<p>No, there's no comparison between the Co-op and B & N (which, BTW, runs the college bookstore across the street). The shelves in the Co-op are floor to ceiling, made of wood (at least some of them) and it exudes literary atmosphere..I know that sounds corny, but we spent a couple of hours wandering in there the first day we were on campus and we return every time we visit.</p>
<p>I would think that your choice of majors as well as the difficulty of your HS experience would have a huge impact on your experience at Chicago. My D is interested in science, english and french at the moment... I would imagine that a physics major would be more demanding than some of the social sciences etc. and that a student who came from a very demanding HS and was used to 6hrs plus homework would have different expectations etc than someone who came from the avg. hs. I also suspect that some kids don't really come with an awareness of the amount of work involved or the desire to spend so much time doing academic work. I imagine that for the right kid its paradise. Comments?</p>
<p>I agree that Chicago is not for everyone, and def. not for those who expect to get by with very little work. </p>
<p>At the same time,6 hours a day on a regular basis seems excessive in High School. That precludes sports, music, and all else.</p>
<p>My D goes to a very good H.S., and has loaded up on every AP and challenging class available. But she certainly has the time for non-academic stuff, ECs and fun, and most nights goes to bed by 10:30 p.m. She puts in extra hours when needed, and on weekends, but I could not pay her to call it Paradise. Not afraid of a challenge, or long hours, but always looking for fun too.</p>
<p>The Seminary Coop is one of the world's great bookstores. Before Amazon, it had as good a selection of academic books, most of which are not textbooks, as nearly anywhere in the world. </p>
<p>If it's open, go to the Oriental Institute (think Indiana Jones) and see the amazing displays of a tiny fraction of the treasures that Indiana and his mentors dug up. </p>
<p>If Court Theater is performing, go there.</p>
<p>Regenstein Library is the most usable of the world's great libraries (the libraries at Harvard & Yale are much more spread out). </p>
<p>Walk on the quads and look at the gargoyles. </p>
<p>Go into Bond Chapel if the door is unlocked. </p>
<p>Walk past Frank Lloyd Wright's Robie House and climb into the Henry Moore Atomic Energy Sculpture on the spot where they split the atom. </p>
<p>Decent pizza at Edwardo's on 57th St., almost next door to the Medici, a good funky cafe/restaurant.</p>
<p>The best restaurant in Hyde Park is the French restaurant in the Coop Plaza at 55th St., excellent food at not outrageous prices.</p>
<p>Downtown there's lots to do and see, including many great restaurants at all price levels. Navy Pier is fun (if touristy) (fireworks one or two nights a week).</p>
<p>On our October visit, we tried the public city bus for $1.75 from the airport right to and from the campus. It went through several neighborhoods, some commercial, some residential, some more prosperous-looking than others. It certainly seemed reliable and safe during the daylight hours we used it. Just ask at the airport; it was a little difficult to interpret the directional signs to the bus depot. I think the trip took about 30 minutes each way, perhaps a bit longer.</p>
<p>The bus from Midway Airport goes through a few miles of very bad neighborhoods, though it's pretty safe during the day. I usually take a cab, though there may still be a shuttle that leaves from International House on campus (don't know, haven't taken it for years). I definitely wouldn't take the 55th St. bus from Midway Airport at night.</p>
<p>Regarding the bus from Midway:</p>
<p>If it is any help, an adcom suggested that bus to us last year in planning for my D's admitted student day visit. I strongly suspect that, if there were a safety problem on that bus, he would have suggested an alternative. (nothing worse than losing a prospect to a safety issue..)</p>
<p>Of course, her bus ride was in daytime. </p>
<p>Anyway, that bus does go through some neighborhoods that have fallen on hard times, but the places that were truly crime dens, like the Robert Taylor homes (high rise projects on the edge of the expressway) are long gone.</p>
<p>Also note that there are TWO routes on 55th. One is an express. The schedule is here: <a href="http://www.transitchicago.com/maps/bus/bus/X55.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://www.transitchicago.com/maps/bus/bus/X55.pdf</a></p>
<p>Note that Chicago's CTA has a pretty good website: <a href="http://www.transitchicago.com/%5B/url%5D">http://www.transitchicago.com/</a></p>
<p>NewMassDad:</p>
<p>According to the Chicago Housing Authority's website, "About 1,800 residents currently live in Robert Taylor," but all the remaining buildings are scheduled to be closed by 2005, so the website probably hasn't been recently updated. Accordingly, it wouldn't be right to say that the Robert Taylor Homes, which are/were just north of the bus route, are "long gone," as you said. It would be fairer to say that the Robert Taylor Homes were recently closed or will probably be closed by the time new students would matriculate.</p>
<p>If you are worried, just sit close to the driver on the train/bus.</p>
<p>MerryXmas,</p>
<p>Come on. Have you BEEN on 55th recently? Can you find any trace of the Robert Taylor homes nearby? </p>
