UChicago housing for incoming students?

I drove by I-House this morning. There are still scaffolding on the outside of the building. I presume Housing & Residence Life is working on the finishing touch before Orientation.

I-House is not really that far from the Main Quad. On foot it is about the same distance between I-House to Eckhart Hall as between RGG and Eckhart.

On the other hand, I feel bad for freshman being assigned to Stony.

My daughters were assigned to ihouse. I understood this building had mostly singles. The doubles were 2 single rooms connected to a private foyer with a bathroom. Is this true? However, my daughters who got the double in ihouse, are assigned to the same room. Did they make those single rooms into doubles? There were no additional roommates assignments or any indication of a private bathroom. Those who got a double in ihouse, did you have more than one roommate assignment?

No electric kettles allowed in BJ. How strictly enforced - no idea.

If IHouse renovations began summer 2018, does not seem enough time to knock out walls. IHouse used to have suites and super suites, possibly those were converted to doubles.

My son applied RD and was accepted. He was also accepted at MIT, which had been his first choice, so he had a tough decision to make. After speaking with admissions about the late timing of his acceptance for dorm selection, and a campus visit, he chose UChicago. Admissions said he may not get his first dorm choice, but students rarely get nothing from their top 3. Not only did he not get one of his top 3, I don’t think they even read his housing application. He got none of his listed priorities, and he ended up in International house. After lengthy talks with housing today, I feel like my son has made the wrong college decision. To treat people like lesser members of the community, because they didn’t apply EA or ED, is horrible, and I am very uncomfortable sending my son there now. 2023 applicants be warned! If you don’t apply EA or ED, and you care about your living situation, think twice. You are just a number to them once you have accepted the spot, and you have bottom priority. You will get a nasty dorm room, while the EA/ED kids have first class rooms, all for the same price.
On another note, I’m not sure what type of renovations are being done in IHouse, but there is no air conditioning. I didn’t even know that no AC was a possibility!

tennismom7 - Sorry to hear of your dissatisfaction. My son ('17) lived in I-House for 2 years. He was fine with it. He was in your son’s boat. He was an RD admit with a late deposit. He made friends with certain housemates that he sustains to today.

Lack of AC is not an issue. Chicago is moderate to cold literally the full school year. The building is extremely solid and well insulated, with overhead fans. For those reasons, and because of the weather tendencies addressed above, rooms are really quite comfortable. Not to minimize your frustration, I wish your son had gotten the room of his choice, but I just wanted to point out to you that he will be comfortable, safe, and probably happy, in I-House.

Best of luck to your son!

@tennismom7 , your son is starting with an insight about the administration that every kid soon has - that it doesn’t operate with same octane as the academic side of the place. That insight is a birthright of U of C students, handed down seamlessly from all who have gone before. Kvetching about it is always in order. But at least in the matter of residence there’s now some gesture toward choice. In my time no one asked you what you wanted. Without making light of your consternation, I will say that the actual physical amenities and location are much less important than they might initially seem. Once upon a time the hot residences were Pierce Tower and Woodward Court (“New Dorms” as the latter was always called). I was disappointed to find myself assigned to this medieval structure south of the Midway called Burton-Judson. However, almost immediately I was happy as a clam there. What really matters is the pals you make, and you will be able to make them in any residence, because each residence contains a sample of each entering class. As it turns out five of the guys (it was all guys in BJ those days) I met that first day became friends for life. One of them died two months ago. At his memorial service one of us spoke about him and those old days along with only one other friend from later days. His widow told me afterwards that he felt himself fortunate to have made such good friends at BJ all those years ago. Especially with the passage of time those early friendships, if they persist, bind you together almost as brothers. That is what you must wish for now for your son - together with the academic cornucopia that will open up for him and make this early disappointment seem unimportant.

Oh, and here’s another observation: Those shiny new residences of the sixties didn’t stand the test of time, while BJ and I-House are still standing and functioning these many years later. Important figures have resided in both places, and I-House was, I believe, one of only four residences of that name at different universities constructed with John D. Rockefeller funds with the idea of providing a haven for students from all over the world. The large bright beautiful lounge is one of the legacies of that mission. Students can always be found there sitting comfortably and talking to each other. We at BJ envied that and sometimes we came over just for that purpose.

I thought I-House was beautiful when we visited. It is stately-looking inside and out.

