<p>BCS schools have probably the most school spirit, so looking at the BCS schools in a large city would be a good way to narrow your list.</p>
<p>Ohio State is not urban? What universe are you from?</p>
<p>I was going to say the same thing about Columbus, OH. I think informative’s post is the fail.</p>
<p>Stanford is more than “a bit” suburban and “close” if that means being 45min to over an hour from San Francisco depending on traffic, unless you count San Jose which is closer. You might as well just include UC-Santa Cruz then.</p>
<p>And being in the City of Pittsburgh is a plus according to the multiple publications that have ranked it as the most livable city in the US on multiple occasions. But it is obvious that some people have never been to some of these schools.</p>
<p>You are right wgmcp. I lived in Pittsburgh for 10 years. The weather is nothing to brag about, but otherwise it is actually a very interesting city.</p>
<p>Equating good athletics with school spirit is incorrect also. Tulane is much like Rice with poor football and basketball and good baseball. But you walk around campus and kids are wearing their Tulane stuff all the time. That is not true at a lot of schools. Of course, I wouldn’t expect the others to wear Tulane stuff (hah hah). Rice students also are enormously proud of their school as well.</p>
<p>Speaking of people talking about places they knew nothing about, I saw a post the other day where someone was saying the summer heat in Houston was a dry heat, like Phoenix, because it was in the southwest. Talk about someone that obviously had never been! I LMAO.</p>
<p>It’s not easy to get to San Francisco from Stanford without a car; although the train station is just outside the campus, it’s at least a mile (or 1.5 mile?) walk from your dorm because Stanford campus is very large. Also, the train is not a subway; it’s on a typical commuter-train schedule. The final stop in SF is not in downtown area so you’d have to transfer to the streetcar. </p>
<p>So here’s the breakdown in time:
Walk to train station: 30 mins
Wait at the station: 10 mins (assuming you already check the schedule beforehand)
On the train: ~1 hr
Wait for streetcar: 15 mins
Streetcar to downtown: 10 mins</p>
<p>You can do the math. :)</p>
<p>Syracuse is in an urban area though it’s not in a huge city. It definitely has sports though.</p>
<p>@SamLee
The Stanford Marguerite Shuttle from Stanford to PA is free and runs often. It’s operational hours really aren’t that much different from public transportation.</p>
<p>The Caltrain is WAY nicer than any subway and you are allowed to drink on board. A ticket from PA to SF is $6 and does take about an hour depending on whether you catch an express train or not.</p>
<p>There are also all nighter owl buses that run from PA to DT SF or at least Colma. The train goes to 4th and King which is still on the rim of SF’s CBD. Plus the Judah and Third Street Muni is right across the street and literally minutes from DT SF.</p>
<p>Berkeley’s better…BART station one block from campus and access to the East Bay, Oakland Airport, downtown SF and SFO… ;)</p>
<p>Stanford and Berkeley are not urban schools the way UChicago, Columbia, Penn, USC are. They are not IN the city. They are not hemmed in by buildings. They are not walking distance from the city center (well I don’t know if UChicago is walkable, actually, but it’s a 20 minute walk from Penn’s campus to Center City)</p>
<p>^USC is not hemmed in by buildings; it’s 2 miles (not walking distance) from downtown Los Angeles, which is boring and becomes a ghost town in the evening. Also, there’s (almost) no such thing as “walking distance” in LA.<br>
^UChicago is not hemmed in by buildings either. It’s in the residential neigborhood called Hyde Park in the South Side of Chicago. It’s 7 miles from downtown.</p>
<p>There are schools that are IN the city but with very little going on within the walking distance. There are schools that are just outside the city but with more things to do within walking distance. For someone without a car, it’s 100x easier to get around and get what you want at Berkeley than where USC is.</p>
<p>Sam Lee: By your definition, no elite universities are truly urban (unless we count NYU as elite). I think ilovebagels’ point was that these universities have a significantly more urban feel than any of the other elites, including Stanford and Berkeley. (Although I do agree with your point about USC…)</p>
<p>And have you been to UChicago? It’s not in the middle of the city, but it is very urban (much moreso than Northwestern). It may be a residential district, but it’s basically what Brooklyn is to NYC. Taxis are seen very frequently, only very wealthy people own cars, almost everyone uses public transportation, etc. Most everyone lives in apartment buildings including professors, and only the very wealthy have houses. (Most houses in Hyde Park are $1M+. Obama’s house is worth more than a million, for instance, but if it were the same building in the suburbs, it would only be worth about $100-200k.)</p>
<p>I think the most elite universities with a truly urban feel are Columbia, Penn, and Chicago.</p>
<p>I’m surprised the University of Washington hasn’t been mentioned. UW-Seattle has a beautiful campus in the University District of Seattle, which is a very happening part of the city of Seattle. </p>
<p>Looking at your stats it seems like an easy match for you, and you’d probably have a good shot at the very competitive Honors program as well. UW is great for studying business.</p>
<p>You’d definitely get Husky pride there, college football in seattle is probably bigger than our pro team.</p>
<p>Bagels, you have obviously never been to Berkeley. Berkeley is more densely urban than Exposition Park.</p>
<p>Washington Seattle if you are looking at sciences or computers.</p>
<p>I’m in the Bay area right now, maybe i’ll stop by Berkeley ;)</p>
<p>U Wisconsin in Madison, the state capital, is definitely a city. So is University of Washington Seattle. Ohio State is definitely urban, definitely has school spirit, and the city even has an NHL hockey team.</p>
<p>adding top rankedness of OSU to it, Columbus is simply the best, not rural like 10 million other college towns and at the same time not with the problems of NY,LA or alike. and the weather is also great. Honestly, it’s the sum of all the best things, don’t you agree?</p>
<p>Guys, I think everyone is getting caught up in the definition of city and ease of transportation. Here’s what the OP wants: “As for cities, I’d like a pretty well known city, where there is a lot to do outside the college, including music, art, theater, etc.” He’s also looking for internship possibilities. He didn’t say anything about not having a car or needing to be able to walk to things.</p>