University of Chicago Top Questions

I personally feel that dorm life is really important as an incoming student. It gives you a solid base that you can come back to after exploring your other options, a friendly face to come home to after a hard day of work, or people to keep you motivated or even stay up with you till sunrise working on their own assignments. I have since moved out of my house, but still hang out with the people that I lived with and keep in regular contact with my resident heads and resident assistant. I had a really great dorm experience, but I also recognize that it does not happen for everyone. The great thing about UC is that you can always find somewhere to live in Hyde Park that is affordable and close to campus.

Dating here gets really serious really fast. Everything people do around here is serious. Frats/sororities are not very important. Lots of people stay in on weekends.

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.

There is no denying that Chicago is a second-rate city. It has a handful of interesting neighborhoods that consist of several blocks of interesting shops and restaurants, and then become suburban-looking residential areas. Besides China town, most of the interesting neighborhoods are not easily accessible. U. Chicago hardly seems like an urban school when you have to take a combination of at least one subway and one bus to get to wherever you're going. Public transportation is inconvenient and runs less frequently than you'd expect. During winter quarter it seems that the only people that get out regularly have cars. As if the inaccessibility of Chicago itself wasn't enough, from around November through April the weather is unbearable. It actually ends up hampering your social life: it becomes so cold that one would rather stay in the dorm than wait in sub-zero, windy weather on a street corner for a bus, and then wait another 10 minutes on a frozen subway platform. The incredibly long winter drains everyone, makes the atmosphere of the entire school drab and lifeless, and makes you dread getting up in the morning and going outside.

For a more visceral image, I've been here 5 weeks and i've already been mugged once. A good number of my friends have as well at some point in their time here. be careful if you live off campus, invest in a bike (a good bike). And nearly 100{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} muggings occur after 10:00pm, though it gets dark early here. but don't get the wrong idea. I love this neighborhood. I haven't even really seen the northside and I already love chicago based on Hyde park. They will feed you some carefully-worded crap about living in an ethnic neighborhood and the impression many Southhampton-types might get is to wall themselves up in their dorms. Don't even think about it! This is the best city in the country, and i've seen them all, lived in new york. explore, and this neighborhood actually has alot to offer, it is real america.

In my dorm, doors are always open, and its very social. There are always great guest speakers. My first quarter I met Richard Dawkins and James Watson (right before the whole "racism" thing). Its awesome. As far as cultural events, there's always something. I've been to an outrageous number of concerts in the city and they bring people to campus too. This year we've had Demetri Martin and Ben Folds at campus. Chicago has great theater, but there is also Court Theater, consistently called one of the best theater groups in the country, literally 40 feet from my dorm. It's amazing. Fraternities and sororities aren't that important really. People party there, but not many pledge.

The arts are more prevalent than sports, although those do have their loyal following. The dating scene is awkward but navigable. 2 am on a Tuesday night is usually riding a sugar high trying to get a problem set done (bar night is on Wednesday though, so then you can do the problem set drunk). I met very few friends in housing; I had to find friends through dancing and getting a job. School-wide traditions are usually house-based, like the annual huge and ridiculous scavenger hunt, so those of us who don't live in housing -- a large, generally happier and better-adjusted percentage -- participate exponentially less. We don't really mind. Personal traditions and those you make with your friends tend to be more important than the big game or formal dance. Frats are frats are frats, and you can take them or leave them as you see fit. My weekends usually involve tons of running around: rehearsal to a friend's performance to homework to a sci-fi themed costume party to work to vegan food on the North Side, maybe a show downtown. Chicago is an early-to-bed city, so generally the rule of thumb is to utilize Saturday afternoon and then get drunk once all the stores close. (Be sure to stock up on snacks beforehand: very few late-open places to satisfy latenight munchies.)

When we do party, it's a sad, 'drowning our sorrows' party. Not a joke!

My social life has been greatly influenced by the fact that I lived for two years in Snell-Hitchcock (a famously tightly-knit dorm) and participate in University Theater (a famously incestuous student group). I actually lived in Snell which is supposed to be full of super-introverted study addicts. In fact, Snell people leave their doors open and hang out all the time--it's just that they only do it with each other in a fairly tightly-knit way. UT is a similar phenomenon. As a number of us wear three and four hats at this organization we have limited time to meet, hang out with or even date people who aren't in organization. On one level, we're one big family. On another, it feels a little socially limiting at times.

UT, firescape, doc,sports suck, theater is bad.

Yeah, there’s fun stuff to do on campus. Apartment parties and frat parties. Dorm life is pretty active. Nightly screening of awesome movies at the school movie theater (old stuff, new stuff, main-stream stuff, independent stuff). Every year there is a big crazy scavenger hunt that involves wild stunts and road trips and other tomfoolery. There is also the annual Latke Vs. Hamentashen debate where prominent academics debate the merits of these two food items. While I was there I had did comics for one of the school papers – it was super easy to get into and fun. There are a couple of cool dive bars in the neighborhood. No real sports bars that I can remember, though that may have changed now that pretty much every bar I go to nowadays has 4 or 5 plasma TVs on the walls (there was one campus bar that you needed school ID to get into that was pretty nice). There are a couple of places on campus to play pool and foosball. I think maybe they built a bowling alley, but I’m not sure about that. The athletic facilities are pretty good and there is a healthy IM sports program. There are also some nice museums, restaurants and bookstores on campus. Sports isn't a huge part of campus life, but U of C does have a baseball, basketball, and football team (among others) There is a greek life and they have pretty nice houses, but it's not that big of a deal. There are sororities, but they are not allowed to have houses (at least that's what I was told). There were always pretty good guest speakers (I sat outside with Kurt Vonnegut while he smoked a cigarrette when he stopped in to give a talk). I did not drink at all in college and I managed to have a good time.

