<p>Hello,
I am an admitted student at UofC and I am still trying to decide where I want to go....
I heard that the surrounding area of UofC is unsafe, however when I visited it didn't feel unsafe. Is it safe? I am a well built male... and don't see it as a likely problem, but my Mom is sure its a gang infested slum outside the campus. What is the surrounding area like? Can you (safely) get to downtown chicago and back? Do most people stay on campus? My Mom is also sure no one goes out and does anything because the university is so hard.... not my impression...
Any advice is appreciated,
Thanks</p>
<p>Well, there are many threads and posts addressing this same subject, but tell your mom that my D, a College fourth year, has lived off campus for the last year and 1/2, and travels via bus, bike and train into the city all the time. She explores all areas, and really enjoys the diversity of Chicago and its many neighborhoods. Chicago, including Hyde Park, is a city, so the key is to be aware, but not afraid. As for having enough time to enjoy the city, see the sentence above!</p>
<p>I wouldn’t go into Woodlawn alone at night, but Hyde Park itself is a nice area (The Mayor of Chicago lives in Hyde Park if that is of any consilation). As the poster above said, be aware don’t be afraid. As for your mother, if she actually visits UofC she’ll she for herself that it’s not that bad at all.</p>
<p>Same as runnersmom. Both my kids went there – 7 student/years so far, and counting. They have walked back and forth across Hyde Park alone at 3:00 am without mishap. They have mainly lived off campus. They travel to other parts of the city on public transportation all the time. (When I told a cousin who lives in Chicago and is an ultra-hip young professional where our daughter had taken us for dinner on the last few trips, she said, “Wow. Those are the hottest restaurants in the city! She sure gets around for a college kid.”) They get good grades (although maybe they could be better). They have fun.</p>
<p>In all that time, we have had one wallet stolen (and found, sans cash but with ID etc., 10 minutes later), on a Saturday afternoon, not in Hyde Park.</p>
<p>It IS a city. There are distressed neighborhoods near enough so you could walk there. But Hyde Park itself is far from distressed.</p>
<p>I’d argue that Hyde Park is safer in some ways than a lot of North Side neighborhoods, if only because Hyde Park doesn’t attract tourists, which means it also doesn’t attract tourist-related crime. I’ve experienced much more panhandling and whatnot in Wicker Park, Devon, and the Clark/Division area than I ever have in Hyde Park. </p>
<p>One weird thing about Hyde Park is how crime doesn’t really trickle in from the surrounding neighborhoods. I live in BJ, and I always feel really safe walking around BJ and up toward the main part of campus. But just a few blocks away is the 63rd/Cottage Grove green line stop, which is a hotbed of crime. I’m not going to candy-coat this. Someone was shot in the 6200 block of South Cottage Grove just last night, and someone else was shot there about three weeks ago. I’ve been to this area several times without incidence, once after dark, but I always go with a group. You’d think that a buffer zone of three blocks isn’t really sufficient to keep crime away, but it somehow works that way. </p>
<p>What that means is that once you become familiar with the neighborhood, you learn exactly where you should and shouldn’t go alone or at night. And that’s exactly the sort of thing you’ll need to figure out, the sooner the better. I wouldn’t really make my college decision based on this. I’ve found that the benefits of living in Chicago far outweigh the drawbacks. While it’s true that I don’t have to worry about crime in my town in Ohio, and I can even leave doors unlocked with no problems, I’d much rather live in Chicago where there are restaurants, museums, and interesting people.</p>
<p>Were you accepted off the waitlist?</p>
<p>At night the campus seems abandoned, like it’s on break, or, like everyone has barricaded themselves in.
