<p>I think there would be noticeable differences between the culture in major midwest cities and that in Boston and New York City. However, I don’t necessarily think it would be uncomfortable for a midwest kid in Connecticut or Maine. </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Some folks, especially many in my city prefer the raw honesty and straightforward knowledge of where they stand with someone than having it sugar-coated with false politeness and gestures. </p>
<p>Also, one recording artist has turned it into a hit song a few years ago and despite controversy, the original still ended up being much more popular than the sanitized version. </p>
<p>Incidentally, I’m not one of them…but I do understand where they’re coming from. </p>
<p>"I grew up in the midwest but have been living on the east coast for a long time (32 years). Most of the differences I see in the way people behave are IMO a function of urban/rural or socio-economic differences rather than geographic differences. "</p>
<p>I agree with this. You know, upper-middle-class suburban living is pretty much the same everywhere in the US. </p>
<p>Comparing SUNY Albany with University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, the only two of which I have first-hand knowledge, the experience couldn’t be more different. Ethnically, students from New York City suburbs are generally raised with a much more liberal bias than I ever found at UIUC, even among my decidely un-Greek friends. On the other hand, I had never met kids actually raised on a farm until I went to UIUC. Having a School of Agriculture introduces an entirely different vibe than a school whose most selective division is the Rockefeller School of Government. Tailgaiting is not a NY thing, nor is attending football games with 70,000 people and having a mascot dressed as an Indian running up and down the field whooping and hollering. Nope, definitely won’t see that at a SUNY school. Now, Penn State State probably has more in common with UIUC than SUNY, so it does depend upon your definition of East Coast public. But CUNY schools and SUNY Universities compared Midwest flagships? Like being on different planets from a cultural perspective. I am glad I got to experience both - has made me a much better person for it.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>And Michigan is a lot bigger than Detroit! Other cities here are thriving. </p>
<p>I spent a year on the East Coast at college. In my experience, the people there were condescending toward the Midwest and people from there. The perception that anything worth seeing or any place worth living was on a coast really grated on my nerves (I now jokingly call the East Coast the “flyover states” since one flies over them from here to get to Europe). More than once, I had people glare at me when I held the door for them as I was entering or leaving a building. Prejudice along the lines of racism and sexism I encountered on the coast as much as I did in my home town; anecdotally speaking, I couldn’t tell you that the people out there were somehow more accepting than here. </p>
<p>I’m not sure how telling people off or cussing in their faces is somehow more “real” than holding your tongue and trying to be polite. Both are common human behaviors, and I think the norm anywhere in this country is still to maintain some level of civility to others. </p>
<p>Having lived in both, I think there are just different levels of provincialism in each. The difference is, people on the East Coast tend to extrapolate their experiences to the nation at large more so than the other way around. The biggest example of that is the fetishization of Ivies on the East Coast - which I understand, as I grew up with it myself - and the complete lack of understanding that in other parts of the country, other schools are seen as just as good if not better and the Ivies don’t have some sort of magic dust not equally available to graduates of Duke, Northwestern, etc… </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Yes, East Coasters can be obsessed with the Ivies. However, that doesn’t mean elite non-Ivy colleges are necessarily dismissed as abruptly as implied above. </p>
<p>I don’t know if you remember, but Duke was such a hot college back in the '90s in the east coast areas* I’m familiar with that it wasn’t unheard of for HYPS admits to be rejected. </p>
<p>Also, this Ivy fetishization didn’t apply to the hardcore aspiring engineering/CS set. If anything, like the engineering/CS folks in my family and employers I’ve encountered…most didn’t regard most of the Ivies very highly because their engineering/CS programs weren’t regarded as highly as schools like the usual suspects along with UIUC, UW-Seattle, etc. </p>
<ul>
<li>NY tri-state & Boston areas.<br></li>
</ul>
<p>I think it is difficult to paint anything with broad strokes, but at least anecdotally on this forum there is somewhat of a strange phenom of elevating not so great and unknown LACs over anything in fly-over country. But you are correct for engineering/CS the best of the best are not in the true NE. And colleges, like the kids that pick them, have a distinct “herd” mentality about their brand preferences and what was hot in one decade is Not in the next decade and can have absolutely nothing to do with the quality of the education or the institution. IU in particular has seen an uptick in New Yorkers and other east coasters for some reason, perhaps Indiana is recruiting the NE or perhaps it’s the herd instinct. </p>
<p>IU has long had strong programs in a wide variety of fields. In humanities and social sciences, it’s notable strengths include East Asian area studies and a well-respected conservatory. </p>
<p>Hannahbanana – I think you hit the nail squarely on the head. It has to do with surroundings – not just city vs. country but the effects of local climate as well. Some of the friendliness and unhurried-ness of Southerners has a lot to do with the fact that we live in a place where, before air-conditioning, people sat out on their porches or their neighbors’ porches, fanned themselves, and drank tea or lemonade to stay cool in the summer. Taking it easy in the middle of the day was what people, whether they worked indoors or outdoors, did to keep from getting heat stroke. That was probably more conducive to socializing than hunkering down for winter and bundling up in blankets to stay warm.</p>
<p>And you’re right about public transportation. People shut down on Atlanta’s MARTA as well. However, I had a very interesting experience on the NYC subway. My family started talking to a family from the West when we overheard them trying to figure out where they should get off. Before we reached our destination, a couple of friendly New Yorkers had joined in with advice. When we got off, we were all saying good-bye and wishing each other well. That showed me that even NYC subway barriers break down now and then!</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>True. But anecdotally, two of my four Chicago-raised nieces have chosen to relocate permanently to NY and environs. It would appear that only one of them is destined to remain in Chicago.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Last time I checked, MIT was in Cambridge. 
