Case Western Reserve (CWRU) culture, social life, etc.

Colleges and Universities A-Z Case Western Reserve University
1

Hi! I’m a high school senior and I got into Case EA w/ 23k for electrical engineering (female)! I’m very excited!!
I have some pretty scattered questions and was wondering if any of you could give me any kind of insight or wanted to ask any questions of your own so we can get a good discussion going.

  1. What is the social scene like? Do all parties revolve around getting drunk, etc?
  2. What is there to do on weekends and on/off campus?
  3. What are the dorms like? How is housing overall?
  4. What’s the food like? Do you get bored of it really easily?
  5. What is greek life like?
  6. How easy is it to get engineering classes? What are they like?
  7. What is the city of Cleveland like? What kind of fun stuff is there to do outside of campus? I’ve never been!
  8. What is campus like? What is the culture like?
  9. How’s work-life balance for eng students?

Thank y’all so much! Congrats to whoever else got in & I’m looking forward to visiting campus (is there anything specific I should look out/plan for?)

2

Also!! How bad are the winters? What is the weather really like and how does it impact life?

3

My daughter has visited case 3 times since June including an overnight so she gave me a bit of insight into some of your questions.

  1. For all the information she was given, Case has a pretty tame party scene, but if you really want to party you can find one.
  2. There are so many art and cultural opportunities right around campus and all students have free access to public transportation as part of the tuition costs. Lots to do!!
  3. Dorms are average, nothing special. Downside, no AC, but really only an issue for a couple weeks in the fall.
  4. Food was average cafeteria food. We had a made to order stir fry at the open house. She reports breakfast was pretty decent.
  5. No info
  6. The draw to Case (at least for my daughter) are the opportunities related to engineering including classes, research, and coops that stood out to her. Case Western has a bigger focus on undergrad than graduate studies.
  7. Cleveland looks to be in the midst of a revitalization and we were pleased with what we saw.
  8. Campus is in the city, but still had green space. Clean, a mix of architecture and easy to navigate.
  9. It seems that most case students are super involved in activities and also have to work very hard to keep it all balanced. Definitely not an “easier “ school by any stretch but doable with determination.

And weather can be tough for someone not used to the cold/snow, but we are from western PA so not too different than what we get here. My daughter was accepted ED for biomedical engineering and will be attending in the fall! I recommend you get to an admitted student day this spring to form your own opinions.

4

@pink2018 , congrats on your acceptance and scholarship. My son is a junior/engineering student who loves Case and has a happy social life. He’s just coming off a 6-month co-op with a local company. He had a good time. He’s living off campus this year with friends he made freshman year.

There’s a lot to say, but here is a link to a discussion from last year that covers a lot of info about Case. Hope this helps!

http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/case-western-reserve-university/1816795-case-western-reserve-university-ea-2020-fit-p1.html

My biggest tip for you: plan to go to one of the accepted student overnights. You will get a really good feel for whether the campus “fits” you or not.

5

Congratulations! You will love Case Western, its intellectual and accepting of all students, with a nice
mix of international students, students from the northeast, midwest and Texas, with a smattering from the western US.

Son attended Case 2013-1017 and just had a visitor who is a sorority member and a junior at Case visit me.

A lot of upper classmen cook either in off campus housing or in on campus suites with kitchens. There are a variety of cafeterias on both the main and south residential campus. You can use your dining points at a few other spots. The new Student Center sports a Zingermanns Coffee. Zingermanns is the best bakery from Ann Arbor Michigan, wonderful baked goods. Check out Little Italy and Presti’s Bakery too.

Cleveland Art Museum is walking distance and offers two dining options and one is a less expensive cafeteria
thats really good for some variety on food. Also your freshman writing seminar, called SAGES classes, will ask you to visit the Cleveland Art Museum for at least one assignment. Also you will be asked to do one or two service projects as part of the regular Case Western curriculum, its a great way to get out into the city and get to know it!

There is always a lecture or concert to attend, with Cleveland Institute of Music on campus, and those students
take their English, and general ed at Case Western, so there are a number of fine musicians in the area.

A few students will cross register at Cleveland State, but not that common for electrical engineers.

Electrical engineering program has a strong emphasis on control theory, which is really strong.

