<p>This is dead wrong in my (parental) experience. Last year, my child had un-beautiful housing, but still reasonably comparable to the dorms (or at least to some of them) for significant savings. This year, she has a palatial pre-war two-bedroom for only a little savings. All in the Hyde Park student ghetto, reasonable walking distance.</p>
<p>You daughter seems have made well informed and frugal decisions, but most students dont have the same degree of success when they seek independent housing for deep savings. There are reasons why articles like this show up every couple of months in the maroon (not the management change, but the apartment stories): </p>
<p>[Chicago</a> Maroon » MAC emerges as top realtor with K&G deal](<a href=“http://maroon.uchicago.edu/online_edition/news/2007/04/03/mac-emerges-as-top-realtor-with-kg-deal/]Chicago”>http://maroon.uchicago.edu/online_edition/news/2007/04/03/mac-emerges-as-top-realtor-with-kg-deal/)</p>
<p>Hyde Park actually has lovely student housing. It’s a plus for the university.</p>
<p>I would have to disagree strongly or a least say this is not a sentiment you hear a lot amongst students. The reason the school has gone big on its new dorms (Max Pavelsky and the south-of-the-Midway project) in addition to renovating International House is because poor housing options were factoring into some students decisions to attend, and certainly impacting the quality of life perceptions of a significant portion of the student body. For instance, the idea was floated of letting the Shoreland close down and then ending the guarantee of housing for four full years effectively forcing students into the community. However, this did not go over well when they bubbled it at the community planning meetings, and UChicago now intends to keep building new student housing as far as fiscally possible. It likewise has encouraged developments like Hyde Park Towers (which is not by any means objectively high end in quality or price as it is often labeled). It is true that students are not fighting hand over fist to get into Pierce, but they are not loving MAC either. Ultimately, it really is a financial decision to live in such apartment units, or an outcome of not doing well in the end of year, on campus lottery for a configuration you want. </p>
<p>She wouldn’t even think about the high-rises, which she regards as un-fun, inconvenient rich-econ-major ghettos.</p>
<p>The hyperbole aside, un-fun only insofar as there are reasonable noise restrictions. True, you cannot invite 30 of you closest friends over past midnight and keep your non-university neighbors happy. And why I am not at all implicating your D in such behavior, they tend to be <em>very</em> stringent on any grass like smells coming from our door. They are inconvenient to campus given you will end up taking a bus most of the time, but you can easily make up the loss quite easily in the saved walking distance to the COOP, Walgreens, and to the main eatery thoroughfares north of campus. As far as pricing goes, places like the ever popular Windermere have two bedrooms for $1500, which when split with a roommate is a steal. Further, the idea that somehow these are the exclusive domain of some pre-banking or GSB / Law / Medicine cabal is certainly not true. If you want to be a high roller, you get a car and go downtown or to the North side.</p>