<p>I've been planning to apply to about 3 colleges in/around the Chicago area. I knew Chicago wasn't exactly known to be the safest city in the world, but apparently it's more dangerous than 96% of other cities in America (:/). </p>
<p>Is this a valid reason to cross a college off? I mean, you don't often here about Northwestern students randomly getting stabbed on the street. On the other hand, 96%.</p>
<p>Chicago is a big place with high and low crime areas. You may want to check a crime mapping web site to see whether the high crime areas are around the schools you are interested in.</p>
<p>Also, many students who grew up in low crime areas do not have basic crime prevention habits like locking doors and windows, not leaving valuables unattended, paying attention to surroundings when walking down the street, being familiar with how local criminals act, etc., making them easier targets for criminals.</p>
<p>Northwestern is in Evanston, and on the north side of Evanston at that, not Chicago. Let me ask you this - would you turn down Yale because of New Haven? Harvard because of Cambridge? Arguably shadier locales than the suburbs of Chicago.</p>
<p>…the most crime that’s ever happened in my town is someone vandalized a stop sign. Uh oh.</p>
<p>@ejcclc- I haven’t looked at either Yale or Harvard so I don’t know.</p>
<p>Colleges are prime targets for criminals in general–lots of valuables + relatively naive students. I go to Notre Dame, and there were two sexual assaults reported last weekend. I think if you’re vigilant, you should be okay. Chicago is a great city.</p>
<p>Note also that considerable crime at colleges happens between students, particularly when under the influence of alcohol (fights, sexual assaults, rapes, etc.).</p>
<p>None of the major colleges in Chicago are in the crime-ridden areas.</p>
<p>I think you answered it yourself, it’s not exactly a common thing, or a thing at all really, to hear about a student getting stabbed. People do get mugged, but that’s partly the result of what ucbalumnus mentioned about some students being more naive than others and not as common as you would think. If you compare the university police reports of, say, my college, UChicago, they’re actually very similar to that of colleges in “safer” cities. Although Chicago is statistically more dangerous than 96% of other cities, it’s a BIG city, one where many crimes are concentrated in certain areas, and anybody that makes sure to stay away from the sketchies parts of town after certain hours and does common sense things like not walk allong alleyways at night will be fine. You really do have more to fear from certain drunk students in parties, especially if you’re a girl. </p>
<p>I grew up outside of the US in an area that would be considered more dangerous than UChicago’s neighborhood is supposed to be, so maybe my perception is somewhat different, but to me Chicago is a great city that can be navigated easily with little risk if you stick to basic city rules. The worst that I’ve seen, and I would go tutor at a public school that was considered to be on a bad part of town on a weekly basis, was somebody grab a passenger’s iphone right before getting off the bus and running away. Even then, the rest of the passengers were very outraged and surprised, so that obviously was not a common thing.</p>