Cleveland Winters are much milder than upstate New York, and way less snow. It tends to sleet in Cleveland but
some winters are cold, if the midwest is getting arctic like weather. Winter of 2013/14 was very cold. Last three
winters were mild. Lake Erie has a warming effect on Cleveland so every day at about 5 pm, it warms up 5 to ten degrees. With that, be ready for wind, rain, and clouds for some part of the year. But its just not the heavy snows we expected at all. Fall is beautiful, Summer is totally amazing, not really that hot and lots of fun activities. Spring may be colder than you are used to but not too bad. There are microclimates so even five miles further from Lake Erie
gets more snow and cold. Buffalo gets buried in snow, by comparison.

Some dorms have air conditioning, my son lived at 115th Street suites for junior and senior year, with AC.

Greek life is both service oriented and social. You can live in a sorority for some of your time and decide to move
off campus when you are ready. I think its a pretty healthy mix of sororities that focus on service versus social life, so you will have a choice, according to my friend there.

On weekends my son and his friends went apple picking and ice skating, and also took the Healthline Bus into downtown Cleveland for going out to eat. West Side Market is a nice diversion on the train, its an indoor city market, thats fun to visit. CWRU students get a bus/train pass, and everyone learns to use the system to get around, Also you can buy discounted season tickets to Cleveland Orchestra which is walking distance from most dorms on campus. The downtown theaters are amazing, if your parents come into town, be sure to take in a Broadway play or Musical there.

One nice neighborhood some students live is Coventry, my son rented a duplex there , the summer he worked on a research project at Case Western.

Many but not all Sophomores live on a hill, called South Residential Campus, and there are some sororities up on this hill, and you can see Lake Erie from up there, and get to Little Italy easily.

A lot of upper classmen bring cars to Cleveland, but if you live far from Ohio, you may not need a car, as your friends will have one and that will help to get to a few activities where the busses and trains do not run.

6

The concern I have with Case is that it lies within a High Crime area. Additionally, the freshman dorms are located on the outside edge of the main part of campus.

Crime in the area is understandably downplayed, but it is definitely an issue.

7

@kohio The freshman dorms are in a protected area in north central campus, which is bound
by 115th Street on the east, with upper class houses and a Case Western Baseball diamond,
Nobby’s Ball Park to the east, across 115th Street which buffers East Cleveland. The the far north, is less safe,
but nothing up there to do, the restaurants, Art Museum, Orchestra and downtown are in other directions.
There is a bridge on Euclid, which leads across the railroad tracks, the train that goes to both downtown
and the International Airport, and East Cleveland is on the far side of this bridge.

In four years of walking there, I never stumbled into East Cleveland, its not easy to accidentally end up there,
and if you did, it would not be the end of the world either.

its the South Campus that you
may be talking about, which is on top of a hill, closer to Little Italy but its quiet up there and more isolated from the main campus, but still easy walking distance, and not particularly dangerous in feel. The south campus has its own
dining hall, some Greek Houses, and dorms for sophomores mainly. Some sophomores choose Clarke Tower
which is near the freshman and houses both freshman and sophomores. The Freshman are divided into houses, a little like Hogwarts, and they have outings with their House, and IM sports with their house. They are housed by interest, either art/music, sustainability, or service and one other thematic house.

The Greenie busses go to all the locations and I rather think the main campus is a tad easier for most students. My son was able to stay in housing on the main campus all four years. The area near 115th Street seems safe, which is where upper class housing is, not the freshman housing. The Freshman housing is somewhat more protected, and near the cafeteria, in a set of buildings on

What I found, in four years of visiting, is that the trains and buses feel largely safe but the local community shares
them with students. The crime area I found is 55th Street and I found that when I rented a car, not taking the train from the airport. There is no way that students can wander to 55th Street, its miles to the west of campus. East Cleveland may be what you are concerned about. Students do not have to go there, but the Healthline Bus takes
East Cleveland residents past CWRU to Cleveland Clinic jobs or jobs in downtown Cleveland.

I found downtown Cleveland to be not bustling, with energy but still safe feel during the day, the Lakefront is pretty and nice architecture , especially the older musical theatre halls, really lovely old New York City style theaters there.

The one crime that does come onto campus is some robbery. I think its pretty rare if students do not go out
late at night to be a victim. There was one robbery over the summer in 2014, when my son was home
and there was one robbery in Little Italy that I was aware of.

I think Cleveland is a small scale city compared to Chicago, NYC, or Baltimore and has less activism.
Its just not on anyone’s list to protest there, making it actually a lot safer.

Yes, areas seem poor both to the west and east of Case Western, but not so bad that I was afraid
too often for my son’s safety. I think the areas are recovering and Case Western has a GOOD to OUTSTANDING
relationship with the Cleveland community.

