<p>danas, thank you for your non-biased comment on the two schools :) very informative</p>
<p>Northwestern by a longshot</p>
<p>dpc1192, can you explain why?</p>
<p>well Northwestern seems more like a traditional college to me, which is something i'd be looking for.</p>
<p>There is alot of social activity along with strong academics and D1 sports.</p>
<p>From what I hear UChicago has very strong academics, but not much to do/ not much fun haha</p>
<p>cafesimone, you may wish to search dpc1192's posts. I think he may be looking for very different things in a college than you are, specifically a heavy social life. As far as I can tell, he has no connection to either NU or Chicago, unlike most of the people who have been posting on this thread who can tell you specifics about one or the other.</p>
<p>However, to his point, I do think that Northwestern is more of a "typical" college experience and Chicago a "quirkier" one. Put another way, I think you have to consciously be ready for Chicago in order to love Chicago. </p>
<p>FYI, since you mentioned Georgetown ... I was on the NU campus this past Sunday and some visitors were walking around, obviously disoriented, so I offered to help them. As I was helping point them towards their destination, the woman said that the campus reminded her very much of Georgetown, where she had recently visited. Now, it's been a while since I've been on Georgetown's campus (it was my 3rd choice school), but thought that would be of note.</p>
<p>"On a completely subjective basis, I would say that U of C undergraduates have become more professionally oriented than they were 10 or 15 years ago. I attribute this to the echo-boom generation overflow from the Ivy League. Of course it is also possible that this is a trend in society generally."</p>
<p>I echo Danas' comments and I would be interested in unalove's take on this. It would be a shame for Chicago to turn into NU (just like it would be a shame for NU to turn into Chicago). There's a place / role for both types.</p>
<p>Pizzagirl, I have to say, that woman you spoke to must have been very disoriented indeed (or standing next to Kellog on the deering field side. NU's campus is a gorgeous, sprawling suburban jumble of random buildings scattered over green spaces. </p>
<p>Georgetown is a dizzying maze of a unified architecture, largely of high rise buildings, with very little free space and designed to maximize their small parcel of land. I can't think of two campuses more unlike, barring an ugly campus. </p>
<p>(I like Georgetown's campus a lot, it's just completely different from NU's in almost every conceivable way.)</p>
<p>Georgetown is nothing like Northwestern.</p>
<p>Actually, there is a lot of social things to do at the U of Chicago and life there is certainly not as dull as some of the posters would lead you to believe. First of all, the arts are experiencing a huge renaissance at Chicago and a new arts center is being built which will give more space for theatre, film and music. Doc Films is the oldest university film society in the country and there are films almost every night in a gorgeous theatre, including some premiers of films(last year Robert Redford premiered one of his films there). There are numerous musical performing groups, including an orchestra, chamber music, choirs ( my child is in three of them including Russian Choir and Rockefeller chapel which has the largest organ in Chicago). Many religious groups have a presence on campus and Rockefeller chapel is breathtaking. There are martial arts groups, dance groups ( swing is quite big at the moment ), lots of intramural sports and an active division 3 sports program just to list a few of the many activities. A fabulous athletic complex, was built just a few years ago and the renowned Court theatre and Smart art museum are right on campus. There is an international house with a multitude of activities including foreign dinners, lectures from great minds from around the world, symposiums, etc. So, if you want extracurricular activities in addition to academic studies they truly exist at Chicago and are enjoyed by many. Fraternities and parties exist, but may be different than at NU. Each residential house differs, so their parties differ. Frats are not as prevalent, but they exist for those who are interested. Community service opportunities throughout Chicago also abound. In short, Chicago is growing and evolving and continues to be a vibrant and exciting place to blend academics and social life, but just in a different way then NU. It tends to have its own vibe, which is neither better or worse than NU, just different. It depends on the type of person you are and what you are looking for.</p>
<p>Thanks for the clarification, Cayuga and Arbiter! I myself was interested in Georgetown but hadn't been on their campus in years and didn't have a particular memory of it one way or the other, so I just sort of nodded at her assertion. </p>
<p>As to where we were, we were by the Rock with our backs to Kresge. And yes, this was a woman who was completely discombobulated!</p>
<p>Actually, I can see in one way how Georgetown is like Northwestern. Both are campus-oriented schools that aren't built into the street system but are surrounded by a rather well-off residential community close to a large city. They also both have rather modernistic/brutalistic architecture for their main libraries.</p>
<p>But in terms of campus feel, they are much different. One has Lake Michigan and a lot of green space. The other is kind of lacking in green space, has a lot of apartments and dorms built on top of one another.</p>
