For arguments sake let’s take the top ranked school or schools in each city off the board.
Name your top picks for:
In Chicago, there’s IIT, UIC, Depaul, Loyola, and Columbia (College, though it specializes in arts and media and is not for everyone). DC has American, Catholic, GW, and Howard.
Most schools in cities tend to be private schools, I think. UIC is unusual in that it’s a large public school located blocks away from the loop. If you want to study in a city and live in Illinois, it’s a great deal. Even if you’re OOS, it’s ~30k a year, still half the sticker price of many of the city private schools if you don’t qualify for merit scholarships or financial aid.
The ones I can think of:
NYC:
NYU, Fordham, Yeshiva, Manhattan College, LIU-Brooklyn, any CUNY school
Boston:
MIT, Tufts, Northeastern BU, BC
Philadelphia:
Temple, Drexel
Baltimore:
UMBC
DC:
GW
LA:
USC (Because UCLA is the top school)
Miami:
FIU (because UMiami is the top school)
UMBC is not in Baltimore, it is in a suburb without easy access to Baltimore. Both Towson and Goucher are in a close in suburb with public transportation to Baltimore.
I like American for DC because it is in the city but in a very nice residential area, self contained campus and easy access to metro.
I would also choose Northeastern in Boston because of self contained campus, T stop actually on the campus and co-op program makes great us of the city.
You didn’t list Pittsburgh, however I would also take a look at University of Pittsburgh. We felt the campus was very welcoming, lots of good restaurants in the area, shares a large Hillel with CMU. Also, the students are given free bus passes for the city.
When you say 'best" options (taking off the top ranked academic schools) - do you mean “best” in terms of fun-ness of neighborhood / student experience, or do you mean “best” in terms of academics? Because (since you’ve taken Northwestern and U of Chicago off the table), I’d personally put DePaul as the best in Chicago based on fun-ness of neighborhood / student experience (great location in Lincoln Park), but I’m not sure I’d say that if the criteria were academics.
Many students want the urban college experience.
Maybe they come from a very different surrounding, or perhaps they grew up urban and really like it.
Reality is the vast majority of kids are not going to attend Columbia, Harvard, Penn, Georgetown, Hopkins, etc.
But in no way does that slam the door on their dream.
Love Philadelphia? There is Temple, Drexel, LaSalle, St Joseph’s + more including the Curtis School of Music, etc.
Boston has tons of great options in the city, including great music options like Berklee, New England Conservatory and Boston Conservatory and many more just outside the city limits…
And as posters shared above there are some exciting and affordable Public options (including merit) at schools like Temple, University of Illinois Chicago, etc. Some Great Wall Street opportunities to be earned through Baruch. New York has Juilliard, Manhattan School of Music and Mannes for music as well…
University of Houston should also be on the radar - they will enable in-state rates if you are awarded a merit scholarship of $1,000 or more.
Chicago is a great place to study in / near. The city has a large amount of problems, but there’s a ton of cultural offerings, great food, cool architecture, a surprising amount of nature, a great public transportation system (for the USA), a waterfront, and you’ll likely get bragging rights to say that you lived through bitter winters, in case you are from somewhere warm. And if you’re going to college, chances are that you like solving problems of some sort, so you can do your part to improve the bad things happening in the city!
New York: Public: CUNY-City College. (There are so many other good options in the CUNY system.) Private: Fordham University.
Boston: Public: University of Massachusetts at Boston. Private: Northeastern University. (There’s also Brandeis, which is close.)
Philadelphia: Public: Temple University. Private: Drexel University.
Baltimore: Public:* Towson University. Private: Loyola University Maryland. (There’s also Goucher College.)
DC: American University
Houston: Public: University of Houston.
Chicago: Public: UIC. Private: Loyola University Chicago. (DePaul is another good choice.
Los Angeles: Public: Cal Poly Pomona.** Private: Occidental College (Pepperdine University is also a good choice).
Atlanta: Public: Georgia Tech. (Georgia State is also a good choice!) Private: Oglethorpe University.***
Miami: Public: Florida International University. Private: Barry University (another option is Johnson & Wales University).
I took the spirit of the exercise to be lesser-known/less selective colleges in each city, which is why I took slight liberties as highlighted by the asterisks.
*Towson is technically an unincorporated community in Baltimore County. However, Baltimore is a pretty small city - smaller than most of the other cities on the list - and it’s so close to DC, which means that a lot of services that would be in a city of its size are drawn to DC instead, Because of that, I thought it was okay to cheat a little with Towson. Loyola Maryland actually is in Baltimore proper, though.
**Cal Poly Pomona is technically not in Los Angeles; it’s adjacent to it. However, again, I was going with the spirit of the exercise by taking the top-ranked schools off the table - multiple schools, since I did separate categories. UCLA obviously, but I also took other UCs in the LA area off the list. If you really want a technical recommendation I guess CSULA is actually in LA.
***Oglethorpe was actually located in Atlanta proper until 2012. But that’s the year that Brookhaven, which used to be an Atlanta neighborhood, incorporated as a city. However, since the actual location of the school itself hasn’t changed, and Brookhaven still feels very much like an Atlanta neighborhood as opposed to a separate suburb, I think it still counts.
My intended major is social work, so I’d go off of that.
NYC: CUNY Hunter, Fordham, LIU Brooklyn*
Boston: Boston University
Philadelphia: Drexel, La Salle
DC: Catholic University
Chicago: DePaul, University of Illinois at Chicago
Houston: University of Houston
Atlanta: Georgia State University
LA: UCLA, USC*
*If I could afford it.
I don’t know if the better schools in Miami or Baltimore have social work, so I didn’t list them.
Cal Poly Pomona is prettyyyy far from LA (trust me); it’s at least a 20-30 minute drive from what people consider “LA” or you could take the Metrolink. But either way, it’s not close to what college students are looking for if they want an “urban experience” in LA.
A kid who wants an urban college experience would be miserable in an isolated rural school.
Especially a musician that wants to be exposed to culture and learn their craft and make connections.
Chicago also has Roosevelt / Chicago College of the Performing Arts
If you are willing to cross the border University of Toronto and McGill University in Montreal are located in the middle of vibrant, safe downtowns. McGill even has a green defined campus.
@iwannabe_Brown “Boston:
MIT, Tufts, Northeastern BU, BC”
Well the OPs instructions are that the school has to be in the city, not just close. That complicates the Boston answer.
Harvard and MIT are in Cambridge. Boston College is in Chestnut Hill. Tufts is in Medford. Brandeis is in Waltham.
So the best two schools in Boston are Northeastern and Boston University. Which of them is the best school in Boston is a matter of opinion. I would lean toward NEU, but I am sure plenty will disagree. That would leave you with Boston University.
@much2learn MIT in Cambridge is as urban as Northeastern and BU. Look at a map.
NYC: Cornell (Does a portion of the University count?), If not then NYU
Cambridge, Mass: MIT
Atlanta: Georgia Tech (Emory is the best)
Philadelphia: Villanova
Los Angeles: USC
Caltech is the top college in LA. USC and UCLA are the two schools behind it.
Villanova is in the town of Villanova, which is an affluent suburb in Philadelphia’s Main Line. If you want universities in the city–Temple, Drexel, St Joe’s, UPenn.
I think that CalTech is in Pasadena?
@TomSrOfBoston “MIT in Cambridge is as urban as Northeastern and BU. Look at a map.”
I was just trying to stay with the OP instructions that it has to be in (not near) Boston.
If they meant within the metro area that changes the answers.