<p>Penn really isn’t a concrete jungle, either. But it’s very integrated with the city, and it’s traversed in all directions by big, busy streets. It’s adjacent to, and essentially an extension of, the main business district in Philadelphia – an easy walk for me from my office. Architecturally, it has some nice stuff (including some of the newest buildings), but on the whole, except for a few nooks and crannies here and there, and the one central quad, it’s not that pretty. If you like cities, and get turned on by urban energy, it’s an attractive and exciting place. If your idea of college is Williams or Dartmouth, it’s not.</p>
<p>Chicago has a totally different feel to it. The neighborhood it’s in is several miles from the main business district, and really a sleepy enclave with nothing much happening except for the university. Streets traverse the campus there, too, but they carry mainly local traffic, and there is much more area that’s blocked off to cars than at Penn.</p>
<p>Chicago was the first university constructed in the “American Gothic” style; Yale essentially imitated Chicago’s imitation of Oxford. Lots of the main areas of the campus, and especially the main quad, really have that fake-Gothic feel, and the buildings are actually a little more graceful and airy than Yale’s. There are lots of trees and, as DannonWater said, the huge Midway Plaisance running through the bottom half of the campus (and another park on the western edge). It feels very green. There are some unfortunate mid-20th Century constructions there – starting with the cozy-inside but ugly-outside main library – but nothing as bad as the Penn high-rise dorm complex.</p>
<p>If you are looking for Williams or Dartmouth, it’s still going to feel over-urban to you. So will lots of other urban colleges, like Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Brown . . . . If you are looking for spiffy shops and street excitement a la Harvard Square or Broadway, Chicago’s campus is going to feel quiet and out-of-it.</p>