Also, what do you think are the merits and demerits of your roommate having the same interest/major as you, in my case, Physics or Mathematics?
…at UChicago…
@astrofan Parental advice. At the beginning of first year, you will spend a ton of time with your roommates and housemates, and think they are by far the most important people in your college world. By the end of first year, that may still be true, but I think for most people they are spending far more time with people who are not roommates or housemates but whom they met through shared classes or activities. Those people may or may not become future roommates. The situation can change a lot over time, so there really isn’t one answer to this question.
In college, not at Chicago, I never had a roommate with the same interests/major as I. I learned a lot from my roommates about other fields that I wouldn’t have learned had they not been my roommates. That was a very positive aspect of my college experience. It’s really, really easy to meet and to make friends with people who share your interests and/or major, and you wind up spending a lot of time with them anyway. You don’t need to spend 100% of your time in the same bubble.
One of my kids did share an apartment fourth year with a close friend who had the same major and many of the same interests. In one sense, it was great, because they talked through a lot of issues in their honors theses together. In another sense, it may have been somewhat harmful to my kid. They didn’t mean to be competitive, but they sort of couldn’t help it, and that made my kid feel like a loser on occasion. The roommate was something of a star in the department, more than my kid, and my kid decided it would not make sense to try for a PhD program in that field because there would not be an effective way to compete with people like the roommate. (Now, it’s nine years later, and the roommate is finishing up a PhD program and wishing that instead, like my kid, she had started a non-academic career. But that’s another set of issues.) They shared an apartment again in New York for two years a year later, before the roommate started grad school, and they are still close. But I think my kid actually preferred the situation second and third years, living with STEM people (which my kid wasn’t).
My other kid, second year, shared an apartment in a small building where every apartment had at least one or two kids (including mine) involved in the same EC at some level or another – probably something more than half of the people in the building (~ 10 of 16 total). That was a lot of fun. It was like a theme house. The apartment was completely crummy, though. The next year, my kid moved to a nicer apartment with a friend from a different shared EC (but very different academic interests).
On a related note, a lot (if not the majority) of Hyde Park apartments ( except the new ones like Vue 53) can be pretty crummy inside. I like to joke with my wife that many of those were not built even in the last century but the one before that (in late 1890’s).
This is U of Chicago. You normally don’t spend a lot of time at your dorm/apartment other than sleeping. Still my point is that off campus housing at Hyde Park is not of the highest quality (to put it mildly).
@85bears46 - except that, like all of Hyde Park, there’s a lot more variety now than ever before. Hyde Park has plenty of crummy, inexpensive, college student-centric apartments. It also has some really nice older apartment buildings AND, a proliferating inventory of high-rise luxury apartment buildings.
Back in my day, I think the only high-rise around was Regents Park.
Now, there are no fewer than six luxury high-rises in Hyde Park:
Regents Park
City Hyde Park
Vue 53
Hyde Park Tower
The Shoreland
Solstice on the Park
(YMMV with the management at these places, but there’s no doubt there are more residential options in Hyde Park than ever before. Also, as the student body continues to get wealthier, you’ll find more and more college students heading to these options, if they want them.)
If you want to know where the good apartment buildings are, check out where the Booth students are living (although I understand that a greater % of them also live in South Loop or Downtown now). In my day: Shoreland, Regents Park, and various nice walk-ups that might rent or sublet. More choice now - a very good thing.
Choice is good, but it’s bad for the character to live as an undergrad in posh settings. Student digs are meant to be places of relative hardship and deprivation. You can find that proposition in Aristotle.
Does UChicago send a package of swag to accepted students? I feel like I read something about accepted people receiving a shirt, hat, etc. last year. If so, when will it arrive?
Last year my daughter received a UChicago T and a scarf at the very least. By the time you get through O-Week, you will be the proud owner of at least a couple of UChicago T’s. You might have one from visit days as well. Be sure to wear your Class of 2022 T to Convocation!
As usual, @marlowe, your post makes a lot of sense. That deprivation and hardship used to generate all sorts of inspiring thoughts, including plans for how to pay for nicer accommodations once you left school.
So, the package that we are going to receive in mid-Jan will be a shirt and something of that sort, right?
Like what exactly is the small welcome package?
Is there a groupme chat already made?
@philthephoenix @astrofan a package arrived in the mail for me yesterday. Inside was a brochure, and a printed copy of my acceptance letter (on official UChicago letterhead). Also in a separate envelope was an invitation to the nearest accepted students receptions (which start in Feb).
No t-shirt or other swag.
is there a group chat for accepted 2022?
I have been accepted ED. I have already applied for Financial Aid. I think I submitted my last FA document on 17th November. But still, I have not received any message regarding FA and scholarships? Does anyone know the approximate date of when it will be released?
Have you checked your portal? When you log in you should see a message that something’s been updated. That’s how it worked last year for FA. Don’t think my D got a separate e-mail. Something arrived in the regular mail eventually but it definitely showed up on the portal first.
I am in the exact same situation (submitted my documents on the 17th), and I tried calling the financial aid office. They told me that information regarding the aid will be released by Jan. 5th.
Okay! That’s great! Will the aid info be displayed on one’s UChicago account?
^^ Yes.
Do most people get personalized and handwritten letters from their admissions counselors in the mail after acceptance? Like referencing their app and everything? I have seen a couple people mention this and was wondering if it means anything/ if I did anything wrong because I didn’t get one…