<p>I'm looking at:
Boston C
Claremont McKenna C
Cornell U
Northwestern U IL
Rice U
Swarthmore C
U Chicago
U Pennsylvania
Washington U St. L.</p>
<p>Collegeboard's descriptions of rural, suburban, and urban are just too broad, and I'd like to know how these schools campuses are. </p>
<p>Collegeboard syas that UChicago, UPenn, and Rice had urban campuses. I'm fine with urban, but I just don't want to go to a "faceless school", kind of like NYU. But it's hard to tell because any school can make itself seem like it's gorgeous. </p>
<p>^^True imo as far as penn goes. Locust walk is obviously gorgeous but beyond that most are just buildings in the city. The Quad is beautiful as well. Swarthmore is very green and small when compared to other colleges apparently but idk… i don’t think it’s that small. There are a mixture of buildings from the postcard Parrish to some uglier ones that I could do without :).</p>
<p>Btw most schools have viewbooks… which are apparently photoshopped… but i doubt to such a great extent that they’re sneaking gothic-styled buildings into the background ;). There’s also google…</p>
<p>I can tell you about BC, UChicago and Northwestern from my personal experiences. I’ll just cover my opinions of the campuses, but if you have any other questions about the schools I would be happy to help as well!</p>
<p>Okay, so Boston College really doesn’t feel like it’s in Boston at all. The train comes above ground for most of the ride out there, so it runs super slowly, and it takes a good 45 minutes to get there from any part of the true city. The campus itself was actually in a kind of run down, quintessential tiny college town. There were basically a few drugstores and grocery stores. However, once you are actually on the campus the feeling really changes. The small campus and gothic architecture felt very much to me like Duke. It was really prettty, but almost cold feeling to me.</p>
<p>Now, UChicago, however, is right in the heart of the city. However, it still has a really nice grassy campus. Though UChicago was my least favorite school I ever visited (for other reasons) the campus was actually one of the prettiest. A lot of the buildings are totally covered in ivy, giving a very prestigious, astute feeling. It also had a very small campusy feel, despite being in the middle of the city.</p>
<p>Northwestern, however, was not as pretty. Similarly to BC, the drive out to Evanston was way too much out of the city for my personal taste. And the roads out there and in Evanston itself…bumpy, to say the least. There were a few views of the river that were really pretty at Northwestern, but overall it had a very midwesterny vibe with a lot of stucco and concret; it was basically a 180 from UChicago.</p>
<p>Sorry I can’t help you on any of the others!</p>
<p>WashU is in St. Louis, but is in a suburban neighborhood. Right next to Forest Park. Downtown is just a metrolink ride away (and you get a metrolink pass).</p>
<p>I can speak for Northwestern. When I visited, there was a really nice view of the lake (the campus is right next to it). You can go stand by the shore and its nice. As for the campus itself, it is kinda big (15-20 minutes to walk from one end to the other). But it’s connected to the rest of Chicago by train and it only took I think 30 minutes by train to get downtown. Based on what my friend told me, the area around campus sucks (full of angry old people who get easily annoyed by stuff going on on campus). Not the best college town.</p>
<p>Rice is incredible! You’ll be walking disrance from the medical centre (which I’m told is the biggest in the world) and on the museum district. Inside the campus, it was very green and the buildings were nice. Rice is its own thing with downtown Houston, which I felt was chaotic and vast. The dorms are their own little communities. They were like very nice apartments. I stayed at Martel which had very down-to-earth students. And I’m sure Im forgetting something. I highly recommend Rice to people though!</p>
<p>Cornell is a very big and pretty campus with waterfalls and forests. You can expect to walk about 20 minutes on average to get from your dormitory to anywhere-- class, collegetown, libraries, etc. The surrounding area is a typical collegetown with apartments for students and a small selection of bars, restaurants and shops. Farther than that, you’ll find the Ithaca townies, which are pretty unique people… The winter weather has a notorious reputation but I would say that it doesn’t conflict with everyday life and I really enjoy seeing the campus covered in a layer of snow. If you want a very enclosed and traditional college campus (as opposed to the “faceless” urban campus), I’d say we’ve got it.</p>