The campus is urban, Euclid is a busy city street, but the green spaces are really nice, near the Art Museum,
the older architecture of the Quad, and the Maltz Performing Arts Center, a huge brown dome that was
a historic synagogue, with the blossoming new Health Sciences building close by that ties Cleveland Clinic
and Case Western together for educating dentists, doctors, bioengineers and social workers in health.

If you have any more questions, please ask. Students do get notified of crimes on and around campus
and the campus police cooperate well with local police, is my understanding.

8

Sorry typo in the middle, there, the Freshman housing is bound by Juniper St., Hazel Street and 115th Street.
Its all in a tight group, with the post office, cafeteria and student printing center grouped together. The football field
two baseball fiends, and a workout Rec center are all in this area. The Viele Recreation Center is further south. East Cleveland starts far east of 120th, but its separated by a train there so not really a place people wander back and forth.

Little Italy bound by Mayfield, Murray Hill Road and on the other side of the train tracks, but its
very accessible and I stayed in a B&B on the corner of Cornell and Murray Hill and was able
to walk to the freshman dorms with no issues. So students going back and forth to Little Italy are safe I believe.

I hope that makes it more clear. I don’t feel there is a lot of danger unless a student is wandering
after midnight alone, but with Greenie Buses should not need to do that at all.

You can search on crime stats in Cleveland and locate CWRU to understand how close it is to higher crime areas.
As I said, 55th Street is more poor, but its not close to campus. You could choose to drive through that way,
but you can also take Carnegie St or Chester Street from one of the Freeways and avoid 55th Street.

University Circle is the name of the CWRU neighborhood to search on.

9

Hey, so I just got accepted EA too, so I can’t really answer your questions about the college in particular, but I have lived in the Cleveland area for 17 years! I don’t think the winters are that bad, but I’m used to it. I think “bad winters” are pretty relative, where are you from? Sometimes we have really mild winters(liek the last one) and sometimes there is 3 feet of snow, sometimes I can wear short sleeves in December and sometimes it is so cold the snow creaks under your feet(it was 1 degree the other day)! The weather can vary a lot and you should definitely invest in a very warm(long) coat and warm, waterproof boots. Fall is beautiful and perfect “jeans and sweater” weather, sometimes warmer, and is beautiful!
Cleveland had lots to do. We have a concert hall( with cheap tickets for students to the orchestra), a huge theater complex with multiples companies including traveling Broadway shows, some of which have super cheap student tickets, University Circle has a free art museum, a natural history museum, etc… and there are events through them too. Plus, there’s the Cavs, the Indians, the Monsters(and okay, yes, the Browns). Concerts and stuff come to the Q, convention center, or Wolstein center(all within about 15 min of Case. There are lots of restaurants, a couple Lake Erie beaches, and a pretty good public transportation system throughout the city. The area near University Hospitals has developed lately and has a bunch of restaurants, a giant bowling alley, a contemporary art museum, and more.

10

Our son has been at Case for the last four years. He has had a great time there. Colder than the east coast (where he lived prior to college), but he adjusted well.

Regarding safety, there are many colleges/universities that are in inner cities close to crime. U. Chicago is a great example of that. Our son has walked close to campus for four years without difficulty, often very late into the evening. While you can find crime if you move beyond the borders of the university (University Circle) and Uptown, those areas are safe and manageable. I would hate to see prospective students say no to a great university related to inflated concerns about safety.

11

Thank you guys so much! This information really helps :slight_smile:

12

The problem I have is that people are downplaying the crime problem.

The students are warned to stay within a certain perimeter, but there is no wall around the campus and the incidences/security alerts for the area have steadily increased. Cleveland/ East Cleveland are definitely dangerous;robberies and guns in the area are an issue.

I am not saying not to go to Case, I just feel students/parents should be presented with an accurate assessment of safety on and around campus.

13

Also learn about the safety “features” they have…

They have a shuttle that goes around campus

They have a door to door service at night…called the Greenie bus (was green when I was at school) that you can request via app from 7pm to 3am (we had to call back in the day)

They have a “Shield app” that helps you request help or report incidents http://case.edu/publicsafety/safety-on-campus/cwru-shield-app/

Here is a thread to read:
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/case-western-reserve-university/1316142-safety-at-cwru.html