One other significant fact about the history of I-House: A few years ago the administration had planned to demolish it, with the idea of building a new residence in its place. That plan - and it was a settled decision, being pushed by the powerful Provost Geoffrey Stone, not merely an idea being run up the flagpole - produced such an outcry from former and present residents of the place that Stone was forced to abandon demolition in favor of upgrading and improving the existing building. That so many had such strong feelings of affection for the place, even before the improvements, has to mean something.

If you haven’t already, you can also join both the UChicago Class of 2022 Parents Page, and the UChicago Parents Page groups on facebook and post there to get more timely answers and comments to your questions; and also peruse others’ comments on various topics.

@tennismom7 - three of the seven have no AC and also have radiated heat in the winter. I lived on the 4th floor of I-House as a grad student many years ago and found that I needed to crack my window a bit in the winter in order to let out some of the heat! (then the window would freeze open . . .) I didn’t have need of an electric fan but D over in BJ has two: a smaller desk fan and a large “Wind Machine 3300” that we sent her last spring when the temps got super-hot. I think she propped that one up on the window sill. The Wind Machine might have been overkill - I’m guessing it’ll go right into her closet when she moves back to BJ this fall. Yes - she’s moving back to BJ. She loves her house, misses her friends, and looks forward to seeing everyone and meeting the new kids in a little over a month.

The older dorms may not have the shiny new fixtures or latest HVAC technology but they have wonderful houses and a deep sense of community. Not that the newer dorms don’t have great houses. I believe at least some of those do tend to be a tad larger in size and I’ve heard some are less cohesive. That shouldn’t be too surprising as many of them are much newer and haven’t had the same amount of time to “gel”. Not sure how long undergrads have been living in I-House but some of those houses date back awhile, even moving over to I-House when the prior residence was closed. The dorms may come and go but the houses live on! Each house will have its own particular traditions and quirks that make it unique. UChicago housing might not have been able to fulfill your son’s wishes for top-3 dorm but they will very likely put him in a house that fits well with him. Furthermore, I-House will have a larger-than-usual number of first years so he’ll be in great company!

The house table has been over in Cathey. There is also a cafe at I-House but not sure how that works with the meal plan. Your son will probably want a micro fridge as he won’t be able to roll out of bed and into a dining hall so easily, though D tells me she sees I-House kids at Cathey all the time. Basically, he’ll get into the routine of his house for meals and that will work out just fine.

I-House is about as far from Harper (to name a location on the quads) as is North or Max P. For getting to the downtown, the location of I-House is unbeatable because it’s right next to the bus route and the Metra Electric. It’s also next to a ton of green space with the MSI and the Midway right there. It’s kind of a large footprint in a quiet residential area. I loved the walk to the quads, especially in the fall.

Finally, I-House may be “old” but last time I looked it was in FAR better shape than either Snitch (REALLY old) or BJ (charming with a lovely sitting room but . . . old). I-House has a large public first-floor sitting room that spans most of the length of the building - perfect for greeting your parents. No way will a parent look around and think “shabby” the way I did at BJ (sorry peeps - I did. D loves it there and it’s first choice for S19 if he’s lucky enough to get accepted. They are both into “atmosphere” much more than “new and shiny” or “stately/well-kept-up”). When I worked in Chicago we’d do B-School recruiting events at I-House every year. Prior to the construction of the new B-school building - which no doubt holds those functions now - I-House was considered a “go to” place for impressive events. There were always people bustling about and it was considered to be “different” and more of a sophisticated residence than the other places. No way would Booth have EVER held a recruiting event at BJ or Snitch! LOL. The dorm really had a more “cosmopolitan” feel to it than the typical undergrad dorm, primarily because of the large number of international students who lived there. Maybe that atmosphere has changed now that it’s entirely undergraduate - I kind of doubt it, given that the College itself is one of the more geographically diverse elite uni’s. My guess is that it’s still looking pretty fine. The grad students I think are entirely out of there but the place has benefitted from their presence (older students = less damage and wear/tear) as well as the fact that it functioned as a guest residence and reception/event location for so long.

Everyone (except the Vue 53 denizens) will get a college dorm room. Vue 53 people will get a nice apartment in exchange for zero house culture. I spent a week in one of the shiny new dorms for a pre-orientation program, and I would not describe it as first class. It was comfortable enough, but it was a dorm, not the Ritz-Carlton.

