WashU vs Northwestern?

vbball90
Sun, 29 Mar 2009 01:05:38 +0000

I just wanted to add something to my post above.

For Northwestern (and UChicago, to which I didn’t even apply), I think I just would have felt limited overall in things to do outside of campus. I only had the option of going downtown Chicago, really. Sure, downtown Chicago has TONS of things to do. You can’t get bored at all when you do go downtown. But… it was the only location I could choose from. And it was like 45 minutes away. It’s like, to do anything off-campus, we would have HAD to go to downtown Chicago, which would have been somewhat of an annoyance after awhile.

At WUSTL, I had the choice of so many neighborhoods and areas around campus. Forest Park, the Central West End, Clayton, the Loop, the Hill, and even downtown St Louis. And nothing really takes more than 10-15 minutes, by walking or the Metro.

If Northwestern was closer to the city, I think my choice would have been harder to make, and who knows what I would have decided. But, I wanted more to do nearby and have it be easily accessible. At WUSTL, I feel more like a resident of the city because of Wash U’s proximity to everything. At Northwestern, I would have felt like a continual tourist of Chicago… because Northwestern was so far removed from the city of Chicago, I would have felt like a resident of a suburb who visits the same big city over and over again.

But, I mean, bottom line: you’re spending at least 90% of your time on campus anyway. I’ve written way too much about the cities of both of them, and it really shouldn’t factor into the decision this much when comparing these schools :)