Many woman walking around during the day with an intense look of caution and near-fear as they negotiate the streets near campus. Maybe that’s how it is in New York City though.</p>
<p>^ What utter, total crap! Ordinarily, I wouldn’t call a student out on something like this (assuming pollutionconcern is a student, not a ■■■■■). But I’ve been there enough at night and during the day to know that neither statement above has any relation to reality.</p>
<p>I have NEVER seen women walking around streets near UofC during the day looking as pollutionconcern describes “with an intense look of caution and near-fear”. Not in the middle of the quarter, not during breaks, not during the summer. Not in the 70’s, 80’s or 00’s. (I don’t think I was on campus during the 90’s.) That statement could only be construed as true if you take Cottage Grove/63rd as being 'as street near UofC – but it’s not.</p>
<p>At night - the truth is that plenty of women in every U.S. urban setting that I have lived in are fearful of being out alone at night. The reasons for this are interesting, and clearly go beyond crime statistics, which sometimes warrant such fears and sometimes do not. Hyde Park is no different from other U.S. cities in regards to this.</p>
<p>Good grief. Not how it is in New York City, not how it is at U of C. This is how bad rumors get going.</p>
<p>OP, I had similar concerns before going to Chicago a few years ago, and they proved to be almost entirely unfounded. With the caveat that students in all urban settings need to take basic precautions late at night, I’d say that UChicago is no less safe than any number of urban universities. While some of the neighboring communities are quite tough, this has virtually no effect on the student experience (other than a heightened awareness of crime south and west of campus, where students generally have no reason to travel anyway). Getting downtown is both easy and safe, both by bus (#6) and Metra.</p>
<p>In my short time there:
–I met a man who was mugged within a block of campus on his bike at night.
–I heard of others mugged.
–General discussion is to not go out at night, both on campus, and especially off campus, and especially if you’re a woman.
–I’ve seen and heard about people arranging their days around the coming night, to make sure they got home by night, and finished everything by night.
–General word is to never go south of the law school area, both during the day and at night.
–The park next to the Museum Of Science and Industry is very beautiful, but in the past it was saturated with drug dealers and sex trade individuals, and using the park in off-times (morning, afternoon, late evening) was considered dangerous. It still is a place to be cautious, and people are cautious, looking around themselves often, watching for concerns…a state of heightened alert, for both men and woman. Same for the path along the lake that goes up McCormick Place and beyond. As for evening walks in the beautiful lights in the park…essentially not done, both there and along the lake.
–Evening walks on the path are considered ill advised…anytime after dark (4pm in the winter, later in the summer), for both men and woman.
–Going west of the campus by many blocks, and west in Hyde Park, is generally very tense and potentially dangerous.
–Best time to run outside is 4pm-6pm (or earlier in the winter) and when there are many people.
–The distance to downtown you mentioned – driving is ok of course on Lake Shore Drive, and biking the lake path to downtown is ok in daylight and when people are out. Much of the community between the campus and downtown is very rough, including many dangerous housing projects, many of which may now be gone. This area is TOTALLY UNLIKE the communities that stretch north of downtown, which are generally safe (Old Town, to Lincoln Park, to Wrigleyville, to Rogers Park, to Evanston)</p>
<p>In contrast, living in Lincoln Park is generally very pleasant, the zoo and lake shore park areas are heavily used at all times of the day, and there is a MUCH more happy demeanor among students and men and women. Lots of tourists often are there also, totally UNLIKE the Hyde Park lake path, which is very narrow (just a sliver next to 10 lanes of Lake Shore Drive traffic).</p>
<p>Many students and non-students in Hyde Park frequently worry whether they are in the right block area, if they’ve gone to far by a block or two, etc, if they should ride their bike here or there, etc.</p>
<p>pollutionconcern, if you are sincere, I can only say that your stated experience is highly atypical. I do not personally know a single person at UChicago who has described safety concerns that come close to approaching the seriousness of those implied in your post. I come from a very small town (pop < 1000) and am generally wary of urban environments, but was comfortable at UChicago - as were all the classmates with whom I discussed such issues.</p>
<p>Simple fact – the area immediately south of the law school (by some blocks) is considered very bad, to be avoided day and night by both men and women, when on foot or biking. Similar for areas west of the medical school and hospitals, by just a few blocks.</p>
<p>The original poster asks about surrounding areas. I’m trying to help by telling the person these are highly ill advised areas. The campus and surrounding area ought not be considered benign, and not anything like Lincoln Park, Old Town, etc, to the north of Chicago by a few miles. </p>
<p>I knew a man with his wife and baby on S. Hyde Park Blvd near the lake and in a nice condo complex with many UC people and they heard gun shots many times, and knew very well of the dangers. I’d consider downtown Chicago to be greatly more safe, and all the areas lining the lake north of Chicago greatly more safe.</p>
<p>The same Lincoln Park area that’s had some half-dozen muggings/assaults within the past week? The truth is that Hyde Park is a relatively quiet area crime-wise- indeed, if you look at the actual crime statistics, it is one of the lower crime areas of the city. This is what matters for the UChicago student, not what is happening in adjacent neighborhoods.</p>
<p>I would encourage the OP to investigate the crime statistics for various neighborhoods in Chicago, particularly Hyde Park. No, it is not Mayberry, but it is a very ‘liveable’ urban environment. Why else do you think that two-thirds of the UChicago faculty (who are very well paid and can afford to live elsewhere) choose to live in Hyde Park?</p>
<p>Do you have the news articles for this?
