<p>How friendly would you say Chicago’s student body is as a whole, or what kind of reputation does it have? How would you rate the atmosphere? Also, does it differ among different houses/residence halls?</p>
<p>That’s a difficult thing to quantify. One person’s pleasant is another person’s overbearing; conversely, “quiet and reserved” can easily become “aloof and unfriendly.” It’s all a matter of perspective. And different people have different social groups, of course.</p>
<p>Almost everyone I’ve met here has been great, though. I literally cannot think of more than a couple people I dislike. (There are a number of people here–supposedly a larger number than are at most comparable institutions–who are, shall we say, very retiring, but I wouldn’t call that unfriendliness. As long as you’re polite I don’t really care if you prefer to spend time alone. They are, in any case, a small minority.) I actually think the difficulty of the school does a lot to foster ties–there’s sort of a cynical camaraderie. We’re all in this together, after all, might as well get along. And there are a lot of classes where you have to collaborate heavily with others if you want to do well.</p>
<p>Thanks, that’s good to know!</p>