<p>Is there a good social scene here??</p>
<p>Parties? Close knit?</p>
<p>Do you get a good sense of a campus community?</p>
<p>When I keep looking at stuff on UChicago I can't help but compare it to NYU's social crowd, which consists of a bunch of random buildings spread throughout Greencwich Village in NYC and doesent feel like a campus at all. I really hope UChicago isn't like that. </p>
<p>Can i get some input please?</p>
<p>I think it really depends on what you define to be “good.” If you like raucous, Girls-Gone-Wild type partying, Chicago is not the best place for that (though it might be there and I just don’t know about it). To me, it seems like most students don’t want a place with excessive partying. As I’ve said before, I think, Chicago’s not a party school by choice-- it’s not like students don’t party, it’s just that they don’t put a ton of energy into it and it’s not a guiding part of their lives as college students.</p>
<p>But yes, there are parties. There are parties where people crowd together in a room/apartment/basement, drink, inhale, dance, and chat. These kinds of parties are not terribly hard to find or be invited to, it’s a matter of showing up.</p>
<p>I don’t think that the undergraduate college, as a whole, is that tight-knit (5,000 students, remember) but I’m always surprised at how many people know the same people that I know, or that it’s not unusual to refer to another person by a first name. I continue to meet new people in my year, but even when I meet new people, it’s likely that we have 20 or 30 facebook friends in common. If you are looking for a close-knit group, you’re probably best off doing some of the time-intensive extracurriculars like University Theater or a club/varsity sport, or even a social group, like a fraternity, sorority, Hillel, Queers and Associates, Calvert House. And there’s always the house system, which provides a good community backbone among the people you live with.</p>
<p>Chicago’s campus is not as invisible as NYU’s, but I feel I should point out that with the exception of Snell-Hitchcock dorm, the neo-gothic part of the quad is entirely academic buildings. The dormitories are either near each other or in residential areas, but unlike some schools, which have real residential quads, Chicago has dorms more spread out. Hyde Park is nowhere near as crowded (or exciting) as the Village, but on the upside, it definitely feels a lot more like a campus than NYU, probably more similar to what Columbia or Penn is like.</p>
<p>Check old threads - there’s a lot of info on this.</p>
<p>Short answer to campus community question: Totally different than NYU. There is one cohesive campus linked by distinct quads. The campus is not interspersed all through the city like NYU. Close Knit feel isn’t as high as a Lib arts college, but there is a pretty good sense of campus community.</p>
<p>Short answer to good social scene question: Totally depends what you are looking for. U of C has a good “hangout” culture (think bookstores, coffeeshops, etc.), but not anything like a hardcore, pervasive party culture. If you really want a big frat scene, look elsewhere. The best description is it’s a laidback social scene. Some parties, first couple years are dominated by dorm life, lots of hanging out. Less highly attended full-campus blowout parties.</p>