Or are you talking about public schools? I don’t really know what LACs you mean in this instance. Could you elaborate?</p>
<p>IU has had a significant reputation in the NE since I was a kid. For me, primarily the excellent music school, but generally well regarded. But from what I read in the wake of the Speirer case, it has become a major destination in certain circles in the NYC area.</p>
<p>There is definitely a herd mentality in college selection. One school or another become hot, and kids flock there. Elon, for example, started to experience a wave of popularity in the last 5 or 6 years.</p>
<p>“Some of the friendliness and unhurried-ness of Southerners has a lot to do with the fact that we live in a place where, before air-conditioning, people sat out on their porches or their neighbors’ porches, fanned themselves, and drank tea or lemonade to stay cool in the summer.”</p>
<p>And people in urban areas sat around on the front stoop, too. People have always made time to shoot the breeze with friends and neighbors that they cared about. </p>
<p>You can see the difference between a big city in the Midwest and, say, Boston by crossing the street. In the Midwest, cars may slow down or they may not. </p>
<p>In Boston, they accelerate.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Actually, in Boston, they also are liable to rear-end your car. Several New England drivers who have experience driving in NYC and Boston have said NYC drivers may be aggressive, but at least they know how to drive unlike their Boston counterparts. </p>
<p>One of them never had an accident during his first 19-20 years of life…including driving in and out of NYC for a family friend’s trucking company. </p>
<p>Once he started school in the Boston area, he ended up being rear-ended twice in less than 3 months. Both times, the other drivers was found to be 100% at fault. </p>
<p>Going back to the original query–OP wanted to know if her midwestern child would fit in at a flagship university on the east coast–specifically the University of MD and the University of Delaware. Assuming that the OP’s child adjusts to being away from home and what that entails, I can’t imagine that Maryland or Delaware students are going to be so different from the OP’s child that her experience would be a negative one. The beauty of a large university is that there are people from many different backgrounds and if a student isn’t comfortable with one group, there are a variety of groups from which a student could find likeminded folks.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Yes. The engineering at the midwest publics > the engineering at the NE publics.</p>
<p>IU is a great public uni…but last decade it did not have near the percentage of out of state students willing to pay the premium to go there. </p>
<p>@Marsian: Oh, it’s definitely possible to break down the wall. I was on the subway on Sunday with my friend and we were talking about the LotR movies and ended off in a whole geek-off with the woman sitting next to us- quite fun :). And I don’t know if you’ve ever seen the Improv Everywhere subway videos- talk about getting people out of their shells… (I’m actually a bit annoyed because they used to film them on the subway that I usually take but in the most recent ones they’ve switched to a different line… 
)
We’re not naturally unfriendly, it’s just conditioning :).
@Pizzagirl: Very true, but the key words are “people you care about”- I walk to synagogue on Saturday, and I’m much more likely to say hello to people in my suburb than in the city on the occasions I’m there for Shabbat if only because in my suburb I’m far more likely to know the people I pass in the street. In the city, even my friends who have lived there for their whole lives probably wouldn’t know 99% of the people walking past them on Amsterdam Avenue on any given Saturday morning. And that fact gives you a kind of a “bubble” attitude- I don’t know them, so really it’s just me walking and a whole bunch of extras in the film of my life who happen to be walking by.
When you spend your day with the clear possibility of walking past a guy in a Shrek costume for no discernible reason, you sort of stop looking around. It’s just too distracting. (It’s actually great, because it means that when I do weird things, like push a baby carriage with a Barney doll on the subway, nobody pays attention to me either. The disinterest is kind of mutual.)</p>
<p>People don’t say hello to random strangers on the street in downtown Chicago or Atlanta or Omaha either. At least not in my experience.</p>
<p>I was at a training in Boston a few years ago with a variety of people, one of whom came from a rural part of Rhode Island. She was surprised that when she walked down Boyleston or Newberry random passers-by did not make eye contact or say hello. 
And she probably lives 50 miles from Boston.</p>
<p>I really think that most of this is urban vs rural/suburban, period. </p>
<p>BTW, Boston drivers are a breed unto themselves. I don’t think there is anywhere else in the US where people drive like that.</p>
<p>^^^
Yep.</p>
<p>And in small group settings, people are just as nice and friendly in New York and Boston as they are in Kansas City and Birmingham, AL. (I’ve spent a good part of the last 30 years running small group sessions all over the US. I’ve found that after 10 minutes, most of the regional social style issues are completely neutralized.) </p>
<p>Which is basically what I’m saying. In the big city (basically any big city, though my experience is mostly limited to NYC), the environment is less conducive to constant friendliness than it is in suburbs or rural areas (or areas without big cities). (I would argue, though, that in NYC it’s on a much bigger scale.) This attitude can tend to trickle into other day-to-day activities involving big-city people, even when they have no big-city issues, though the PEOPLE THEMSELVES are no different than anyone else. Someone from a nice, chilled area in flyover country will have a good bit of culture shock from being plunged into Times Square (who wouldn’t?), but so will someone from a nice, chilled area in southern New Jersey (like my friend). Both of them have an equal chance of becoming friends with my other friend, the die-hard Brooklynite, once they’ve gotten over whatever initial kind of reactions they may have. City people may have more of an initial “bubble” reaction, but after a bit it’s basically gone.
@Consolation, I agree it’s more TYPE of community than LOCATION of community, though this thread does seem to suggest that different areas do have different ways of interacting and different mannerisms once you’ve taken the type of community into account.</p>