<p>Last comment before thread dies:
At Yale and Columbia - and elsewhere - U of Chicago is not considered a safety and is held in high esteem. I think students should stop using acceptance rates as a sure-fire way of choosing so-called safeties. You may end up with no college decal for your parent's SUV.</p>
<p>Not to dis Chicago at all, but the map linked below explains graphically why people have concerns about the University's neighborhood:</p>
<p> <a href="http://www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/su/maps/neighborhoodtypescity2000.html">http://www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/su/maps/neighborhoodtypescity2000.html</a> </p>
<p>Hint: Red and pink are urban/affluent, dark blue is urban/very poor. The island of red and pink on the south side surrounded by dark blue -- that's Hyde Park/Kenwood. The immediate neighborhood is lovely and charming, but you're never far from some very challenged neighborhoods.</p>
<p>We avoided the school when making suggestions to son because he is a distance runner and we know he would end up running in the dangerous areas, not just the lakeshore. If I knew he'd stay on campus I'd have recommended it as a match/reach school for top students.</p>
<p>wis75- S was recruited by Chicago for running and I became comfortable that there were lots of safe places to run- including long runs. I went to law school there and actually BEGAN my running career with a wrong turn into an unsafe area. Maybe that was the start of my speedwork!</p>
<p>Stop giving such serious well thought out responses to an obvious troll. Save your time guys...</p>
<p>U Chicago is one of those LAC's which is more selected than it is selective. But, it has one characteristic which the majority of LAC's do not have -- it is urban and in a really really big city. I would tend to believe that U CHicago would become more selective than selected if urban dwelling increasingly alllures undergraduate students.</p>
<p>And, to anyone thinking about applying to U Chicago as a safety, I say have fun with their infamous Uncommon Application. It takes more time and definately a great deal of thought. It is no cake walk.</p>
<p>The map link points to some badly outdated data. Things north of the campus have changed dramatically since the 2000 census. I can tell you from direct observation that the area north of Hyde Park is filling with 500,000+ townhouses. Low income folks? Hardly.</p>
<p>So for all of you who continue to talk about the bad surrounding neighborhoods, all you are doing is betraying your ignorance. But go ahead. The U of C has enough applicants already. It does not need those that won't even check out the area and decide for themselves.</p>
<p>Father/Boarder, I'm not sure why you characterize U of C as an LAC? It is a major research Uni, with a strong liberal arts core.</p>
<p>Newmassdad: I think if you look carefully you'll see that "the area north of campus" (i.e., the northwestern part of Hyde Park, and Kenwood) is pretty well reflected in the map. The main "campus" area centers on the pink tract on the map; there's a lot of red north and east of it (including, since the map deals in census tracts and not in specific blocks, a lot of areas where students would not feel particularly comfortable).</p>
<p>I really felt sad when DS chose a school other than the U of Chicago. I think he would have had a great time, and the son of a friend seems to love it. If anything, I feel like the school is a better fit for S2, but I think he wants to stay on the east coast. </p>
<p>As far as the area goes, I was more concerned about Columbia, but now I think that that would have been O.K. I feel sure that both kids will end up in fairly urban areas, so they might as well learn to deal with city living while in college.</p>
<p>Newmassdad, my D goes to Chicago; I have spent a lot of time there. I am (and she is) very enthusiastic about the university. It is a great place. And, as I said, Hyde Park is lovely. But if you are not comfortable living and working at a great university in a great city that happens to be near some very poor neighborhoods, then you might as well know what the situation is upfront. </p>
<p>(Columbia, by the way, is nowhere near as impacted by poverty as Chicago. It is towards the northern end of an near-unbroken swath of affluence that extends all the way down past Greenwich Village. You can essentially walk the length of Broadway comfortably heading south, and you can get on the subway on campus. At Chicago, you visit the un-chichi neighborhoods on your way to the El.)</p>
<p>Even in the 1980s (crack epidemic heyday) when NYC was considerably less savory I felt the Columbia neighborhood was pretty safe. I lived right on the edge of Morningside Park and you'd occasionally here pops which you hoped were firecrackers, but might have been guns. The only time I ever felt weird was when I had to pick up a package from the 125th St. post office. Not so much because it seemed dangerous, but because the neighborhood was so segregated that I felt very out of place.</p>
<p>JHS,</p>
<p>You don't get it. The map is out of date. The projects north and northwest of Hyde Park/Kenwood are gone. They are rebuilding large tracts of land with mixed income new housing. </p>
<p>I can understand why you may not have seen it. Many folks have not. But I've bicycled through there many a time. It is really interesting to see the changes week to week.</p>
<p>Your el comment is true, because the tough neighborhoods that remain are southwest of Hyde Park. But your comment is in itself telling: "un-chichi". Maybe you are one of those folks that confuses a neighborhood of color with lack of safety? Just because a neighborhood does not have a Starbucks on every corner does not mean you will be shot. Indeed, there are unsafe areas much closer to U of C along Drexel, but you would not know it from the outward appearance. </p>
<p>No, to get a real feel for some of these areas you must get out and walk a bit and talk to folks. I've done that. Have you?</p>
<p>"for those with lower stats...."</p>
<p>A 3.4 UW we know, but with very good SAT's, was rejected this last round, & it was definitely her "style" of U. Wasn't even W/listed, so it certainly wasn't a safety for her, was it?</p>
<p>But the more imp. point (speaking of the mention of <em>staying</em> in such an environment) is that someone with a "lower" GPA might have difficulty keeping up with the workload at Chicago, if that h.s.GPA was similarly the result of having to manage both volume & level simultaneously. (Student was from a h.s. with a very challenging curriculum & quite high standards.) Thus, unlike the OP, I would actually not recommend that a mid-level student apply to Chicago with the expectation that it would be safety for admission OR safety for enrollment.</p>
<p>I last drove the area north of Hyde Park a couple of weeks ago. The norm is indeed $500,000 plus townhouses as newmassdad says, nothing short of unbelievable for those of us who roamed those streets just 10 years ago.</p>
<p>I shivered a little bit while reading this…</p>
<p>How on earth could UChicago’s acceptance rate drop from 38% to 7% in just 8 years?</p>
<p>Please use old threads for information only, do not post and revive them.</p>