Living arrangements
Housing costs are included in the program fee and are based on double occupancy in furnished apartments with cooking facilities; students with special housing needs should contact the ACM office early in the application process.
Urban Studies students participate in the "Precept" living experience, with apartments located in various Chicago neighborhoods. In Fall 2008, students lived in Hyde Park and Logan Square. Neighborhoods are subject to change based on enrollment.
Hyde Park is located on the southeast side of Chicago and is within walking distance from Lake Michigan. It has beautiful housing stock, strong institutions and stores, and it is anchored by the University of Chicago. However, it is much more than a university community. The University of Chicago is an ambivalent presence, sometimes accused by neighboring communities of insulating and isolating Hyde Park while trying to control those neighboring communities. It is the city's must truly bi-cultural neighborhood, where black and white, rich and poor, live together, if not always in harmony, at least in dialogue.
Logan Square, located on the near Northwest side, is a vibrant community at physical and social crossroads. Bisected by Milwaukee Avenue, one of Chicago's most interesting multi-ethnic thoroughfares, Logan Square retains the flavor of the original Scandinavian and Western European settlers while incorporating the influences of the Puerto Rican and Mexican communities to the south, and the Polish enclave to the North. Also running through Logan Square are Logan and Humboldt Boulevards, wide promenades lined by stately turn-of-the-century mansions that stand in sharp contrast to the low-income housing several blocks away. The relatively stable ethnic and economic mix, close proximity to cultural experiences, ranging from Salsa dancing to the avant-garde arts scene of Wicker Park, and the presence of many varied community organizations, make Logan Square an exciting place to come to understand the joys and tensions endemic to living in Chicago.