<p>I've seen a bunch of posts on here asking about urban colleges, so I'd thought I'd try to consolidate them into one thread. Here is a list of the top universities located in a MAJOR city. Just so we can have an official cutoff, we'll use the top 30 cities by metropolitan population, according to the US Census. We'll also stick to the top 60 US News schools. These are schools that are either IN the city, or a maximum 15-minute bus ride from the city:</p>
<p>Boston College (Boston, MA)
Boston University (Boston, MA)
Carnegie Mellon University (Pittsburgh, PA)
Case Western Reserve University (Cleveland, OH)
Columbia University (New York City, NY)
Emory University (Atlanta, GA)
Georgetown University (Washington, DC)
Harvard University (Boston, MA)
Georgia Institute of Technology * (Atlanta, GA)
George Washington University (Washington, DC)
Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore, MD)
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Boston, MA)
New York University (New York City, NY)
Northwestern University (Chicago, IL)
Rice University (Houston, TX)
Tufts University (Boston, MA)
University of California—Los Angeles * (Los Angeles, CA)
University of California—San Diego * (San Diego, CA)
University of Chicago (Chicago, IL)
University of Miami * (Miami, FL)
University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA)
University of Southern California (Los Angeles, CA)
University of Pittsburgh * (Pittsburgh, PA)
University of Texas * (Austin, TX)
University of Washington * (Seattle, WA)
Vanderbilt University (Nashville, TN)
Washington University in St. Louis (St. Louis, MO)
Yeshiva University (New York City, NY)</p>
<p>UC Berkeley is less than a 15 minute bus ride to San Francisco, though I don't know that San Francisco is considered a Major city by population. I know it's smaller than San Jose, which is the third largest city in California, and has borders about 15 minutes from Stanford.</p>
<p>These are from the top universities lists, not the top liberal arts colleges list; that's why Macalester isn't on there. You can definitely hop on a bus and quickly be in downtown minneapolis (or downtown st paul) if you are at Macalester.</p>
<p>The times to get from Sarah Lawrence to New York City (8 minutes to Woodlawn), or Macalester to Minneapolis, by car are probably no different than the time to get from Northwestern to Chicago by car. </p>
<p>By bus would take longer, no doubt. Wonder if you're pulling out bus schedules, probably all are more than 15 minutes in reality.</p>
<p>Now if you're applying that rule for time to get to an actually desirable part of the city, that's a whole other issue. You'll have to go through your whole list then from scratch, because probably a number of schools that are actually in a city are located more than a 15 minute bus ride from the good parts of the city.</p>
<p>Macalester is in St. Paul, and I think most people regard Minneapolis-St. Paul as one big inteconnected metro area. If you don't so be it.</p>
<p>Monydad, it seems we have knowledge of the same geographic area :-P</p>
<p>As you yourself point out, you might get from the Fleetwood or Broxville Station (Sarah Lawrence is between these two stops on the Metro-North Harlem line) to Woodlawn in 8 minutes, who in their right mind would want to be IN Woodlawn?</p>
<p>Though I don't know the exact timing, a guesstimate would be 20 minutes from Sarah Lawrence to Grand Central Terminal.</p>
<p>At the same time, though, SLC is not a city school, and the immediate environs are not necessarily accommodating to college students. SLC is on the border of Bronxville, which is every preppy stereotype you can think of, and Yonkers, which is a largely working class residential city. If I were an SLC student, I don't think I'd have all that much to do in the surrounding areas, and my ONLY option would be NYC.</p>
<p>Actually at least sometimes SLC students hang in Bronxville. Or they used to, when the drinking age was 18, and so was I.</p>
<p>By the "who'd want to be there" standard, it is probably more than 15 minutes from Hyde Park, Chicago to the Near North side/ Division Street, or from Morningside Heights, NY to Greenwich village. And more than 15 minutes from Wash U to .. well, anyplace. Etc.</p>
<p>By the "suburban environs" standard, Evanston is definitely suburban, and is a dry town to boot.</p>
