The Shoreland is a great choice for incoming law students. It is near the 171 Bus, and is student-friendly. The rent can run a bit high, though, so students on a tight budget might wish to consider another building.

The building is really nice, there's always someone at the front desk, elevators are always in order, the staff is really cordial. Sometimes the management and staff don't know certain information. Also, I live in a 2-bedroom with a roommate. She took the master bedroom and so pays slightly more of the rent, but even so my room is tiny. And for what I'm paying I feel like the spaces should be bigger. The free internet is also somewhat slow. It's reliable but when my roommate and I are both streaming video it can be slower than you'd want. All in all I like my apartment because it's convenient, newly renovated, and feels safe. But it may not be worth what I'm spending compared to what I see some of my classmates paying.

I share an apartment with a roommate at Shoreland. It's a pretty good apartment and the best part is that we have the washer & the dryer in our apartment.

The new appliances, spacious living spaces, washer & dryer in unit, and relative quiet all make the Shoreland a great place to live. Living at the Shoreland makes up for living in Hyde Park, and I would recommend it to anyone.

Pros: Newly renovated, gas stove, central air, clean, no bugs, in-unit washer/dryer, indoor parking available (although now it is full), convenient commute to UChicago on 171 bus.

Cons: Expensive for the area, no consistent problems but if you have a problem it can be hard to work with MAC, 55th street does not have as many stores/restaurants as 53rd street

Positive experience mainly because of how low-maintenance it is. Spacious, clean rooms. Definitely not as social as Regents because there's not as many law students, but it's still close enough to everything that you're not too isolated.

Shoreland Apartments is probably one of the nicest apartment buildings in Hyde Park. The building that is being built on top of the new Whole Foods also looks swanky/convenient too, but Shoreland is right on the lakefront and has amazing views in addition to being a newly-renovated building. Of course, Shoreland isn't exactly cheap, but I think (based on personal experience) it is a lot better than some of Mac Properties' other buildings (e.g., Regents and Del Prado). Mac Properties can be pretty awful to deal with, but I haven't had anywhere near as many issues at Shoreland as I had at their other properties.

Pros:
Great views; free access to exercise equipment and study areas; free (relatively fast) Internet; capped heating bills; free water/sewage; close to 53rd/55th street restaurants and grocery stores; free outside parking (although spaces are sometimes hard to find); 24/7 concierge that will receive and hold packages for you; in-unit washer/dyer; 171 bus stops right in front of the building

Cons:
Mac Properties kind of sucks (e.g., Shoreland used to have an actual gym but they tore it out and put in office space for themselves, kind of like how they downsized the gym at Regents a couple of years ago); bicycle room packed and has 3 heavy doors that you have to swipe your key fab to open to get in/out; Shoreland charges $25 monthly per pet; closet space is limited in the apartments and the $25 monthly storage units are small

The Shoreland is a great place to live. Spacious living room, ample kitchen with granite counter-tops, new appliances, in-unit washer and dryer. Big windows, but smaller and up higher on 13th floor - visit and see before deciding on it. I had parties for my fellow classmates over the summer, fitting in plenty of people without any problems. The front desk staff are very kind and great about processing packages quickly. The gym is limited in scope, but useful for basic workouts and fitness - Ratner is only a (free) bus ride away. My favorite part is probably that the bus stops right outside, making the time you have to spend outside very minimal if you want to avoid doing so.

This has been my worst rental experience thus far. When I moved into the building, I was very happy with the Shoreland and Mac Properties. However, in the last year, there has been a steady decline in the quality of management, maintenance, and resident service in the building. I will provide a few examples.

First, I needed maintenance done in my bathroom. Until the problem was fixed, I was without a working bathroom. Maintenance was not prompt in arriving, even though I flagged the repair as urgent. When they did arrive, I was not home. I'm not sure what went on in my apartment, but when I came home, all of my towels were ruined, there was grease all over my bathroom, and there were muddy footprints leading out the door. I was eventually able to get someone to come out and clean, but they did only a fair job and it took a long time. In the meantime, I was still without a bathroom, as the problem had not been fixed. The whole ordeal lasted about 4 days. There was no apology from management.

Second, due to the ridiculous layout of the garage (which they will lease to you for $250/month without warning you that it's almost impossible to park in many of the spots), my car was damaged by the person who parks next to me. I emailed the Resident Success team, not to ask them to pay for the repair, but simply to ask that either my car or the car next to me be moved, as due to the size of our vehicles and the size of the spaces, it was inevitable that there was an accident and likely that one would happen again. I got the most dismissive, one line email possible. This is the kind of response that you can expect from the Resident "Success" team.

Third, and most frustratingly, Mac Properties has recently decided to change the parking spots from assigned to unassigned. This will not be accompanied by any change in pricing. As I understand it (which, admittedly, may be wrong as I am unable to get any answers no matter how many times I email or call), they plan to lease the garage to capacity by selling to non-residents. This concerns me as a safety issue. I am also concerned about the true "availability" of parking. Though they say that there "should" be a place for me to park, they will not guarantee it. And as mentioned above, some of the "spots" in the garage will not fit even the smallest compact car. Shoreland knows this. It does not care. When spots are not assigned, people will park in the most convenient (read largest) spot. When I signed up for parking, I had to let them know what kind of car I had so that I would be assigned a spot that my car would fit in. How has this changed? It hasn't and management does not care. I will be charged the same (extremely high) rate for the CHANCE to park.

In short, rent here if you want to be taken advantage of and treated like a child. In every conversation I have had with anyone from Mac Properties, it has been clear that the goal of the Resident Success team is to confuse residents, give them no information, and even intentionally mislead. Mac does not care about its residents, knows that it has a monopoly in the neighborhood, and will do anything it can to make an extra buck at your expense. Find something else!

Living at the Shoreland has been the most stressful, disappointing rental experience of my life. While it is one of the nicer buildings in Hyde Park, it is way overpriced and living here is not worth the money. In the past year and a half, I have experienced the following: waiting for routine maintenance for eight days; maintenance staff leaving broken light bulbs all over my apartment, and even after filing a complaint, never coming back to clean up their mess; stolen packages; having my parking lot move from assigned to unassigned without a corresponding reduction in price; posting utilities bills on the online portal well after their due date, and not informing residents.

The Mac staff is rude and unprofessional. Mac has a huge stronghold on property in the Hyde Park area, and it shows in their poor customer service, predatory practices, and complete disregard for the well being of their residents. If at all possible, I would suggest living absolutely anywhere other than a Mac property.