<p>The architecture of the UChicago library is neo-Brutalist just like Northwestern's library; to my non-architecturally trained eye, they look quite similar to one another. </p>
<p>Of note is that there are undoubtedly well-to-do Chicago families who have donated to both schools at high levels. NU has a Regenstein music hall; UChicago has a Regenstein library. NU has several buildings donated by and named after the Crown family, and I believe UChicago has a Crown sports facility. </p>
<p>Locally, the Pritzkers are known for their support of UChicago, but I don't know if they donate to NU or not.</p>
<p>Here is a link to the page with both that Ivory Tower article and the report of the underlying survey - so you can understand who answered the survey and what what the question was. Institute</a> for the Theory and Practice of International Relations | Teaching, Research, and International Policy (TRIP)</p>
<p>Having lived, worked and volunteered in Evanston (many years, too many)and after having a son on UChicago campus this year--I do not believe NU is safer. The same safety rules apply to both.</p>
<p>Either campus is beautiful, plenty of charm and places to eat. NU is on the lake and Chicago is very close to it. Neither campus is very convenient to either airport. I think there are shuttle buses from downtown Evanston to
O'Hare and from UChicago campus to airports. There is the CTA blue line train to O'Hare. From either campus, you probably connect to that blue line train in downtown Chicago.</p>
<p>Chicago has the X55 running right to MDW!</p>
<p>But at night I would probably take a cab, if only to save time.</p>
<p>Some more thoughts:</p>
<ol>
<li> Danas, I think your comment on suicide/ death by crime is somewhat silly. First of all, looking over a long period of time, the number of either are in the handfuls and I don't even think are numerically accurate. Second, no school serves as the cause for a suicide or other attack-- there must be a handful of pre-existing conditions at play for something to occur to somebody that the only way out is to kill themselves.</li>
</ol>
<p>Students who may feel inordinately burdened or pressured at Chicago (the presumed "cause" of these suicides) but still have the will to live will take a quarter off, a leave of absence, or transfer. Students who lose the will to live don't necessarily commit suicide on a logical schedule-- the only student I have heard of taking his life did so after the end of this academic year. If the student weren't depressed but were merely stressed out, he probably would have found the end of the school year a glimmer of hope and a time to relax. But instead there were other issues at play, and his enrollment at the University of Chicago seemed irrelevant to his decision to take his life.</p>
<ol>
<li> Chicago undergraduates have probably grown more professionally aware over time, but I wouldn't consider them pre-professional. The "pre" in "pre-professional" suggests that college is a means of studying for a vocation. The Chicago education is anything but "pre-professional" (unless that profession is a professor, I guess). Instead, I would consider Chicago students "professional"-- there are a lot of kids who want to go into banking and consulting, but they are darn proud that they've read Nietzsche and Leibniz.</li>
</ol>
<ol>
<li> I agree with danas about the hiding the wealth characterization. Chicago has a lower percentage of students on FA than either Amherst or Harvard, for example, indicating to me that about half of our student body (the half not on FA) is very, very wealthy.</li>
</ol>
<p>However, Amherst and Harvard (and other schools) get billed for being "rich" and "preppy." It obviously doesn't follow from economic truth-- it's much more the overall attitude of the school.</p>
<p>There are maybe four places to spend serious dough in Hyde Park, and they are two fancy restaurants I've never been to, University Market, and the Seminary Co-Op bookstore. No clothing or jewelry stores in the neighborhood.</p>
<p>Also, physical culture is just not valued at all here. Not only will name-brand clothing look woefully out of place here, but also the fact that nobody cares that you're wearing name-brand clothing or look exceptionally well put-together for 9 am class. You don't go to Chicago to showcase your clothing, your car, or your tan, just the way you don't go to Chicago because you want to party really hard a lot.</p>
<p>As a member of the half that's not on FA, I've at times felt a little guilty for being the "rich one" among of a sea of friends and housemates on limited budgets. I've felt the need to downplay the fact that I don't have to have a job or that I wasn't filing FA forms when the deadline came, or that I don't need to be paid this summer for my job.</p>
<p>unalove, pizzagirl, can you describe what typical classes are like at your univiersities??</p>
<p>I leave it to a current student to do that, but "typical class" spans a lot. There are large lecture classes (often intro classes or classes that you might take for a distribution requirement) and there are small intimate classes and everything in between. I was part of a specific honors major and so for most of my classes, there were about 12-15 kids in my class. Style? That depended on the professor and the topic, as it would anywhere. I fear you're asking people to describe something that naturally varies too much to have any one description attached to it.</p>
<p>Variety is definitely good. I guess that does make sense - college classes are similar in everywhere, right?</p>