Port Lake

Hello! I am also a UChicago alum and can clarify a little bit--the conventional wisdom has changed recently to be more "don't go south of 61st." However, there are some nice, cheap options south of 61st and it's fairly safe as long as you keep your city smarts about you. I have a friend who lived in a graduate apartment in the 6051-57 S. Drexel Avenue building and it was super nice and much closer to campus than the other buildings that were listed. I think she paid $800/month for a one bedroom that had separate dining, living, and sun rooms. That said, the area around 51st & Kenwood is really beautiful and is a five minute walk away from the grocery store, close to the campus bus (10 minute commute by bus, 20 minute walk to campus), and is close to the bus and metra if you need to get out of Hyde Park.

A few of the low rises are being torn down and replaced with high rises to accommodate more students. I believe I have heard that it will be done in a couple of years. EV is pretty big, so I don't think it will affect things all that much.
 
That being said, housing is a lottery. Not everyone gets on campus (including me). If you get a good roll in the lottery, everything should work out. Otherwise, you're going to be facing the off campus housing market.

Does anyone know what's happening with Escondido Village? I'd be coming to Stanford with my husband, and those apartments seem to be the most affordable. I've seen this, though, and would much rather not live by a construction site. Does anyone know if they're going through with this, and what sort of impact it'll have on EV more generally?
My other top choices are in the midwest, so, have to say, bit of a sticker shock compared to those places when I saw Palo Alto prices.

I'm an undergraduate at the University of Chicago and live in Hyde Park, so I feel that I should provide a counterweight to some of the posters who have come before me (and maybe provide a more recent assessment of goings-on, especially on campus safety).
Hyde Park is about 30-40 minutes from downtown Chicago by public transit and about the same by bike if you're in good shape. Wikipedia has a nice map and statistics on the population, so I won't bore you with that. People are generally a bit hippyish here in a way that's a bit hard to describe, but it's generally a nice populace. There's a broad mix of housing not owned by the University, with quite a few apartment towers, although it's mostly large 3-story U-shaped apartment buildings with courtyards. Even numbered (east-west) streets are mostly residential, as are most of the named (north-south) streets. There's no one commercial strip, but rather three or four areas lined with small shops and several larger shopping centers spaced about, mostly towards the lake and on the odd-numbered streets. This is because the University occupies much of the land away from the lake. The end result is that if you live in the right (not way at the western edge) part of the neighborhood, you'll be within walking distance of anything you might need, food/toiletries-wise. Within Hyde Park, there is a lot of transportation to be had: the streets are extremely bikeable, a Metra (light commuter rail) line runs near the lake, and there are three buses that do circles around the neighborhood and through campus. The university also operates a shuttle service at night that makes getting to and from campus easy once the buses stop running.
Getting downtown isn't a breeze, but I'd hardly call it difficult. Both of the major south-side El lines (red and green) sit well to our west, across Washington Park and in a fairly sketchy neighborhood. You can take a bus to either of those and get downtown from there, or you can ride the Metra downtown (it's a bit more expensive), OR you can take any number of express buses that run up Lake Shore Drive right downtown. Or you could do what I do sometimes, and bike up the lakefront path--if the wind is with you you can actually beat public transit, on occasion. The long and short of it is that it's certainly not the city center, but there are plenty of ways of getting around.
HP has more amenities than most people posting before have let on. There are all kinds of inexpensive if not award-winning restaurants, several convenience stores, two supermarkets, many smaller food stores (which I personally prefer), salons and barbershops, four independently owned bookstores, at least three or four museums (more if you count really small art exhibition spaces and temporary spaces), two liquor stores, and plenty of coffee to go around (most of the shops are on campus). I'd say it's cheaper to live here than in many other neighborhoods, although that might just be for lack of a commute: you will rarely NEED to leave the neighborhood unless you're going to go do something fun elsewhere. What Hyde Park doesn't have is a movie theater for NEW movies (we do have Doc Films, though, a very nice student-run cinema, that screens films from all eras) or a significant retail (clothing, furniture, etc.) sector. There isn't much of a nightlife: no clubs, but three or four decent bars (five counting the University-owned Ida Noyes Pub), but they all close at at least the usual 2 AM, if not sooner. People sometimes joke that the main library is the hottest social spot in Hyde Park.
Finally, contrary to the impression you might get from its location, the neighborhood actually has one of the lowest rates of violent crime in Chicago proper--the shooting someone mentioned a few pages back is a rare happening, thankfully. This is largely due to our having the second-largest private police force in the world cruising around at all hours. The typical crime pattern is people from neighborhoods much further south coming and committing petty crimes (burglaries, the occasional mugging, the rare car theft). The University takes pains to prevent this, though, as you might have guessed by the existence of the nighttime shuttles. There's also a service called SafeRide in which smaller shuttles are on-call and provide pick-ups and drop-offs if you're not on a shuttle route or they've stopped running. Apart from that, things are well-lit nearly everywhere, there's a decent amount of foot traffic at most hours, and I honestly have yet to feel threatened while walking around at night, which I do often enough. Other (frequently sketchier) neighborhoods almost don't need to be mentioned, even if they do form a part of Hyde Park's milieu, because you will almost never go into them. They're food deserts and lack entertainment facilities, so they're essentially byways for the buses you'll be taking to further neighborhoods. One, Woodlawn, does bear mentioning: despite a higher rate of crime, a LOT of students (grads included) live there for the incredibly cheap rent and refurbished apartments that are starting to creep into the area, and also because it's so near campus. It even has a coffee shop now. If you don't mind a nearby turf war between two gangs and also don't mind participating in slow gentrification, then Woodlawn isn't that bad a place to live.
Feel free to ask questions if you've got any!

I'm curious too! Is grad housing heavily oversubscribed, or is there a good chance of getting it (in first year, at least)?

I've just declined my BU offer (I was one of the acceptances on the results page). I hope this opens up a spot for someone else!  I haven't heard of anyone being waitlisted, so perhaps they send acceptances in waves?

I'm claiming a Chicago admit! 
Pertaining to the earlier discussion, I didn't contact any POIs before I applied. Some programmes (like Stanford) advised against. I would've maybe emailed if I had something meaningful to ask, but my research fits were pretty obvious to me so I didn't feel the need.

I'm claiming a Chicago admit! 
Pertaining to the earlier discussion, I didn't contact any POIs before I applied. Some programmes (like Stanford) advised against. I would've maybe emailed if I had something meaningful to ask, but my research fits were pretty obvious to me so I didn't feel the need.

sorry to mis-sex/gender you. it can be offensive.
not interested in starting dialogue. My intention was to police you, which I did, and I would do it again.

it is not supposed to be an insult. Just because you are not personally offended does not mean that it's not offensive to other women, who you do not speak on behalf of. "No need to make a deal of it" is where you stand. That the term was directed at you, is not really relevant. The word was used. It's offensive. You don't get to hush a conversation just because you personally are not offended. Your contribution says something about you personally, and not the conversation in general.

Same!! I was feeling grumpy about imminent Harvard rejection, then, woaah, Michigan acceptance! 
Congrats to other Michigan admits too!

Same!! I was feeling grumpy about imminent Harvard rejection, then, woaah, Michigan acceptance! 
Congrats to other Michigan admits too!