<p>hi everyone, I was wondering as current NU students, how often do you have time to venture off to Chicago - for entertainment purposes, uhh classes and research oppotunities, etc? Like once every week? once every month? very frequently? or do students not do that often and stay in evanston because it's so expensive? because I know it's about 30-60 minutes away from campus.. </p>
<p>I'm trying to see if I'd really benefit from the presence of Chicago if I choose to go to NU.. while also really working on my studies.</p>
<p>it's all what you make of it....first quarter i didn't get into the city that much so my friend and i made a promise to take more initiative. sometimes we [or i by myself] wake up early one saturday, take the L train, and go walk around the city for a few hours, then come back in time for later lunch/dinner and still have some time to study.</p>
<p>also, there are many classes here that offer chances to get into the city...for instance, there was a flamenco art exhibit that we had to go to for my spanish class. also i'm in Medill [journalism] so right now we're doing a project that researches a chicago publication, so we're going to need to go into the city to get interviews, etc.</p>
<p>and it's really not that expensive. i live in a residential college so there's always subsidized tickets for shows [wicked, rent being examples]. so we get decent seats for like $26. also the exhibits aren't that expensive or are free. the thing that costs you money is shopping...michigan avenue is mostly for window shopping though, haha.</p>
<p>OH i almost forgot---chicago is GREAT for concerts, and you can usually find pretty inexpensive tickets--that gets me into the city the most...</p>
<p>BUT there are fun things to do in evanston too if you don't want to take the 45 mins to get into the city...i usually go out with friends for dinner in evanston every so often or catch a movie. it's a pretty good college town.</p>
<p>SORRY, i'm mostly rambling. hope this helps, good luck!</p>