UChicago housing for incoming students?

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Chicago ✅
1

Hey all,

I was wondering if anyone here knows how plausible it is to get a single as a freshman at UChicago. I definitely want a single, but at the same time I don’t wanna end up getting a single on a dorm I prefer less. I sent in the deposit ten days after I got in for ED so I guess it was pretty early (but not super early?) If I put North-South-BJ for my top choices, do you think I’ll have a shot for a single on North or South? I heard it’s super hard to get a single on North but I heard there are few freshmen with singles on South? If not, should I just go for a double?

2

You are unlikely to get a single in North or South because of how the room lottery works: everyone in the house is given a ranking based on seniority (it’s random if the seniority is equal), then they go down the list and everyone chooses a room. Everything left over becomes first year rooms. There are singles in North and South (more in North than South I believe), but they are probably aren’t going to be left over after the lottery. Number of singles left over in North and South depends way more on retention than anything else: if lots of people stay, all the singles are going to be gone. If few people stay, there will be some singles left. So it’s impossible to predict how many singles are going to be open in North and South, nobody knows until the lottery.

Max has so few singles they basically never go to first years. Stony is all apartments with double bedrooms.

The only dorms with significant number of singles left after the lottery is I-House (best chance), BJ, and Snitchcock (least chance). Snitchcock actually has less singles than North as a percentage of rooms, but because they are technically two houses - Snell and Hitchcock - where Hitchcock has all doubles and Snell has all singles, Hitchcock people returning can’t snap up all the singles.

So those are your choices. If you want North, South, Max, or Stony, you’re almost certainly not going to get a single. If you want a single, go for BJ, I-House, or Snitchcock.

3

My D got in EDII last year and sent the deposit later in Feb. She ended up with a single in BJ and loves it but BJ was her 2nd choice (first was Snitch but those were probably all taken). I thought @Carino’s D has a single in South and applied EA - but she might have committed early on as well.

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@JBStillFlying What is BJ like facilities-wise, specifically the rooms? What does your D like about it?

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My DD is in BJ and she loves loves loves loves loves loves loves her House. House = the people. And the House activities that give her more opportunities to hang out with the people. Her room is fine, at least by pre-luxury-going-to-college-in-80s standards. By the standard of gorgeous renovations of old houses paid for by affluent adults, it will be a disappointment. The woodwork is pretty; the walls and hard flooring (not wood) are dull and nothing special. The bathroom is new and clean (when clean anyway, on move-in weekend). The House lounge is ugly and even piggy (though I hear they’re getting some kind of upgrade … but they are college students who like eating food together in the lounge). They love hanging out in the lounge together. The interior courtyards are beautiful. The study rooms (which are sometimes quiet and are sometimes not quiet) have beautiful woodwork and hugely high ceilings. The basement (kitchen, ping pong table, laundry, sofas) is … a basement. You can see pictures of everything on Chicago’s website; they are reasonably accurate, though they do seem to pick up more on the beautiful woodwork than the other parts. DD is not very picky about the way things look, and said she didn’t care as between old and new dorms. She picked her hall (BJ was her first choice) based primarily on reputation of what the people were like and by location (near Logan Center). As I said, she LOVES her House and that’s what most important to her, so I guess it worked out.

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@Kathy V - the above is an excellent description of BJ. I’d add that it has a lot of singles, a large fireplace room on the 2nd floor, and the courtyards are, I think, private and secure. If you have Maps or similar, look at the aerial to get an idea of layout. The exterior walls facing the courtyard are ivy- covered but I think they’ve been reducing those or killing off the bad ones (not sure if this is the issue but vines in general can actually pull down a wall if left unattended. They are picturesque but need some monitoring).

Once past the main secure entrance, it seems that you walk through the courtyard(s) to get to your “house door”. Each house is - or used to be - in a separate wing with a separate entrance. Not sure the other res. halls have that (nor am I sure that all those house doors are still in use, given contemporary security practices for university residence halls - someone else will need to chime on on that). It is cool to see those House Names etched in above the doors - almost like a by-gone era.

The rooms are old but it’s amazing what a couple strings of Fairy Lights will do for the place. Most kids brought rugs and such to cover the hard floor. D brought a desk lamp, a fan, and rented the microfridge and I’d highly recommend all of those. Her bathroom was NOT updated - but it’s clean and works, and it happens to be close to her room (she lucked out there).

