<p>I'm sick of all the "It's not bad as long as you're careful" blather. You have an 18-year-old daughter; it's 1 a.m. on a Saturday morning; she's walking a half-mile back to campus from the worst part of off-campus that's adjacent to the campus. Rank these from safest to most dangerous:</p>
<p>USC
Johns Hopkins
Chicago
Trinity (Conn)
Penn
Columbia
Tulane
Yale</p>
<p>Ok then. It is bad at all of them no matter how careful you are. She would be better off at the state penitentiary than a college campus. Tell that daughter to work on her illicit activities so she can be safe from the evils that lie at our institutions of higher learning.</p>
<p>Sorry, this had to be said.</p>
<p>Yes, urban campuses can be dangerous. I have a daughter who goes to one of the schools on your list. She's pretty street-smart and knows enough a) not to be in that 'worst' part at 1 am; b) always walks with at least one friend at that hour no matter where she is; and c) should she find herself in that situation for some reason, would call campus security and they would escort her back to her dorm. You do have to know the lay of the land, and her school is very upfront about where it's safe and less safe to walk (as I'm sure most of these schools are.) </p>
<p>I can't really rank the list for you because I'm only familiar with four of the schools and their surrounding neighborhoods. Of those, I'd put Penn at the bottom, at least these days.</p>
<p>I like this alternative list better: UCLA, Georgetown, Northwestern, Wesleyan, Haverford, NYU, Vanderbilt, Princeton.</p>
<p>If your daughter is smart enough to get into those schools (or even be considered) then you shouldn't have to worry about her walking in the worse parts of town at 1.</p>
<p>I can only comment on USC, because I use to live pretty close to there and I'm from LA in general, BUT USC is smack dab in the middle of downtown LA. Could consider UCLA, both in southern Cal. But with UCLA, on one side you have Beverly Hills, on another you have Bel Air, on another Santa Monica.</p>
<p>My parents went to schools (both undergrad and grad) that were in neighborhoods far, far, far worse neighborhoods during their time than any of the schools on that list. It seems like they had a lot of concerns about my going to college, but safety wasn't really one of them.</p>
<p>I think any big city has safety concerns, and separating "bad" neighborhoods from "good" neighborhoods gets dicey. Hyde Park (where Chicago is) is gorgeous, as is Penn's Locust Walk, as are many parts of New Haven, but it doesn't mean I wouldn't be aware in those parts. Cities have more people in them; with more people come more criminals;criminals have feet. Safety concerns probably play a bigger role in my life at Chicago than they would if I went to school in the middle of a cornfield, but again, it's easy to avoid walking alone at night.</p>
<p>And to be perfectly honest, I'm willing to take the risk of being mugged or whatnot to have the kind of college experience I'm having. I'm happy at Chicago, happier than I ever thought I'd be. That's worth much more than a wallet to me.</p>
<p>Columbia is actually quite safe -- you can look up the police crime reports for the neighborhood around the campus.</p>
<p>Fortunately your child would never be half a mile from campus if she is in an urban environment. Either she would be on foot and within 2 blocks of the campus borders, or she would be somewhere downtown and taking a taxi back.</p>
<p>I go to Trinity, and generally, we walk together. Hartford is a city, and as in any city, it is best to walk with someone you know at 1 in the morning.</p>
<p>However, if it actually was 1AM on a Saturday, your daughter would be able to call the Trinity Campus Shuttle to pick her up. It has flashing lights and a little "Trinity" sign on the side. They'd be more than glad to drop her off at her dorm building, safe and sound.</p>
<p>So, I think an urban environment should be viewed less as a constant threat to safety, and more as an opportunity for real-world experience... in reference to the internship/job opportunities and independent living.</p>
<p>Yale also has a free shuttle service from sun down to sun up- you call from anywhere in new haven, and they'll come pick you up and drop you off anywhere. just need to show a yale id.</p>
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If your daughter is smart enough to get into those schools (or even be considered) then you shouldn't have to worry about her walking in the worse parts of town at 1.
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</p>
<p>Intelligence and street smarts are not really linked.</p>
<p>I don't know much about the individual schools, but I'd look for services like nighttime student shuttles.</p>
<p>That's true, but almost every school (including those in cornfields) have some sort of safety awareness as part of orientation. If your child is great at quantum physics but needs help in real-life skills, you should encourage him or her not to wear ipods (ipods are expensive, easy to snatch, and indicate a lack of awareness), to walk in well-lit areas along popular routes, to know where the safety phones are, and to cross the street or change direction if anything looks suspicious. ("Suspicious" includes people who are too old to be college students loitering, parked cars with people in them, etc.)</p>
<p>I've also gotten used to looking around me, especially behind me, and if I'm walking from one place to another-- even for just a bit-- I like to know where other college students are and in what directions they're headed.</p>
<p>Chicago's pretty good with safety awareness. There's a listhost that cites incidents and gives safety tips, and the student newspaper includes a police blotter. Basically 99% of the crime happens when the victim is alone on a deserted street after 10pm, or there are equally preventable conditions in the scenario.</p>
<p>We have a shuttle system (as well as an escort system) so that students do not need to be roaming around by themselves for any reason. Those that do find themselves wanting to move from place to place late at night usually ride bikes.</p>
<p>And that's not to say that students at Chicago don't roam around by themselves at night-- some students feel safe enough to do that, and those that do haven't had an experience that would make them consider otherwise.</p>
<p>More on safety at Chicago, with crime statistics and all:</p>
<p>Common</a> Sense</p>