<p>So help me guys and it would be nice if you could put either urban/suburban/rural next to each college as well. I assume all these to be at least suburban...</p>
<p>Brown University
University of Virginia
University of Michigan Ann Arbor
University of Chicago
University of Notre Dame
Villanova
Northeastern
Binghamton</p>
<p>Try looking at the satellite view of each school in a mapping web site to see what surrounds each school.</p>
<p>University of Chicago: Urban
Northeastern: Urban
Brown University: Urban
University of Michigan Ann Arbor
Villanova: Suburban
University of Virginia: Suburban
Binghamton
University of Notre Dame</p>
<p>UC-urban–so-so at best neighborhood
NU-urban/nice neighborhood
Brown-Urban small city
UMAA-Top nice college town/city
Nova-City adjacent nice suburb
UVa-Nice college town
SUNY B-So-so small city
UND-Lousy non college small city</p>
<p>Binghamton is actually in a suburb (Vestal) of a so-so small city.</p>
<p>University of Chicago (Most urban; very nice campus)
Northeastern (Heart of Boston but award winning campus)
Brown University (Suburban feel with decent campus)
Villanova (Suburbia of Philly)
University of Michigan Ann Arbor (College town)
Binghamton (Rural)
Notre Dame (Very rural)
University of Virginia (Very rural)</p>
<p>University of Virginia is in no way “very rural,” informative.</p>
<p>Northeastern really prides itself on being an urban campus. It’s even on some of those banner things on light posts. In case we couldn’t tell by being there. As urban campuses, though, I think it does a good job of keeping its campus feel while connecting to the surroundings. That’s their goal, at least.</p>
<p>Urban: Northeastern, Chicago
Suburban: Villanova
Small city urban: Michigan (Ann Arbor MSA pop. 345,000); Notre Dame (South Bend-Mishawaka MSA pop. 317,000); Binghamton (Binghamton MSA pop. 252,000); UVA (Charlottesville MSA pop. 207,000).</p>
<p>For urban location, I’d take Northeastern over the University of Chicago in a heartbeat. Chicago is a great city, but the university’s Hyde Park location is a bit isolated, surrounded by some unsavory neighborhoods and not on a major El line. There are good bus connections to downtown, but if you want to do anything on the North Side it’s a real schlep. Northeastern is right in the heart of Boston with easy connections to all parts of the city and surrounding area. For the academics, though, Chicago has it all over Northeastern, and as others have said, Chicago’s campus is lovely, and Hyde Park itself is not without its charms and urban amenities.</p>
<p>Villanova’s suburban location is bland and boring, IMO, but there’s pretty easy commuter rail access to Philadelphia.</p>
<p>In the small city category, Ann Arbor is the easy winner. It certainly is a “great college town” loaded with student-oriented shops, restaurants, etc., but Ann Arbor is also the heart of a thriving, high-tech metropolitan economy. That makes it a relatively affluent and highly educated community, and with that comes a wealth of urban amenities that you’d typically find only in much larger cities. In contrast, South Bend and Binghamton (apart from their universities) are semi-depressed, graying Rustbelt industrial cities, where much of the industry has left. Charlottesville is a pleasant college town, upscale like Ann Arbor but without Ann Arbor’s critical mass of population and economic activity, consequently less in the way of urban amenities. Nice as college towns go, however.</p>
<p>OP, these terms mean different things to different people so unless you define your desires better the ranking will reflect the posters biases. One example, Chicago is in one of the, IMO, great cities of the world … by far the best big city among the options on your list. That said the school itself is in a very residential neighborhood with very little city stuff right off campus. Northeastern on the other hand is right in the middle of the urban bussell of Boston … if you want to walk off campus directly into city stuff Northeastern is way ahead of Chicago. So which is more urban? The school in a more urban neighborhood? Or the school in the much bigger city?</p>
<p>@3togo I know there will be biases and it’s different for everyone but I’m appreciating all the above replies. I was just asking in general because I don’t want to be at a very rural area for the next 4 years of my life. Also I’m thinking schools that are more urban have more connections & internship opportunities.</p>
<p>If you want connections/internships, Northeastern is probably going to be one of the better schools for that. It has top-ranked career services and lots of connections to be made through the co-op program.</p>