I’ve lived for two years in B-J, which has no air-conditioned dorm rooms (the study spaces and computer lab are both air-conditioned, so that’s one option during the last week or two of Spring Quarter). The lack of A/C is a non-issue. The age of the dorm rooms has zero tangible impact on students’ everyday experience. The biggest determinants of a student’s experience, by far, are A. enjoying classes and B. having a nice, supportive, etc. group of friends (often people in their house). Probably not in that order.

MIT is a good school, and an excellent choice under any circumstances. But nobody says on their deathbed “I wish I’d remodeled the kitchen” or “I wish I’d bought a faster car.” In much the same vein, I have never met an alum who, looking back at college 20 or 30 years later, said "It was a great school, and I made some lifelong friends…but gosh, I wish my room had new IKEA-style furniture.

@DunBoyer do you have any sense of whether they were able to get “enough” kids to do Vue53 this year? Did last year’s crowd get to return to Vue53 this year? I noticed that North has a “Vue53” house so even with zero house culture they might still get first dibs on moving back to Vue53, if I’ve read those housing lottery rules correctly.

I believe most Vue 53 people returned to the dorm or moved off. But due to overenrollment, the College added units in Vue 53. I’m told it’s costing Housing an arm and a leg.

Filling those extra spots was tough enough that the College had to offer $1,500 to anyone who’d agree to move there. Which makes sense - the overlap between people who A. have zero interest in house culture and B. were planning to pay for on-campus housing instead of moving off is minimal. And Vue 53 rooms are nice, but nothing to write home about.

To the priority question: current residents always have first dibs on rooms in a house. I assume that’s true of Vue 53 too.

@tennismom7 :" I feel like my son has made the wrong college decision. To treat people like lesser members of the community, because they didn’t apply EA or ED, is horrible, and I am very uncomfortable sending my son there now. 2023 applicants be warned! If you don’t apply EA or ED, and you care about your living situation, think twice. You are just a number to them once you have accepted the spot, and you have bottom priority. You will get a nasty dorm room, while the EA/ED kids have first class rooms, all for the same price."

You think your son made the wrong college decision over a dorm? I think you need to put things in perspective. Its just a room, and hopefully he won’t be in but just to sleep. We don’t feel treated less than anyone because we A) applied RD or B) accepted late and especially C) my kids were place in I-House. It was our choice to do so understanding how things would fall in the dorm application process and YES, those who know they want to go to UCHI and commit immediately SHOULD get priority, thats what you call PERKS. Who cares, you live where you live, even my kids know that. The student will make their college experience their own regardless where they are on campus. Whats so uncomfortable about I-House? Have you seen I-House? A nasty dorm room? They look really nice. Its the only House with a library, printing facilities, its right by Lake Michigan and there is so much history there. I think I House has a lot of charm to it.

FYI there were EA/ED kids placed in I-House, Stoney Island, etc. There is no second hand placement and your comment is offensive. I hope your son does not adopt your outlook and/or attitude, it will not suit him well in his next life adventure.

Whoa!

I am a firm believer in the house culture of the old dorms, and in looking on the bright side of stuff like this, but venting is a normal reaction to news people aren’t thrilled with.

Let’s not make this personal.

@DunBoyer - but Vue53 is apartment living. There are plenty of ghosts even in the most vibrant houses. How can dorm living top apartment living for those types if the latter is actually CHEAPER? I’m surprised they need the incentive of a $1500 discount. Of course, perhaps people prefer moving off campus with specific friends and the Vue53 option comes with no guarantee you’d be over there with anyone you know?

In another thread, JBStillFlying mentioned a hypothetical discount for I-House and Stony. The red-headed stepchildren are each 0.7 miles from the nearest dining hall - ouch, especially in winter! Since they incentivize upperclassmen to move to Vue53, seems reasonable to offer a similar option for I-House and Stony.

@ TennisMom7 - I agree that charging freshman the same price for uncomparable rooms is unjustified.

I cannot deny International House is a lovely building rich in history, just wish it was a few blocks west.

@tennismom7 - my son was ED1, paid deposit the day he was accepted and didn’t not get his preference of a single…and I have heard several kids received singles who paid after and kids that requested doubles. So, it doesn’t seem to matter when you paid the deposit.

Housing blew it on several occasions as far as I can see. I understand your frustrations. I don’t see how putting first year students so far off campus is helpful to them…I also do not see how over-enrolling a second year in a row is helpful to anyone.

@ caymusjordan - I second that!
Makes sense that RD and late deposits would get bad news, but it really does seem that something besides over-enrollment went amuck for the unhappy EDs.