<p>I saw Boston College. I went in the winter and the weather was brutal. The surrounding town was surprisingly rather ill-kempt, with potholes and stuff. BC’s buildings are stone and very beautiful, but I didn’t like how the whole campus was situated on a hill (which doesn’t sound like a big deal but when it is freezing outside, walking up and down the hill or taking a million stairs was annoying!)</p>
<p>I also sat in on a business class which was fair.</p>
<p>Swarthmore is beautiful. Regardless of season, it has a beautiful campus. The campus is an arboreteum so there are gorgeous plants all over the place with name plates. It’s a pretty small campus, I’d say you could walk across it in 20 minutes, 30 if you’re walking to Mary Lyons (furthest dorm, technically off campus). There’s Crum Woods, which is what it sounds like… woods with paths leading down to a creek. Off campus, there’s the ville which is the town of Swarthmore. There’s a co-op, a few small restaurants, a few kitschy stores. 15 mintues away walking is a mall with a Target and all the typical mall stores (there’s also a shuttle there certain days of the week). Philadelphia is really close if you want city life, like a 30ish minute train ride. The train station is at the foot of campus.</p>
<p>The campus is also pretty darn safe. I’ve never felt uncomfortable walking around after midnight and I’m female.</p>
<p>Imo, Northwestern has a pretty campus. It’s right on the lake, and you have a neat view of the Chicago skyline if you go by the lake. The lakefill is also beautiful, and the landscaping around the rest of campus is gorgeous. There are also beautiful, somewhat hidden gardens that are quiet, secluded places for studying if you know how to find them. Some buildings are more aesthetic and interesting than others. Many of the buildings are very different from and unique compared to each other; that is, there really isn’t a common theme to the architecture - almost every building is a different style. A few of the buildings are kind of plain, but there are definitely beautiful buildings, too. There is lots of ivy and trees everywhere. I’m not sure where the campus boundaries technically end, but the houses around campus tend to be beautiful and fancy-looking as well.</p>
<p>If you live on South campus, it’s an easy walk to Evanston. I’ve never personally had experiences with Evanston residents being difficult, although I have heard that historically, there has been tension between the University and Evanston (stemming mostly from tax issues, I’ve heard. Plus, it can’t help relations any when students are noisy late at night or toss beer cans into residents’ lawns). But like I said, I’ve never had issues with this. Overall, I would highly recommend Northwestern’s campus.</p>
<p>I can only speak about University of Chicago, which is the only institution on your list I formally visited.</p>
<p>It. Is. Gorgeous.</p>
<p>From Robie House (hurrah for Frank Lloyd Wright! :)), which sits on the campus, to Rockefeller Chapel, which towers over practically an entire block, the University of Chicago possess architecture that makes even a hardened, artistically unappreciative jerk like me whistle aloud. I liked the proximity to Chicago but the relative isolation, which gave the school a traditional campus feel. The neighborhood is far from ideal, I will admit. But the vastness of the campus, beautiful architecture, wonderful student population, and lovely landscaping more than make up for it.</p>
<p>I’m headed off to CMC this fall, so I can tell you a little about that one. If you like beautiful weather and palm trees, along with a very small friendly campus, you’ll like CMC. It’s not as absolutely gorgeously breathtaking as its neighbor Scripps, I’ll admit, but you basically just cross a street to get there anytime you want. And CMC’s campus is definitely attractive as well, at least in my somewhat biased opinion. A lot of students seem to hang out lying around outside or sitting on the fountains. Everything on CMC’s campus is within like a three-minute walk of everything else, but there are four other colleges literally right there so it doesn’t feel claustrophobic. The dorms are nice, that’s why it’s on the Princeton Review’s Dorms Like Palaces list! There’s also a reason why it ends up on everybody’s Happiest Students lists. </p>
<p>LOL, I sound like I’m selling it. Sorry. I just really loved it when I saw it.</p>