rented cars half the time. That has also worked, so you’ll probably be okay either way.</p>
<p>I think it’ll depend, honestly. My parents and I are driving from Texas… getting to Chicago on the 17th late in the evening. Shopping for junk on the 18th. Move in on the 19th. Hopefully parking won’t be an issue if <em>crossing fingers</em> I get assigned to Pierce because the Ellis Avenue Garage is a hop skip and a jump from Pierce. </p>
<p>However if you were to live in, say, Snitchcock, it would be a little harder to either park and take all your stuff from the car, or drop your stuff off at the dorm and then go park.</p>
<p>When we moved our first kid in, we shipped four boxes to the dorm first, and brought a bunch of duffels with us. We didn’t rent a car; we just got on the 6 bus across the street from our hotel, transferred to the 55 in Hyde Park, and lugged the stuff the last block to the dorm. (There were four of us, including a 16-year-old brother, so there was plenty of lugging capacity.) That worked absolutely fine as far as it went. It turned out that one of the boxes had been lost, though, and we had another bus/foot trip to the Office Depot and Walgreens at the other end of HP to replace some of the necessaries that were in the lost box. (Which of course was found three days later, but whatever.)</p>
<p>Do you know what a typical dorm room has in advance? Do they include bookcases and mirrors? Is the chair provided comfortable, or is it best to get a comfortable swivel? Are students allowed to have refrigerators, or is it best to rent a refrig/micro combo? So many questions…</p>
<p>Last year daughter’s single in South Campus came equiped with a Twin XL bed (adjustable height no tools required so 20 inch tall storage bins fit under), desk with wooden chair (that rocks slightly), 12 linear feet (total) bookshelves, wastebasket and recycling basket, and simple mattress pad for the bed. The closet had a light and one elfa type (but not elfa) shelf along the top. Venetian blinds on the window (which opens). And a telephone for on campus or incoming calls. There’s one bright overhead light - no dek lamp.</p>
<p>We bought a mirror (attached with Command), over the door hooks for towels and coats, freestanding metal shelving (from Target) for inside the closet, and a small storage stool (for extra seating). There was enough room for an extra chair or a fridge/micro fridge, but end of year storage of the chair seemed problematic. And she didn’t think she would need the fridge since the SCRH dining hall was steps away with unlimited dining (all you can eat, as many times a day as you want). We couldn’t find the right kind of extra brackets to add more bookshelves, but it would have been quite difficult to reach any additional shelves anyway as they would be too high.</p>
<p>We flew in on Friday (move in was Saturday) and stayed out by Midway with a rental car. There is a Target, Walmart, Office Depot, Home Depot, Best Buy,… just south of Midway, so we picked up everything else there Saturday once we saw what her room had. The organizers had traffic very well organized with cars directed into different lines depending on which house to get you to the closest drop off point. Once you get to front of the line, O-aides bring a large orange bin to your vehicle and swarm it - unloading a fully loaded SUV in about 2 minutes. Then they directed the driver to available parking. Very well run and not at all detrimental to having a car. </p>
<p>However…</p>
<p>My one comment about renting a car if you are staying downtown - check with your hotel. For parents weekend we stayed on Magnificent mile and paid $30 a day to rent a car, but $50 a day to park it. Won’t do that again. By midway it is about $10 a day for parking.</p>
<p>You might want to consider, I bid on cars thru Priceline, and just got a full size model for $16/day in Baltimore for move-in in August. It is a lot cheaper than what is quoted.</p>
<p>Wow, these are great responses! I hadn’t even considered staying out by the Midway, but really might now that I know there’s all of those stores there. @Andorra, which hotel did you stay at?</p>
<p>My top choices are Snitch and Breck, so assuming I get one of them, how far is available parking? neogop meantioned that the former was far, but what about the latter?</p>
<p>Also, I heard somewhere that there is a shuttle service from some hotels to the University. Is this true? if so, does it stop at all the dorms or just the main quads?</p>
<p>Another question: Can I sent boxes of things directly to my dorm from say, amazon? I ask because the box won’t say “Hold for xxxx” on it. </p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>Parking on the street around Breck should be pretty easy. There’s tons of parking available on 59th Street and on the Midway. Snitchcock might be more of a challenge, since it’s more hemmed into campus. I’d imagine that you would be able to pull up to the door to drop things off, and then you could park somewhere else. You shouldn’t have to park more than three blocks or so away, even on move-in day. As long as you move in over the weekend (I’m not sure how they’re doing it this year), there should be plenty of parking.</p>
<p>134-
for tour and interview we stayed at the Courtyard Bedford Park and for move in at the Holiday Inn Express Bedford Park. Both were fine and no more than a few dozen yards from one another. There is a cluster of hotels in an area called Midway Hotel Center - you can find all of them at this link: [Chicago</a> Midway Airport Hotels, Lodging Near MDW & IL Room Reservations - Midway Hotel Center](<a href=“http://www.midwayhotelcenter.com/]Chicago”>http://www.midwayhotelcenter.com/) </p>
<p>The complex with all of the hotels is fine and there is a TGI Fridays that we ate at - also fine. The area surrounding it is nothing to advertise for tourism, but was very convenient for all of the shopping at move in. You will definitely need a car, as the shuttle services were only from some downtown hotels. Here is a link to the info we were sent on hotels for orientation:
<a href=“Class of 2023 | The College | The University of Chicago | The University of Chicago”>Class of 2023 | The College | The University of Chicago | The University of Chicago;
<p>Renting a car is not an absolute necessity, but it certainly makes things easier and gives you more flexibility. While we initially made a point of staying as close to Hyde Park as possible and fretted over where we would park, we soon realized that parking was less of a problem than we’d anticipated and, with a car, the exact location of our hotel was not so critical. On subsequent trips we’ve stayed in nice hotels at bargain prices (and rented cars) by using the Hotwire website, and have had no trouble shuttling among the Loop, Hyde Park, Midway, and various shopping and tourist sites.</p>
<p>Also, you can have packages from Amazon, etc. shipped directly to your dorm, but not until a few weeks before move in day. The earliest arrival date for packages to be held was specified someplace on the website and/or in literature my son received during the summer before first year, but I don’t remember exactly where this info. was located.</p>
<p>Thanks Andorra and map for the great answers. I’m leaning towards renting a car now.</p>