“The same Lincoln Park area that’s had some half-dozen muggings/assaults within the past week?”
“some half dozen” in one week? Usually, when making a specific claim like this, of 6 recent criminal events, in the last week, you’d want to provide some news articles, right?</p>
<p>I knew many people who lived in Lincoln Park, and I’ve spent a lot of time in all areas, and it is extremely opposed to Hyde Park in terms of (1) overall friendliness, (2) street and park use by many more people and in a much more relaxed way, at all times during the day, and even well into the evening, (3) safety, etc.</p>
<p>Of the many people I know who lived there for many years, there was no notion of Lincoln Park being generally unsafe, and there is CLEAR notion that Hyde Park is very very different.</p>
<p>Hyde Park is generally a disgusting, area, and sad such a nice school is there. That is, for people who like to spent time outside, on campus and in the community and surrounding area. To bad the UC isn’t in Lincoln Park! Would be amazing! Or Rogers Park, or Wrigleyville, or Evanston, or the North Shore, or even downtown!</p>
<p>Eww, and have UChicago’s campus be swallowed up by the city? Never. A big draw for me was that the University had its own little community, with all its quirks and drawbacks, instead of being just another addendum to a city centre.</p>
<p>pollutioncontrol is right that most students don’t spend a lot of time south of the law school and the new South Campus dorm (although some do, and there are lots of grad students living cheaply in the next few blocks), or west of campus. West is particularly a non-issue, since the campus is bounded on the west by a park that’s several blocks wide, and on the other side things are very run-down and depopulated, so there’s essentially no reason to go there except to pass through it on the bus on the way to an El stop. Pollutioncontrol is also right that Lincoln Park is an even richer, nicer-seeming neighborhood, although it certainly has the same kind of minor crime issues Hyde Park does, too.</p>
<p>As for the rest of the post . . . it sounds like either pollutioncontrol’s time was spent on campus several decades ago, or he or she spent the “little” time there hanging out with a group of extraordinarily timid and immature first-year students. No Chicago student I know, male or female, has avoided walking around after dark or going downtown, or obsessed about where and where not to go. Hyde Park is so not disgusting it’s laughable – it’s full of well-groomed, million-dollar homes. The streets are not filled with drug dealers and prostitutes – more like former hippies in their Birkenstocks and Secret Service agents watching the South Side White House.</p>
<p>If the University of Chicago were in one of the fancier North Side neighborhoods, it would be . . . Northwestern.</p>
<p>Lincoln Park news, as requested:</p>
<p>[Cops</a> Step Up Patrols in Crime Plagued Lincoln Park | NBC Chicago](<a href=“Cops Step Up Patrols in Crime Plagued Lincoln Park – NBC Chicago”>Cops Step Up Patrols in Crime Plagued Lincoln Park – NBC Chicago)</p>
<p>to the OP … my daughter and I visited UofC a couple years ago … she liked the school and I LOVED the school … one of her complaints was the neighborhood right off campus was too residential and too tame; she wanted more hustle and bussle right off campus. </p>
<p>Is a tough neighborhood of Chicago pretty close … it sure is … and virtually any city neighborhood in any city is pretty close to a rough neighborhood. As a Dad of a daughter I had absolutely no issue with her going to UofC … a little city smarts and she would be fine.</p>