I grew up in the New Haven suburbs, spent six years in Baltimore during my husband’s residency, went to college at Emory and have lived in Atlanta for over twenty years. I agree with you about the areas around Yale. I don’t think most people realize how bad New Haven is - but it’s actually not as bad as it used be, and I would happily risk my life for a decent slice of pizza.
I too consider Baltimore to be dicier than Atlanta. I didn’t allow my kids to apply to JHU even though their grandfather is an alum and he really wanted them to consider it. I have never felt particularly unsafe on Georgia Tech’s campus, but there are shootings and car jackings in the area all the time. As I said in my post above, safety is a legitimate concern on any urban campus. The students need to be aware of their surroundings and use a little common sense. On the other hand, horrible things can happen anywhere. Would anyone have thought the University of Idaho was unsafe until recently?
Memphis is comparable to Baltimore in terms of crime rates. According to a list published in Forbes of most dangerous cities in America, Baltimore comes in at number 5, Memphis at number 6, Atlanta and New Haven didn’t make the list (nor do NYC and Chicago) I didn’t find the area around Rhodes to be particularly bad, and like Georgia Tech, the campus itself is very safe. You can look up the Clery reports if you want to compare campus crime statistics. I linked an old thread about safety concerns at Rhodes in case you haven’t seen it.