UChicago vs. Penn CAS

Cue7
Sat, 04 Apr 2009 04:13:47 +0000

I posted this on the Penn forum too…

I was trying to think of ways to portray the vastly different feels of the schools, and I think this image will present the dichotomy pretty well:

At Chicago, you’re going to be absolutely surrounded by bookstores. Along with the official U of C bookstore, you have the seminary Co-op, which is like a huge labrynth chamber filled with stacks and stacks of books, you’re also gonna have Powell’s bookstores, 57th Street books, and one other bookstore that I’m forgetting. This is all within about a 3 block radius. Used bookstores, specialty bookstores, large bookstores, there are TONS ALL OVER Hyde Park. You’ll also have a bunch of coffeeshops and local restaurants where kids often go to, well, read. In between all these bookstores, you have the Regenstein Library, which, through a recent addition, will soon become one of top 5 largest libraries on the planet (I forget what the exact statistic is, but you get the picture).

At Penn, in a similar 3 block radius, you’ll have the massive Penn bookstore, which is big and shiny and nice and with a lot of floor space devoted to selling Penn paraphenalia, a GAP, a chipotle (that just opened I heard), a huge new and shiny Wharton building that looks kinda like the deathstar from Star Wars, a really nice new gym, some well-frequented frats, a starbucks, a CVS, and a specialty chocolate store (that I also believe just opened), a chilis is close by, there is a big mexican restaurant and an irish pub too. Oh, there is also a place, Abner’s, that does great cheesesteaks. All of these places are within 5-7 minutes walking of one another. The main undergrad library (Van Pelt) is close by as well, but to be blunt, it pales in comparison to the behemoth that is the Regenstein library at Chicago.

That’s not to say Chicago doesn’t have stuff like this too. The U of C recently opened a really nice, shiny new gym, there are clothing stores and a movie theater in Hyde Park, a Walgreens in the neighborhood, and a bunch of bars now on 55th street. During peak hours, the Chicago gym will be packed with kids industriously working out, frat row will be busy on bar nights, and Chicago kids will get deep dish pizza just as enthusiastically as Penn kids will go to Abners for cheesesteaks. (If you want great deep dish pizza, it’s available right in the neighborhood, but it’s about a 15 minute walk away or so.) Chicago also has more green space all around campus, so you’ll see kids tossing frisbees, playing full-field pickup soccer, or engaging in intramural sports right near the heart of campus. At all times, though, Academics (reading, studying, learning) still just has a more central place - both figuratively and literally - at the U of C. The very heart of campus is what I described above. The center of Penn’s campus (although it’s a little harder to define) has all the diversity I described above, all within 5 minutes of one another.

Does this sorta begin to illustrate the differences between the two schools? ;-)