<p>Okay.
I admit it. I did a pretty bad job of initial research- I've never visited JHU or Wesleyan.
With that said, now that I'm frantically buying plane tickets and hitting the Princeton Review's 361, does anyone have any feedback (quality of education, campus life, student body, etc.) </p>
<p>At the moment Chicago is my top choice simply because it's quirky and I love the life of the mind attitude. However, can anyone tell me about campus life? Is there a good one? I know a huge amount of people live off campus and I'm a little freaked out about the location and setting. No grassy green quadrangles or anything...</p>
<p>Would Wesleyan offer a better education given that it has less grads than Chicago and thus there's more of a focus on undergrads? What about the grad resources that you give up when you don't have a large grad population...are those important as well?</p>
<p>Ok, JHU is in a crappy part of Baltimore, not Boston. U of CHICAGO is the one in the crappy part of Baltimore. No, just kidding.</p>
<p>Chicago does have a relatively large grad school, but it still has a decent rep for undergrad teaching. If you can handle the gritty urban life, JHU and Chicago would be the way to go, if for no other reason than you wouldn't spend the rest of your life explaining WHICH Washington or WHICH Wesleyan you went to. You really can't go wrong with any of these. You must have studied very hard to get accepted at them.</p>
<p>Be glad you have these options - Wesleyan is the only one not really in a city, so that one kind of stands out to me. Like said before, you can't really go wrong. WashU seems to be a sort of mild composite of the quirky intellectualism of UChicago and the competitiveness of JHU. WashU has a better social life than either of them as well.</p>
<p>Wesleyan is a great school and is a bit more liberal than your other colleges (similar to Brown in many respects). Wesleyan has traditionally been known for attracting high-quality professors.</p>
<p>The University of Chicago has large graduate student population, but most classes are taught by a full professor, and class sizes are almost always in the 5-30 range (with seminar format being common). Have you visited the campus? The architecture is beautiful, and the campus is wonderfully landscaped and listed as an arboretum. The housing system is distinctly unique, and you are guaranteed housing for all four years. Don't believe the hype about no fun; Scav Hunt and Kuviasungnerk are just two examples.</p>
<p>Johns Hopkins is different for a number of reasons. Juniors and seniors are required to live off campus, for one thing. The campus is relatively small and self-contained, and the unified feel of the architecture makes the overall campus appealing. Going into Baltimore (especially the Inner Harbor) is popular, of course, but extracurriculars like sports are also popular. JHU is academically driven, and students have easy access to research and internships. Although it's more known for the sciences, the humanities are also excellent, and students in these programs are more likely to get personal attention.</p>
<p>I've visited Wesleyan. Fairly nice campus essentially in the middle of a gritty, isolated, little ex-industrial town. Only the main street is gentrified. The rest is basically 1940's ramshackle. The college itself is, well, oddball heaven. The kids are bright, involved, but...er...bohemian and arty. Academically, though, the school is top-flight.</p>
<p>My cousin goes to JHU. It is in a bad area of Baltimore. Urban campus for sure. Lots of science types - a bit nerdy, pencil protectors etc. Lots of pre-med kids. Very competitive academics, very tough math and science courses. Good lacrosse team.</p>
<p>I was accepted at WashU ED2 and I visited the campus, so I am somewhat biased, but I think WashU is the best of the four. The kids are real bright, dorms and food are first rate, the campus is nice, the faculty is excellent and really cares about the kids, as does the administration. Academically, WashU is certainly at the same level as UChicago and, as has already been pointed out, the social life is probably better. Also, I know a bunch of kids who go to WashU and they all love it. What can I say? It certainly would be my choice among the four.</p>
<p>Question: What do you guys mean when you say the social life is better? More variety of things to do? More parties? A student body that's interested in having fun?</p>
<p><em>grin</em> I should mention that I'm not a partier- if we're talking about the stereotypical party with alcohol and such...I don't drink.
On the other hand socializing is a good thing. I hate to end up somewhere where the only activity of choice is studying.</p>
<p>UChicago should not be described as "gritty urban life". As was pointed out above, the campus is gorgeous. The surrounding neighborhood, Hyde Park, is quite upscale. Yes, there are some rougher urban neighborhoods nearby, but nothing that should be a problem. There is bus and train access to downtown, and lots of cultural opportunities.</p>
<p>The whole Hyde-Park-is-an-urban-oasis-of-beauty-and-safety thing always seems puzzling to me. You have to drive through some pretty rugged terrain to GET to Hyde Park, and when taking the train to the North Side, how well do you fit in with the other passengers? I read where the U of Chicago has a gigantic police force. Why do they have that if it's so safe there?</p>
<p>Taking the train to the north side is perfectly safe. The trains START in southern suburbs which are predominantly white and middle to upper middle class. They go through some rougher areas, then Hyde Park, then on into the downtown area. I'm talking about the railroad trains- not the "el".
It's a CITY- no it isn't Williamstown or Hamilton. If you don't want to be in a city and observe normal precautions, don't go to school there!</p>
<p>Yeah, those are pretty much the only two options among the 3,000 colleges in the US: Williamstown-like villages or South Side-style combat zones.</p>
<p>I have cousins who went to U Chicago who said the focus is on grads and the undergrads are often ignored. Overall I've just heard bad things about U Chicago. I spent a week at Wesleyan last month hanging out w/ my brother whos a senior there. The campus was nice if you're into the old New England look, and everyone was friendly and interesting. Wash U is supposed to be great too. I'd say pick between WashU or Wesleyan.</p>
<p>I live on the campus and am auditing a course there this year (while in high school). The prof who teaches the course won the university's Quantrell Award some fifteen years ago, and he is very approachable and has office hours two days a week. There are about 25 students in the class.</p>
<p>Hyde Park is fine, and everyone I have talked to feels quite safe. </p>
<p>Sure, the students here study, but they also make time to relax and have dome fun. </p>
<p>My opinion is biased, though. I will be attending the U. of C. next year.</p>
<p>russdelabuss- what bad things did you hear? In general I hear so many great things about each college that I'm almost thinking of using their list of cons to choose.</p>
<p>Hey. Like I said, I've heard from my cousins (who both graduated ~5 years ago) that the school focuses much more on grads than undergrads, almost ignoring undergrads. I'm not sure exactly what this entails. I've also heard the culture there is overly stressfull/not that fun and the campus isn't great..although those may be stereotypes. I'd definately choose Wes or WUStL.</p>
<p>From what I gathered when I visited, the social life at Wesleyan is pretty much centered on campus. But, I also got the feel that people had fun there, but keep in mind I was on a tour. There's a movie theatre (big film school), and you have your kids that drink or do drugs on the weekend etc., and your clubs. Wesleyan also has a rep for "politically active" students...</p>
<p>Also it's not that its really far from a big city, its that Middletown just isn't that great. There's New Haven, closest big city I think, and parts of it are o.k.</p>
<p>I got waitlisted there, but I'm thinking about pushing for acceptance.</p>