What is UChicago really like?

<p>A grace note on workload: you really do notice the crunch of the quarter system. The workload isn’t bad except during the middle of the term (when you’re bogged down with midterms/major assignments coming due) and the end (close to finals week)–but “the middle of the term” probably covers at least weeks 4-7, and may even extend beyond that. You finish one midterm/paper/assignment, and at most you will have a couple days before the next deadline begins to creep up on you, which is why having good time management is so important.</p>

<p>Dorm culture:

  • Is overblown. Certain types will flock to certain dorms, but every dorm will have people who don’t fit the stereotypes, or who fit them imperfectly. Once you are here and get to know the students as real people, you will realize this. (That said, there is some truth to the stereotypes. There usually is.)
  • BJ–uh, okay, I should say that despite living there I am a terrible person to tell you about BJ, but you will find that house culture is stronger than dorm culture, here. (That’s partly by design–you can’t get from one house in BJ to another without going outside into the courtyard.) And house culture changes a lot year to year, because every year half of the house leaves and entirely new people come in. But the constant is that most (not all, but most) people in my house have their primary friendships within the house, even the ones who kind of hate the house. In that sense, we’re fairly close-knit.</p>

<p>I’m from Max P. It’s the pink, yellow and purple dorms. Cultural-wise, I’d say its a mix. You get a wide variety of different people with different interests. It depends on the “house” that you’re in, but my house is pretty tight-knit. </p>

<p>Just a quick explanation of the housing system in general: Each dorm will have a number of houses in it, sort of like Harry Potter (if you pictured hogwarts as 1 dorm, it would have 4 different houses). I really like the way the university set up the housing system. A lot of my friends that go to other schools don’t even get the chance to meet the people that live next door. You can do a lot of activities with your house: eat together at a house table, movie nights, snowball fights, dinner trips, service trips, cooking circles, knitting circles, video game nights, intramural sports, trips to events on campus shows or speakers, study break (which is free food), there is a lot of freedom for anyone to set up a house event for pretty much whatever you want. There are also dorm wide events (ex. a trip to see Wicked, Les Mis, the Opera, ski trip).</p>

<p>Basically, I want to tell you whatever dorm and house you end up in, make a effort to get into house culture. Some people come in with the attitude that they are “too cool” to hang out with their house. But the housing system at uchicago is so different than dorms at other schools. Don’t approach the dorms like a typical college dorm. I didn’t totally know what to expect when I was an entering first-year from the dorm. Through housing, you will be eating with this people, talking with these people, hanging out on trips, even studying with them late at night in the lounge. A lot of house bonding! You don’t want to be the awkward guy who never shows up at house events and no one knows in the house. The house offers you so much, so take advantage of it. The more you isolate yourself, the more you will miss out! That being said, it doesn’t mean you don’t socialize from people from other houses and dorms. That’s important too!</p>

<p>On to Max:
Pros:
-It’s really nice because it’s close to a lot of the things on campus: the Reg (one of the library, good place to study), Crerar (the science library, also a good place to study), Ratner (the gym), Barlett (the dining hall, there are multiple dining halls though, bartlett also has a small convenience store which you can buy with the limited amount money that will be on your ID), Reynolds Club (which has Hutch, sort of like a food court which you can use your ID, reynolds club also has the Mandel hall which shows a lot of the cultural shows on campus, music ensembles, speakers).
-A lot of times, if I forget something from my dorm, and its not such a hassle to go back and get it, some of my friends from farther dorms will spend all day on campus with all of their textbooks and not have a chance to go back to the dorm, keep in mind all 3 dining halls are on campus).
-Close to transportation that will get you to the city (1 bus ride, 1 metra)
-Contains 3 buildings interconnected by a basement
-basement has 2 practice rooms at each building for musicians
-shared private bathrooms (you will share it with your 1 roommate and 2 suitemates)</p>

<p>Cons:
-Kind a far from Harper (which as a awesome study room, you may have classes in here, your advisers will be here, study abroad office, some clubs hold infomational meetings here). It’s actaully not that far. I’m prob spoiled from being so close to everything else. I’d say its middle-far. South campus and BJ are definitely much closer to harper than max. However the farther dorms, Broadview and Blackstone, Breck are much father from harper than max).
-as a first year, you will put into a double with a roommate, and two suitemates (this may be a pro for you, but just small things can get annoying, like changing, if your roommate is messy, loud-ish when you are trying to study, goes to sleep at a different time, wakes up earlier than you do, has an annoying alarm. Just the small things that can turn into really annoying things when you have midterms or papers you need to get done). At the start singles are for upperclassmen, but if a single opens up you can request to move in.
-bathrooms are only cleaned during winter break, and spring break. this is the con of having a private bathroom, but make sure you keep it clean by setting up a cleaning schedule, unless you can hold out to the break. But I guess a pro is you have a better sense of control over who is using the bathroom
-toliet paper needs to be bought between the 4 of you (another small thing, but you don’t want to be caught up in a toliet paper war when its someone’s turn to by the toliet paper)</p>

<p>Don’t set your heart on one dorm, you don’t want to disappoint yourself it you don’t get into one or another! Each has its pros and cons, and you’ll love whatever house you’re in regardless.</p>

<p>I’m so glad I applied to UChicago now; this is a really awesome thread! Thanks to all who contributed. Just a few questions… are the parties that bad? And do people drink?</p>

<p>No. Out of 5000 students at the University of Chicago, not a single one drinks. We are all ascetics who have devoted our lives to the Path of the Mind, forsaking worldly pleasures.</p>

<p>/deep bow</p>

<p>You can find what you’re looking for relatively easily.</p>

<p>I wish the ability to “Like” things was added to CC, so I could like haavain’s newest comment.</p>

<p>^Like.
10char</p>