<p>Yes we had a backlog of shovel ready projects.</p>
<p>Hard to see both places in one day. Both have great dining options and museums. Just come back already.</p>
<p>Here’s another idea. If your daughter already has visited UC (which my son attended and loved), How about the following:</p>
<p>stay downtown
take early architectural boat tour of downtown chicago which is amazing
go to Art Institute and see the permanent impressionism exhibit
drive to northwestern and do info session and tour
return to ohare</p>
<p>Thanks to all who provided advice. We have decided to visit both campuses after all. We will land at ORD at 12.30am, rent a car, drive to Hyde Park, get to the B&B located two blocks from the UofC at around 2 am, sleep, wake up around 8am, go to the UofC campus at 9am, leave at 11am, take LSD ;), reach NU by 12.30pm, spend about 4 hrs on NU campus and then head back to ORD to catch our 7pm flight. </p>
<p>We have already spent several hours on the UofC campus in the summer and attended an info session and tour. The main goal of this revisit will be to see how the campus feels with the students on campus and to have an on-campus interview. Hopefully the interviewer will be able to address my D’s concerns about the ‘quirky’ and ‘fun-going-to-die’ reputation of the school. This is her main reservation with UofC- she loves the core curriculum and academic intensity that UofC offers- she just wants to make sure there will be enough “normal” students there :)</p>
<p>At NU I will attend the info session at 1.30 while my D will sit in on a class- she will have already been to an info session at her high school. We will then both go on the campus tour, and generally take in the campus scene until it is time to head back to the airport. </p>
<p>A full day for sure, but hopefully one that provides some clarity in understanding the merits of both of these fine schools. Wish us luck!!</p>
<p>I think that’s quite doable. Your travel times are pretty generous so I think you may have bit more time than you think which will be a bonus (unless Obama decides to visit home that day).</p>
<p>I think this is one of the best days to go short on sleep. And I’ve taken LSD more times than I can recall, and lived to tell about it.</p>
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<p>Please let us know how this worked out - we are doing the same thing in a few weeks except instead of leaving Chicago, we are going to Kalamazoo the next day. Would love some feedback on how doable it really was!</p>
<p>Too true about if Obama were visiting home that day! If that happens, plan on a new flight!</p>
<p>I don’t know what you mean by “normal people”. U. of Chicago has a reputation for attracting brilliant, academically intense types. I think she will get a much better idea if she will be comfortable with the kind of kids at U. of Chicago or any other school by attending some social activities on campus of personal interest to see if she would want to go to these activities if she were a student there. I am not sure that an interview will provide the answers you are looking for.</p>
<p>FWIW, as much as I despise the way the word “normal” is often used, my son, who’s about to start his second year at the U. of Chicago, tells me that most of the students there are a lot more “normal” (in terms of social skills and interests), and a lot less quirky/eccentric/socially awkward, than he had been led to believe was the case. The kids who study 24/7, or never speak to anyone, or never bathe, or walk around campus wearing strange costumes and muttering to themselves – like one guy who wears only tie-dyed clothing from head to toe, every single day – are in the distinct minority!</p>
<p>mdcissp: I put those quotes around “normal” because of course it depends on how you define normal. I agree, attending social activities might be a more effective way to tell how well she would fit with the student body there. She will be sure to go for an overnight visit in the Spring before she makes a final decision about which college to attend.</p>
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<p>That is my suspicion- and hope.</p>
<p>Follow-up: We did the trip last week and all went perfectly. We had a very brief overnight at the University Quarters B&B on Kimbark Ave, visited UChicago campus next morning, D had an interview, and then proceeded to NU. As predicted by bclintonk, the drive up to NU on LSD was only about 40 min, and the drive to O’Hare from NU was terrible, mostly because southbound I-294 traffic was a crawl. I wish we had taken local streets all the way to ORD instead of taking that short segment of I-294.</p>
<p>D fell in love with everything about NU. The campus is of course beautiful as expected. The two classes she sat in on were on par with the best classes she has attended on any college campus. NU is now just slightly behind H and Y on her list, easily displacing Georgetown for third place. She also has a better feeling about UChicago after this visit, though it is not among her top 6 choices. So all in all, it was a very productive visit.</p>
<p>Thank you all who gave advice and made suggestions.</p>