<p>For your information, the CHA website also says, "Most of these high-rises have been demolished, and the remaining buildings will be closed by 2005." Guess what year it is??</p>
<p>I guess someone who was not in the area 5, 10, 20 years ago has no idea what changes have taken place.</p>
<p>My S is a second year at U of C and loves it. He works hard, yes, but it's no worse than high school (challenging private ) where 3 hours of hw a night was usual. Very intense during reading week and exams but that's the point, isn't it? He's explored a lot of the city and has a great group of friends. The kids I have met there seem bright, down-to-earth, serious about their educations, and full of good (and often extremely silly) humor. I love to walk around Hyde Park and when we went for Thanksgiving we went to the Art Museum, Millenium Park, and out to some of the restaurants in Hyde Park and downtown that the students like. The campus has a very international flavor -- ds had spent 11th grade in Europe but that doesn't make him stand out at U of C. My only complaint about Chicago is the quarter system -- luckily his twin brother is at our state U which is also on quarters so they can hang out together (in fact, that's where they're partying right now) but it means that they are seldom home when their friends are -- they start very late in the fall and have very short winter and spring breaks.</p>
<p>The University of Chicago is a great school academically. As far as its social life and other characteristics, you should visit the school and judge that for yourself. You shouldn't let others discourage you from applying anywhere unless you can verify the info that they are giving you.</p>
<p>I was seriously considering Chicago until I visited my cousin there (who was then a senior) last year.</p>
<p>After touring around and seeing the campus, I attempted to sit in on a class, but it was cancelled. So, I attempted to sit in on another class - that class was also cancelled. A bit discouraged, I ended up just roaming around the campus for most of the day looking at the architecture.</p>
<p>In the evening, my cousin and I went to a frat party (it was friday night). While a fun experience, people's reactions when I told them that I was a prospective student were not exactly what I had hoped. Choruses of "you don't want to come here" and "this is where fun comes to die" seemed among the most prevalent bits of advice that current Chicago students could give to me.</p>
<p>On the way home, my cousin told me that they were expecting way more people, but many had decided to go to the library instead. On a friday.</p>
<p>So I didn't apply to Chicago, not because I was worried about the academic experience - In fact, I don't think you can get a better academic experience at any other school - but because for me, college has great value as a holistic experience, and that includes social and cultural aspects as well. </p>
<p>To me, it seemed as if the intense academics surpressed the other elements of a college experience.</p>
<p>you party seeking rich boys should all just apply to harvard</p>
1 Like
<p>I'll preface my remarks by re-iterating the point many others have made afore me: UChicago is perhaps the most self-selecting college I know of and it presents an honest image of itself (as I judge from the MANY MANY alumni, adcoms, current students I know, and multiple visits).</p>
<p>Vis-a-vis classes: I was wandering the Smart Museum, as I'm going to major in art history, and I saw some Kathe Kollwitz prints on a table in a classroom within the museum. I ooh-ed and aah-ed aloud, from outside the door, and a professor, who had been sitting alone inside, immediately and spontaneously invited me in to see a syllabus, and urged me to PICK UP THE ARTWORK. Right there, on the spot, complete stranger. (Contrasting story: the three professors of Art History I emailed at Harvard did not write back, told me he only spoke to graduate students, referred me to an administrative assistant, respectively). </p>
<p>Vis-a-vis an overnight:I stayed with a good friend of mine, who lives in Hitckcock, from Friday afternoon to Saturday. All of her friends spent the evening differently: some went to an Indian cultural festival with accompanying dinner and stick-dancing, some went to a lecture at the law school that hosted a panel of acclaimed lawyers and philosophers (a three part lecture: fri. night, sat. morning, sat. evening...and kids went to all three!), I too went to the libarary on Friday night (and had a great time, with people who were truly excited to show it to me). My friend is in an improv group on campus, so I went to a performance, which was excellent and packed with people. I also, by the way, went to a party in an upperclassman's apartment, and it was fun, and thankfully, entirely different from high school parties. People chatted, listened to music, some drank and some didn't and no one cared. And it was not just "the nerds" who didn't drink, which I appreciated. Later that evening, a few people made a run to the "BartMart," a convenience store in the Bartlett Dining Hall, for candy etc. To sum: I had an excellent and varied time. The people I met were wonderful--intelligent, hilarious, didn't take themselves too seriously, incredibly welcoming. People made a point of sticking their head in the door of the dorm and welcoming me, urging me to come if I was accepted (I was and I am). In conclusion, I a)second j10cpc5000's opinion, haha b)had a a wonderful time c)encourage you to see for yourself if Chicago is for you, as it is indeed a very individual choice, more so than your average excellent liberal arts school.</p>