<p>The only real college hangout in Bville is Slave to the Grind, and from my understanding from my friend (who was an SLC student), there's a lot of tension between Slave's and SLC, each trying to out-hipster and out-intellectualize each other, I guess.</p>
<p>Your criticism is fair enough. In terms of being close to cool things in Chicago, I think that Northwestern might win over Chicago. However, Chicago is closer to the loop and near north side (I'd say about a 20 minute bus ride to the loop and about a 12-minute train ride; getting further north can take about 45 minutes to an hour, depending on where you want to go and what routes you want to take).</p>
<p>However, one also has to consider the relationship between campus and city. NU is more self-contained than UChicago, and I find myself in and out of downtown much more often. For example, Hyde Park doesn't have its own movie theater, its own clothing stores, its own Chipotle, its own Target, so I find myself in downtown doing basic errands, whereas I think a Bronxville/Yonkers or an Evanston has more provisions. I feel much more connected to Chicago as a city being a student at UChicago than I have to New York City, even though I've lived next to Sarah Lawrence for my whole life.</p>
<p>Main point? It seems like travel time to and relationship to city are somewhat independent of each other.</p>
<p>Here are a few that are "borderline", based on the OP's criteria, but I think should still be on the list:</p>
<p>UC-Berkeley (too far? Berkeley is still pretty "urban" and close to Oakland/SF)
Brown (Providence too small to qualify, but definite urban feel)
Tulane (Ditto for New Orleans)
University of Maryland (College Park is right outside DC)</p>
<p>
[quote]
Yet even as Evanston grew, it was threatened by the even greater growth of Chicago. Urban sprawl almost swallowed Evanston, but the smaller city was determined to preserve its independence, and by 1904 had on three occasions rejected annexation to Chicago.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Maybe that's why Evanston is so much better than the Chicago neighborhood just south of it (Rogers Park). ;)</p>
<p>
[quote]
Your criticism is fair enough. In terms of being close to cool things in Chicago, I think that Northwestern might win over Chicago. However, Chicago is closer to the loop and near north side (I'd say about a 20 minute bus ride to the loop and about a 12-minute train ride; getting further north can take about 45 minutes to an hour, depending on where you want to go and what routes you want to take).
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Wrigley Field is closer to NU than UoC - and the commute to the bars on Halsted is probably a wash.</p>
<p>Upon further review, Northwestern has been removed from the list. Also, the University of Maryland—College Park and the University of California—Berkeley have been added. I am not doing LACs on this list, but feel free to mention them. Providence misses this list by five spots, and New Orleans probably would have made it pre-Katrina. I will also fix my mistake about Miami, as well as a minor alphabetizing error.</p>
<p>Boston College (Boston, MA)
Boston University (Boston, MA)
Carnegie Mellon University (Pittsburgh, PA)
Case Western Reserve University (Cleveland, OH)
Columbia University (New York City, NY)
Emory University (Atlanta, GA)
Georgetown University (Washington, DC)
Georgia Institute of Technology * (Atlanta, GA)
George Washington University (Washington, DC)
Harvard University (Boston, MA)
Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore, MD)
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Boston, MA)
New York University (New York City, NY)
Rice University (Houston, TX)
Tufts University (Boston, MA)
University of California—Berkeley * (San Francisco–Oakland, CA)
University of California—Los Angeles * (Los Angeles, CA)
University of California—San Diego * (San Diego, CA)
University of Chicago (Chicago, IL)
University of Maryland—College Park * (Washington, DC)
University of Miami (Miami, FL)
University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA)
University of Southern California (Los Angeles, CA)
University of Pittsburgh—Pittsburgh * (Pittsburgh, PA)
University of Texas * (Austin, TX)
University of Washington * (Seattle, WA)
Vanderbilt University (Nashville, TN)
Washington University in St. Louis (St. Louis, MO)
Yeshiva University (New York City, NY)</p>