I should add that I myself wouldn’t have found BJ to be an “attractive” place to live at first - I was very used to a different style of college dorm, so all that old grey would have been depressing to me. My kids, on the other hand, love the look. A lot depends on where you grew up, I suppose. Also, having lived in Hyde Park and seeing the beautiful tall ceilings with crown moulding (just doesn’t exist on anything new) I really came to appreciate the history and style of the older buildings. Made me break out of my more parochial viewpoints a bit.

Cathey - we were told by a friend that this is the “best” caf - is actually attached to BJ and there’s even a door directly into the section with the House Table, but you’ll set off the alarm if you use it. :frowning: The normal means is to exit the res. hall out the main entrance, then walk around the building to get to the dining hall.

BJ has some notable students who have lived there - check out the list on Wiki.

Would reiterate how important the House is to your success at UChicago. It’s way more important than the actual physical location. They seem to take great care in placing you in a house that works well, conditioned on where you want to live and/or what type of room you want. Each dorm has several houses, w/ exception of Snitch which only has two. My daughter loves her house and housemates so it worked out very well for her as well.

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@JBStillFlying Flying @Lea111 Thanks so much for your thorough descriptions. Very helpful!

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My daughter is a freshman, accepted EA. Even though UChicago was her dream school, she applied RD to 9 schools and she thought that it would be “impolite” to commit to UChicago while waiting for other schools’ acceptances. She finally committed in early April, which was very late considering that most accepted kids (EA, ED1, ED2) should have committed by that time, but she got her first choice: a single in South. She is in Granville-Grossman and she loves everything there. It is very new, but it is cozy and welcoming. It has many nicely decorated common areas, where she and her friends get together for studying, to watch a movie or just talk. The dining hall is amazing and just a few steps from her building. Now she needs to do the lottery again and wait to see what she gets for next year.

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@Carino is she planning to squat in the same house or even the same room?

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@JBStillFlying Hi! They can choose to stay in the same dorm and same house, but not the same room. She got a high number for the lottery, which makes harder to get a single, but she heard that many are moving out of campus. We will see.

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My daughter doesn’t have a good number either but she said none of the first years do. Fortunately no one likes the rooms that she likes so she’ll probably be ok. Plus there’s room swap. The probability of getting a single has to be higher as a 2nd year than a first (since the latter are the last of the bunch to do the lottery) but a lot depends on what happens to be available. Fortunately BJ has a lot of singles.

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Hello all - I’m in the position of having to choose housing for the fall. Does anyone know if any of the southern dorms (South, BJ) have any sort of gym for keeping in shape? I wouldn’t mind living in either, but am dreading the long trek from south campus to Ratner for a workout. Looking for mainly weights and cardio equipment.

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^^It’s only .6 miles from BJ. Consider it a warm-up for that cardio workout.

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It’s hard to base where singles will be open by a certain deposit date because last year they moved something like 50 kids into apartments to make more room on campus for first years so a lot of singles that became available to first years after the normal lottery would not presumably happen this year.

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^^Unless they make the “happy” mistake of over-subscribing again :slight_smile:

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how are the beds in the rooms? I know they are all twin xl, are you able to lift them? if you are in a double, are you able to turn the beds into bunk beds? What are the essentials? What was the absolute best thing you had in your dorm and what you could do without?

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all are twin xl, need a refrigerator, bedding to include a memory foam pad, don’t think you can do bunk beds but I’m not sure on that one. Closets are fairly small so some closet organizer things like hangars that extend downward, that’s kind of a minimum, if you want a microwave it has to be part of the refrigerator unit.

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@misspollitas00 You can loft them, but not into bunk beds.

19

Okay, hive mind. I need some advice.

My son is an incoming first-year. After much discussion of pros and cons, he and one of his current classmates have decided to room together this fall at Chicago.

Both were accepted ED2. We paid our enrollment deposit within minutes of the acceptance, whereas his friend did not for submit for a few weeks (although well before the regular decision date). Still, he is probably toward the end of the ED2 admits in terms of housing queue, and since his is the later of their deposit dates, his will be the date they use to assign them. They really want to be in North first choice, South veeeeery distant second choice. What do you think?

Kinda pissed they use the later date - seems to be a deterrent from kids pairing up, no?

20

@booklady123 the policy probably ensures that both roomies are equally committed and, perhaps, keeps last minute enrollees from skipping over hundreds of other confirmed attendees :wink: However, in this case both probably got their deposits in well before the EA’s and RD’s so it might turn out ok for them. North is a pretty big dorm.

Does the ordering prioritize choice of roommate over specific choice of dorm?