NU vs. U of Chicago

iloveapples · 04-02-2005, 10:54 PM

Both are in Chicago, and are quite different, and I'm choosing between them.

Anybody in the same boat?

What would you say are the most striking differences, and what would you pick in my situation?

Dog87 · 04-02-2005, 11:59 PM

I got into both of them, as well as Cornell.

TheCity · 04-03-2005, 12:26 AM

im in the same situation, choosing between NU and UoC... as well as two others, but mainly ive narrowed it down to those two.
I live in a city, so its easier for me to imagine this, but lets see.
Living in a suburb is absolutely nothing like living in an urban area, regardless of the fact that NU is only 20 minutes away from Urban chicago. Chicago is a great city school, NU is a great school near a great city. Also, I think that there's more intellectualism at UofC than NU (not dissing NU, UofC is more intellectual than ANY school anywhere)... If partying and nerdiness are opposites on the same continuum, NU is closer to partying, where UofC is closer to nerdiness. But you will have a good time at either school, it just depends on HOW and what your definition of good time is.
For me, I'd much rather live in a city, with more intellectuals.
Than again, you can't compete with NU's programs in some specific subjects (theatre, film, journalism)
so there you go. Anybody else have any help for me, im confused tooooo.

tenisghs · 04-03-2005, 02:18 PM

TheCity, I would also say that Evanston is more urban than your typical suburbs. (I am also from a major city.)

glamourbaby19 · 04-03-2005, 03:37 PM

TheCity - have you been to look at either school? I too thought UoC was more of a "city school" (think Columbia), but when I visited, I found that it is nearly as far from downtown Chicago/Michigan + Grand area as Northwestern is.

uc_benz · 04-03-2005, 03:52 PM

I wouldn't say UChicago is a city school in the sense of Columbia, NYU, etc. where the buildings are all seperated throughout the city. UChicago is in fact the opposite: it is REALLY compact. I walked from the eastern edge of the campus to the law school which is considered on the bottom western edge, and it only took 5-6 minutes. There are two one-way streets that basically split the campus in half so it is usually congested with traffic (don't expect to find parking!). However, there was also a lot of construction going on when I was there so it might be a little more fluid now.

Here's a map for you to see how compact the campus actually is:
http://maps.uchicago.edu/campus.html

then compared to Northwestern's:
http://www.northwestern.edu/campus/m...ampus_map.html

lala87 · 04-04-2005, 08:59 PM

hyde park sucks. i should know, i live here.

TheCity · 04-04-2005, 09:34 PM

Uchicago (campus) sounds a LOT like columbia. I havent been to UofC, but ive been to Northwestern (2 years ago, long before i ever considered going to either school). Columbia is "urban" in that it is in manhattan, but certainly isnt in the most Urban part of manhattan, and it does have a main quad and grouped campus buildings and such (unlike NYU). I didnt really like the feel of columbia's campus (but then, it was at the end of winter when i was there, and everything just looked dead, with muddy snow on top), so im happy i didnt apply.
Northwestern definitely has a lot of perks, I really dont think that theres a bad choice to be made when deciding between them, and definitely feels more city-school than suburb. (Its definitely not suburban like Stanford, which has no access to San Francisco or San Jose's transit.)

NUcat · 04-05-2005, 03:58 PM

Just a word of advice: I've heard from many different people that UofC is "where the fun goes to die."

fabletale · 04-05-2005, 04:24 PM

Hey, im a current freshman at Northwestern, and last year I was considering the same thing. I have to say that when I visited, I did not like U of C.
Thiscity : Anyone who says its like Columbia is dead wrong (i live 20 min from Columbia) because Columbia is in a nice area (Harlem is further north), has a good if small campus (no streets breaking it up),it is social, and the neighborhoods there are pretty nice. My impression of U of C was a LOT worse, when I was there with my dad, we were in the car driving away from the main area, and a gang of guys started throwing rocks at our car, all within 2 blocks of the chicago campus. It did not seem safe, and from what I hear from people from the area, its not very social either.
Northwestern is still really intellectual, i like to describe the main difference between the two as, at northwestern everyone works hard and plays hard, while at chicago, everyone just works hard. adults ive talked to have said that u of c is much more of a graduate school, they dont really cater to undergraduates, and that seems to make sense.
hope that helps!