Having trouble narrowing down my college list

johnwesley
Sat, 31 Jul 2010 12:41:33 +0000

Is Dartmouth like Williams and Stanford with the whole no-city sort of thing? When I visited, it seemed that way.



I would say, yes, trust your instinct. Dartmouth is a great place that creates its own climate of sociability and fierce alumni loyalty, but, it, along with Williams, Middlebury, Bates, Bowdoin and nearly every NESCAC college were founded specifically to bring higher education to what was then, the New England frontier. A lot of that camaraderie is the result of being snowed-in on long winter weekends.



What about Northwestern? How does that fit in with the city/student vibe? I know it is very close to Chicago, and I have heard that it doesn’t really have a campus. I’ve actually never been farther west than West Virginia, so I know nothing about the city (or the entire Midwest, for that matter). Is the mindset very different from that of New England/the East coast?



Northwestern definitely has a campus; it is both urbane and urban in its own way; handsome granite buildings and shade trees are everywhere. Evanston is not that big a deal but, Chicago is close enough that people follow its sports teams and everyone can pretty much tell you who occupies City Hall. When people in the midwest say, they’re visiting Chicago or virtually any other industrial city, it’s very similar to the East Coat: they mean the downtown area where there are streets and sidewalks and people park their cars next to meters while they walk around and shop or eat.