<p>What I like about Chicago is the vibe of moral responsibility I am getting from the students there. I am no big fan of nerds but I dislike morally irresponsible people. My friends and I went to an FBLA dance when we where there for state competition but people there turned out to be anything but Future Business Leaders of America. (But because only 20 percent of competitors went, I am guessing the rest arent like them.) Half naked girls were grinding their rears on baggy clothed guys groin, people wearing big afro wigs jumping up and down, people shaking their stuff shamelessly and Ill take you to the candy shop is playing in the background. One of my friends found it repulsive and he is by no means a nerd, he is our schools varsity quarterback and is going to play football for Johns Hopkin University next year. I didnt mind watching the girls dance but I wondered where all the morals of youth had gone. I am a firm believer that being young does not excuse crude and irresponsible behavior and that it is important for a society to have some sort of dignity.</p>
<p>NewMassDad wrote: "the places that were truly crime dens, like the Robert Taylor homes (high rise projects on the edge of the expressway) are long gone."</p>
<p>In response, I pointed out that, though most buildings in the Robert Taylor Homes had been torn down, the Robert Taylor homes were not "long gone." I wrote:</p>
<p>"Accordingly, it wouldn't be right to say that the Robert Taylor Homes, which are/were just north of the bus route, are 'long gone,' as you said. It would be fairer to say that the Robert Taylor Homes were recently closed or will probably be closed by the time new students would matriculate."</p>
<p>Instead of graciously admitting your mistake, you pointedly replied:</p>
<p>"MerryXmas,
Come on. Have you BEEN on 55th recently? Can you find any trace of the Robert Taylor homes nearby? For your information, the CHA website also says, 'Most of these high-rises have been demolished, and the remaining buildings will be closed by 2005.' Guess what year it is?? I guess someone who was not in the area 5, 10, 20 years ago has no idea what changes have taken place."</p>
<p>Dear NewMassDad:</p>
<p>I was on 55th St. near the Robert Taylor Homes last night and tonight actually, since I live on campus. Further, I have lived in Hyde Park for the last 15 years and for 8 years earlier in my life. As I wrote before your outburst, most of the Robert Taylor homes have been torn down, but some are/were still open. I just checked and some of the Robert Taylor Homes are still there, and, judging from all the lighted windows, they are still occupied. There is only one of these high rises still left between 51st and 55th St., but it is still occupied. Just because I tell you something that you don't want to hear is no reason to assume that I haven't been in the neighborhood for years.</p>
<p>I love the University of Chicago more than any other university, yet that is no reason for trying to pretend that it doesn't have problems. Further, those problems are NOT all in the past. Only in the last 5 years have I seen gang symbols written on street signs on my block (in one of the safer parts of Hyde Park). Only in the last 5 years have I seen gang-bangers cruising my block with radios blaring, stopping to urinate on the side of the street. This never happened on my block 10 or 15 years ago. So while things are definititely better than 1980 when one of friends was shot on campus or the early 1990s when 2 youngsters tried to rob my wife and daughter at knifepoint at a kiddie park on 58th St., things are not better in every respect.</p>
<p>Merry,</p>
<p>I guess only a U. Chi/Hyde Park resident would want to parse the meaning of "long gone" "safer" "near" and so forth. These are subjective terms, not absolutes. Why you say "things are not better in every respect." is beyond me, as no one has said it is better in every respect. </p>
<p>I'm not sure I understand why you feel a need to instill negativism on every positive comment about the environment there. Maybe you feel things have not improved? If so, you have a minority opinion, I would suggest.</p>
<p>On balance, I think the neighborhood is indeed safer; it's just not that serious problems are a thing of the past. Further, the quality of the undergrads is much better than it was 10 years ago, though in their drive to get more "well-rounded" students with lots of ECs, Chicago runs the risk of admitting those who might be thought of as "Northwestern light." When my wife attended the college, Chicago was proud that there were NO high school quarterbacks or cheerleaders in the entire class.</p>
<p>But the traditional serious-minded U Chicago types still predominate, and with rising admissions standards, the college students are now smarter than a decade ago (as well as more serious than at HYP; only some of the scientific powerhouses like MIT and CALTECH rival the intellectual atmosphere of Chicago).</p>
<p>"On balance, I think the neighborhood is indeed safer; it's just not that serious problems are a thing of the past. "</p>
<p>Ok. We can agree. I wonder, though, how Hyde Park/U. Chicago risks compare to other urban environments? Take the Boston area, for example. My spouse works at Northeastern University. No one around here perceives Northeastern to be a risky place, yet it borders the toughest area of Boston, Roxbury, and one neighboring residental area where many students live, Mission Hill, has its share of problems.</p>
<p>Who knows? I suspect the safety question is unanswerable.</p>