14

I am U. Chicago and JHU alum. So let me tell you my story about campus safety. UChicago, back when I did my undergrad in the 1980s, was down right dangerous. The campus perimeter was not “marked” but everyone knew, nope, don’t walk alone at night to Cottage Grove station… and never ever walk alone pass south of 60 street… That was in the 1980s. Now, if you ask me, would I be comfortable to send my daughter to UChicago for undergrad. I would have to stop and think hard. Same thing with JHU at Baltimore, when I did my grad there, my goodness, do you even want to get out of the lab 3 am in the morning and walk back to the dorm or the apartment nearby? Again, that was in the late 80s and early 90s, compare to now, those were the better days for those neighborhoods. East Cleveland is definitely not safe to walk alone after dark. Don’t go there. Plan a map to go around that if you want to drive to the campus. I have a friend working at Cleveland Clinic right now and he basically told me the same things as everyone been posted here. The train and the bus can get scary, but as long as you are not alone and late in the evening, then no worry. The campus itself is safe and the University Hospital area is also ok. It is one of those things about an urban school. You just need to be aware of where you are at night, and when travel alone.

15

@Mickey2Dad No one has to drive through East Cleveland to get from the airport to Case Western, because East Cleveland is east of University Circle, and the airport is west.

Case is located at 110th street to 115th Street. East Cleveland is 125th Street and higher. The dangerous area is 55th street, but you can drive through it. I did that. No problem at all. I would not walk 55th at night
but its way too far to get there on foot from Case Western. The airport is 15 miles to the west of 55th street.

My assessment is East Cleveland TODAY is not even close to what the U of Chicago surrounding was like in the 1980s. My sister U of C class of 1985, so I visited
U of Chicago in 1982, 83, and now many times years as my sister is still there. Hyde Park is now
a posh neighborhood, but still has some surrounding areas that are not so safe. Cleveland is better than the area surrounding Hyde Park and there is really no chance of wandering into East Cleveland at all from University Circle.

Students can go to a fast food restaurant or Walmarts in East Cleveland and its OK. Its not as racially tense
as I see parts of Chicago are today, Atlanta near GaTech either. I just visited GaTech two months ago.

Its a matter of knowing where to go. Atlanta just northwest of GaTech is a little worse than the area
around Case Western. So GaTech students are pretty regularly mugged in that area, even with a lot
of police at GaTech.

Cleveland is way smaller than Atlanta and feels less racially charged up to me. I have visited both
this year, and have visited Case Western seven times, always took the trains and only rented a car
once of those seven times. I also do not rent a car in Atlanta, and walk too, its a bit more dangerous though
in parts.

The Cleveland community is more integrated, and less racial tension than either Atlanta or Chicago.
I am not familiar with Baltimore, but I only know what I see on the news–riots and fires lit near JHU
a few years back.

16

Guns are a problem all across the USA, not just Cleveland but I think other campuses like GaTech are about
the same or a little worse than CWRU for safety. Cambridge MA had one murder per month when I lived there
on Memorial Drive, in early 1980s, the road where all the MIT dorms are. Staying indoors after midnight is a good rule in Boston, the area around Columbia U, U of Chicago, U of Southern Cal, in Los Angeles and JHU, as well as CWRU.

Parents who are really nervous about crime at colleges, should look up the death rate due to drinking, drug use, suicide and car accidents and they MIGHT feel better. :slight_smile: Statistically speaking its very unlikely for a college student to die of gun murder. Even School shootings are very rare, and thats not typically East Cleveland gangs
but crazy students shooting other students. So again, your child is not likely to get shot, its just a very low probability.

Here is a recent crime map of East Cleveland and you can see where 55th is on the other side,
but again, CWRU students don’t have to walk into East Cleveland and they do not do that.
They can occasionally shop over
there without a problem, using a car. I have done that.
I think it requires a visit to really understand the layout there, and the
train line divides up this area. So students are walking the other direction towards Cleveland Clinic and Art Museum,
or taking a bus into downtown but rarely going into East Cleveland as downtown, the international airport, the West
side market, students are traveling west to get to those.

I would suggest students visit, maybe with their parents , use the trains and busses and decide if they are comfortable living in Cleveland.
Take the Healthline Bus that runs up and down Euclid and into East Cleveland,
to the lake front and see if you can handle it. You will be riding this bus with East Cleveland residents
and I have never had a problem on the Healthline bus. Many East Cleveland residents work at Cleveland
Clinic, and get off there. Downtown Cleveland is about 15 minutes to the west on the Healthline bus.

Case students get free transportation and learn how to use it.

I road the trains and busses in the winter
in Cleveland with my son five years ago in Cleveland and decided he could handle it.

Cleveland is a caring community. My son enjoyed tutoring middle schools students from East Cleveland
who came into University Circle for a math program at a church on Euclid. It was safe to walk
to that church and safe to work with these students.

https://www.neighborhoodscout.com/oh/east-cleveland/crime