The best place to get work done is the Regenstein Library, although it's not the prettiest place in the world. The Reg, as it's called, is also a good place to study because it offers everything you'll need to pull an all-nighter in one place. There's a recently opened cafe, which means you won't have to trudge out into the cold to get your coffee. A great way to study at the reg is to grab a study room with some of your friends! It also has carrels that are quite private if you need to get serious studying done. There is also a computer lab in the basement, and the first floor has tons of brand new, beautiful computers for student use.

Common stereotype: Nerds, hipsters, socially awkward True on the most part. There are a few fratty/sorority types, but the stereotype holds true in most cases.

UChicago has a very defined stereotype. We even put it on our T-shirts: Where Fun Goes To Die. According to the stereotype, we're boring, smelly, neurotic nerds who never do anything but study. Also, we talk about Marx and Plato for fun. Also, we're weird. There is some truth to the stereotype, of course. They're not kidding about the academic rigor, I promise. You will be stressed. You will be utterly miserable at times. You will turn down invitations because you have two hundred pages of Plato to read before the next morning and two papers to write over the weekend. And the kind of kids who are drawn to the sort of school that UChicago is are at least a little bit nerdy. Some are more overt about it, but many aren't. You can have the typical college experience at UChicago -- if that's what you want. There are parties in dorms, in frats, at apartments. But it's equally easy to completely avoid parties, if your idea of fun is more along the lines of watching bad movies with your friends or having arguments about philosophy until three in the morning. Fun doesn't die -- it just takes different forms.

Students here are pretty liberal. A lot of kids are pretty wealthy, but not the majority as depicted by the public. Most people are pretty friendly and relatively social in nature. A lot of students are international and from far away, while another good percentage are from the suburbs of Chicago. Students are very serious about academics, which takes away from some of their interests in other things such as sports. However, most of the students I would say are pretty well-rounded.

MUNUC, ChoMUN, The Maroon, Phoenix Fund, Women In Business, Mock Trial. Student Government, University Theatre, Rhythm and Jews, Chicago Mens A Capella, Doc Films. UBallet, Council on University Programming (COUP)

Clubs/organizations: I personally am not overly involved in student clubs on campus (We call them "RSOs" for Registered Student Organizations) but this mainly has to do with my personality type. (Not especially a "joiner".) However, I still feel very involved with campus, because most campus events are open to everyone and organizations are always welcoming new members. Especially popular groups on campus are University Theater, Women in Business, Peer Health Exchange, Model UN, just to name a few. (THERE ARE A TON.) This is one of the things I love about Chicago, if you want to join a club, they are always there, but there is no pressure if they are not really your thing. Dorm Life: Dorms sort of develop their own personalities. The college is divided into houses...your house (think Harry Potter...) consists of the people you live and eat with. You can be as involved or uninvolved with house activities as you want. We have house tables in the dining halls so you almost never have to sit alone. Your house sponsors trips and activities such as going out to dinner, going to see shows, and movie nights, so if you are kind of shy at making your friends on your own this is a good way to get to know people. It depends on the night as to whether or not doors are open or closed or if people are being rowdy or quiet. (Most of the time pretty quiet...) Everyone feels very safe leaving their doors unlocked, and it is not unusual to have a random techno-music study break in the hall at 2:00 in the morning. Dating/Social Scene: I think that the dating is pretty typical of any college campus. There are people who date exclusively, there are people who hook up casually, there are people that are seemingly asexual. People party Friday and Saturday nights (this is probably my biggest complaint about the school....It would be nice to have the option of going out more than one or two nights a week, but oh well) Parties are usually held at the frat houses or apartments around campus...word generally travels by mouth. Most of the frats charge a $5 cover to cover alcohol costs, which I found unusual, but apparently it is to make up for the low dues of being a member here. I know a lot of people involved in Greek life, though I think that is the nature of being someone who likes to go out a fair amount, because officially only somewhere around 10% of the student body is affiliated. I am not personally, but my best friend is, and they are generally very welcoming at the parties. When we go off campus pretty much we eat, eat, eat. There is SO much good food in Chicago and so many diverse neighborhoods. The dining halls close at 2:30 on Saturdays, so we usually use that as a day to go out and explore the city and have dinner. We also hit up museums and shows....though it takes at least an hour to get anywhere on public transportation so sometimes laziness gets the best of us. Overall, the social life is what you want it to be, but there is no way to get around how much studying is necessary at this school. That being said, I have found some of the best friends in the world here, so even when I'm in the library in the middle of the night working on a terrible paper it is hard to be miserable.