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.

I dont know, Euphony is an on campus literary publication, sometimes, not popular, I don't know much about the dating scene, from my house, getting WASTED!!!, the treasure hunt thing, 2 times a week, not very, I laid down some verses with some friends, study?, eat

Yeah, well, people ask me if we even have a football team, so it's a bit up in the air with sports here. I like to tailgate, so I go. I think the Polar Bear Run is the most well known tradition. It's an interesting premise, but sometimes you want to tear your eyes out. Last weekend I went to the Art Institute, dinner, and a movie, and rode the Navy Pier ferris wheel until my head was spinning. And not a drink in any of the ten of us. There's always stuff to do - from the opera and ballet to concerts to shopping to eating out to the zoo/aquarium - if you look you will find something. There are always parties on campus as well. As long as you're not an utter recluse you'll have something to do. Or - gasp - some of us take a night and just catch up on sleep....

Last Friday after class I went to the Art Institute of Chicago and then spent some time with my best friend at the Descartex Cafe. We drank oatmeal lattes and then met up with some other friends in Lakeview because someone wanted to try out a restaurant called The Chicago Diner. It was a vegetarian/vegan joint that there was an hour long wait for. Every ingredient that would otherwise have been made of meat was in quotation marks. For example, the gyros contained "lamb" strips, the BLT had "bakon" and the stir fry had "chikkin" chunks. Then we went back to campus and found some boys in the dorm freestyle rapping on homeade beats...typical Friday night!

Dating here sucks, I'm not gonna lie. The same people seem to always be in a relationship, and make it look easy, while those who can't seem to get laid to save their soul look on jealously. One advantage I've noticed, though, is that the hookup culture seems to be less prevalent here than at other universities, and confined mainly to the after-frat-party crowd. GLBT dating is probably the most successful on campus, don't ask me why. Probably something about being less inhibited. Honestly, if the people here got out of their own way, there would be a lot more happy couples.

Guest speakers are fun to see, but its hard to schedule ones you want to see. The girls at this school are hideous. All types of hideous. Grab bag, plain looking, nerdy girls.

I feel like you can pretty much go anywhere in our House in Max Central and find someone that's up for going to Bart Mart, talking, or hanging out. There's always someone to study with and always somebody to have fun with. We have a ton of special events from cultural shows to guest speakers to musical performances and celebrations. It's amazing programming. I'm involved with UCDems who hold about 2-3 nicely sized events every quarter and one amazingly huge progressive Gala with fabulous speakers and collaboration with other RSOs on campus. If I'm awake at 2am on a Tuesday, I'm either studying or watching Arrested Development with the boys from down the hall in the Lounge. This weekend, a bunch of friends and I went to a really nice restaurant called "Wave" downtown and then went up to Belmont to smoke hookah with one of the guy's friends from Turkey. It was a really fun night on the town with a lot of cross-cultural awareness (it was 2 Americans, an Indian girl and boy, a Puerto Rican girl, a Turkish guy and all of his friends!). It was really fun.

Most Popular Groups: Fraternities/Sororities, Model United Nations, South Asian Students Association. Students leave their dorm doors open in Max Palevsky and Pierce mainly. Athletic events are NOT popular...its sad. Theatre and guest speakers get huge support though. I can't say much on the dating scene. I only dated a little my first year, then went into a long term relationship, long distance. The guys here always have some weird quirk, so I gave up. 2AM Tuesday: Leaving the Pub or finishing homework. Traditions: Senior Pub Night, Senior Week, Bag Pipe procession for graduation, Midnight Breakfasts, Major Spring Concert and festival. I party anywhere from 5 times a week to 1 time a month depending on how busy I am. I think fraternities and sororities keep the campus alive and helps keep people social. Saturday Night Options: Dinner, Movie, a play. Off Capus: Movies, Enchanted Castle, food, museums, shop.

Model UN is great. Theater is great. Open people. Very friendly. Nice place overall.

1. I don't know most of the clubs tend to be small 2. MSA=amazing and accepting of people 3. Yes they sleep with their doors open sometimes as well, but that's not always smart 4. Not popular 5. Popular 6. Popular 7. I don't date for religious reasons 8. through the MSA and my classes 9. Homework or studying 10. Winter Festival and o-week 11. I'm not sure maybe once a week or once every two weeks 12. NOT important, except that they supply people with beer an parties-things im not interested in. 13. Last weekend I stayed at school to study then we celebrated my friend's birthday with some cake nothing big. 14. On a saturday night I'm sure there's some type of event going on somewhere on campus that might be somewhat intersting 15. I usually go into Chicago to restaurants and things