Your closest friends will be your housemates. The system is built, it seems, to force interaction between the stereotypical socially reclusive Chicago students, but it works to form close friendships and make the medium sized university feel small. I love that I can walk down the hall to my house lounge and always find a friend to procrastinate with or go to the dining hall by myself and always find someone at the house table to have a conversation with. Greek life is much bigger than I thought before I came here, but is not at all dominent. I'd say the majority of people I know went to frat parties first week and only return when there's nothing better to do. Apartment parties are a common weekend activity if you know upperclassmen. There's always a million things happening Friday and Saturday nights, though two frats host events every Wednesday and Thursday, respectively, as well. For non-drinkers, there's always a show or a concert or some sort of activity going on. I'd say I know more people who drink then who don't drink, but there is never any pressure to drink or a feeling that one won't have fun if one doesn't drink.

The dorm system is organized into "houses," with whom you celebrate house traditions, play intramural sports, etc. Most people get pretty into them, since they're done with the people you live with. Outside of just dormmates, there are plenty of campus clubs (complete with quirky names) and events; the occasional concert in Mandel Hall is always popular. Fraternity and apartment parties can always be found on the weekends and are typically pretty packed, but certainly not every student is partying, so you get to pick and choose.

There are multiple groups on campus and they are separated into different sectors. Multicultural groups are some of the most fun to get involved with and I am involved with PanAsia. Through this group, I have gotten to meet with artists and stars from all over the world and bring them to U.Chicago to celebrate Asian American culture. We have a lot of greek life on campus as well and they host parties, fundraisers and events for the schools. My friends who are in these programs really love it and say that they have met life long friends there. Our fraternity brothers and sorority sisters are not like those at other schools though because they do mingle with other students and meet the high standard that our school sets for academics. Pre-professional programs are also very common in different kinds of jobs. Finance, consulting, marketing, medicine and another progressional all have groups on campus that give relevant experience to our major since we are a liberal arts school. I am involved with one called Eckhart Consulting and I have gotten to do consulting work for a number of different clients in the city of Chicago. We also just have a bunch of different organizations such as MUN, Mock Trial, Debate, and Student Government. We also have many clubs started that are for entrepreneurship and for those interest in sports. Bascialy, there are a million things to do on campus and when you are not participating in clubs, you can do other things. On a typical Saturday night, there are parties where you can go drink and be social. But for those who don't want to drink or want to party in a different setting, there are other things. We have Doc, which provides cheap movie screenings of recent movies every weekend and people go out to dinner in all kinds of places such as Chinatown or downtown. We can go shopping or just hang out with friends at people's apartments. People go to the Chicago Theater for shows and on weekends, our school hosts large events such as a Spring Carnival, concerts with Wale and sports games. You name it, you can do it at U.Chicago.

There is no typical student at UChicago. The campus is very diverse racially with very large numbers of South and East Asians. The diversity also extends to socio-economics because of the university's commitment to generous financial aid. Like most campuses, I would say that most students are religiously apathetic but there are many religious communities well represented on campus. Apathy also extends to the political area and those who are active are part of the UC Democrats, one of the largest organizations on campus. The student that would feel out of place at this school would be the person looking for D1 sports and D1 pride. That is definitely not the case on campus, and many students don't even know that we have sports teams. Students here tend to be very intellectual but not at all prude about their intelligence. Everyone here is smart in their own way and it really adds to the diversity of campus.

some racism, some cliques were formed that seemed to not allow everybody.

What I love about the University of Chicago is that it's okay to get enthusiastic about the things that were uncool in high school. This is not to say that all of my friends share my enthusiasm for 19th century British social customs or particularly tech-savvy stage lighting equipment, but I've never felt dismissed for being interested in those things. Plus, more often than not, the person you're talking to is equally interested in some related dorky thing.

The social life, much-maligned, is far more decent than people make it out to be. If hitting a keg and dancing until 3 to blasting music is your thing, the frats provide that nearly every weekend. At the same time, you might very well end up in the library on a Saturday night because of work; if that's a problem, grow up.

Far less so than I expected, actually. Tons of people who simply want to get a high GPA and go to law/med/business school. There are also a ton of nerds, but there is an active party scene with drinking, frats, etc. It's definitely not on the level of a state school, but it's not like campus is dead on weekends.

As far as a stereotype goes, yes.

I love and hate the quarter system. If you are stuck with a class you hate, you only have to put up with it for ten weeks. On the other hand, the curriculum is very intense because we learn in ten weeks what most people learn in fifteen weeks. It would be nice to have a college town, but the city is only fifteen minutes away. I wish I could go into the city more, but I do make it a priority to get off campus at least once a week for a break. I don't mind the quarter system but I would change our start date. Instead of beginning school at the end of September, I'd rather we begin at the end of August. I almost transferred at the end of my freshmen year, and I'm glad I stayed. I've made excellent friends, and I love my activities.

You should be prepared for students to choose homework over everything else.

I am a member of the Organization of Black Students and it is a popular cultural student organization on campus since they have a large presence on campus through staying very active and putting on many events throughout the year. In the dorms where there are a lot of freshmen, students tend to leave their doors open. Athletic events aren't too popular on campus, even Homecoming doesn't seem to attract the largest crowd. I would say guest speakers are more popular. OBS brought political activist Angela Davis to campus for their annual lecture and the room was full past maximum occupancy. I personally wouldn't date anyone on campus, but I do see a few couples sprinkled about. My friends and I usually joke about the lack of options on campus and say that people are together because they can't find anyone else. We tend to date people off campus. I met my closest friends during the orientation week, the week before school started freshman year. If I'm awake at 2 am I'm doing work either for school, an organization, or applying to a job or some other opportunity. There are parties on campus every weekend and during the week there's an event called Bar Night that is held at one fraternity. Last weekend I went to a club downtown and I went to a party on campus. On a Saturday night on campus you can talk to friends, watch movies, do homework, sleep early! Off campus I go to parties, clubs, my internship, movies, eat.

UChicago is totally unique, as a medium-sized liberal arts college situated in one of the world's premier research universities. As if that weren't enough, it's situated (though not ideally located, in rather boring Hyde Park) in a great city with plentiful cultural activities, beautiful parks, and adequate public transportation. The most striking thing about this place, and I'd imagine any comparable school, is that the people--professors and students alike--are usually damn smart, and this sometimes shows itself most in the contexts you'd least expect. Students complain about lack of social life and the rigor of classes, but either of these is totally manageable and ultimately worthwhile if one is even the least bit proactive. Complaining and self-deprecation are among the top extracurriculars, but it's often tongue-in-cheek.

I generally feel that UofC students are quite ignorant, and disinterested in some issues and events. I have attended plenty of events in which the turnout was surprisingly disappointing. My international student peers have skewed priorities of only participating in academics, since it is truly rigorous here; and this is really disturbing. However, I do venerate the many community outreach programs that students organize here, like tutoring or volunteering in non-profit organizations. Also, I realize that a majority of the students here are financially well-off, based on their schooling backgrounds, luxurious belongings, and looking at my roommate who is nothing like the American who works three jobs to put herself through college.