<p>H is in Chicago next week so we thought it would be a good idea for D to go down there for a couple of days and check out UChicago and Northwestern. H is going to be busy - so very likely, D is going to be on her own for the most part.</p>
<p>It looks like tours/info sessions at UChicago are in the morning (9.30/10.30) and NU has them at 1.15pm. Anyone familiar with the area? Can you tell me what the best way would be for D to get from UChicago to NU? How long does it typically take? This would be her first time riding the public transportation alone - she thinks she is going to be fine, I am the one who's a tad bit nervous :-)</p>
<p>Any dos/don'ts for these two universities? Anything that she shouldn't miss? H might be free to take her around some on one day, but if not, she's planning on going around by herself. Has done some browsing and has decided she wants to check out the Lincoln Park Zoo, the Navy Pier and perhaps the Sears tower. She also wants to go have the "upside down" pizza.</p>
<p>I am not an expert but when we visited NU last summer, we found the following thread tremendously helpful. It discussed everything from the Subway to Pizza. We liked Ginos and Second City was really fun (don’t forget to book online in advance if you want to go). Lastly, if it was my 17 year old daughter, I would be very reluctant to let her get around the city by herself. You know your D best, but there are occasional bad street corners and places if you don’t know what you are doing.</p>
<p>The two schools are north/south of center but should be easily gone between with the local trains- the “L” (stands for elevated)- check their online schedules. That would be safer and easier than busses I imagine. It’s winter and not the best season to spend much time outdoors at either a zoo or Navy Pier. I presume you are talking about deep dish pizza- locals can tell you their favorite places. Consider letting her spend time on the “Magnificent Mile”- she can have fun walking from mall/store to store plus see the view from the John Hancock building. Many families visit there so there are always plenty of people who are strangers to the city and it is safe. She and your H will find plenty of pamphlets for ideas in the hotels. I presume your H will be somewhere downtown as opposed to out near the airport (O"Hare), but either way she can get to places. On the southside she can visit the U of Chicago and see some museums- many good ones to choose from. Some favorites - the Museum of Science and Industry (so many diverse attractions), the Art Institute (I like the Impressionists) and the Museum of Natural History (nice gem collection). </p>
<p>I just dragged out one of the booklets I acquired from one of our numerous trips to Chicago. There is the CTA and the Metra to get you from the airport to everywhere she would want to go. Between advanced searching online and hotel booklets your H should be able to help her make good, as well as safe, plans.</p>
<p>I do think it poses some concern if she’s never used public transport and doesn’t have friends to navigate it with her. Getting to all of the places on that rough itinerary are going to involve both train and bus navigating skills unless she’s ok with walking a mile (in this weather, not the first thing on my list, and in my opinion, less safe than a bus). Ex., Lincoln Park Zoo is not really near a train stop, if I remember correctly from my visit. Evanston is on the fringe of the city and is about 1.5 hours from UChicago via public transit, and the Google public transport directions (which sometimes work well and sometimes don’t), require both switching train rail lines and taking a bus to travel between the two. </p>
<p>But besides the problem of trying to find the most simple public transport routes between the two, at least it will all be during the daylight, so eh. Bundle up, since you will be waiting outside (possibly for awhile) for the train and buses!!! I went in January to Chicago and found myself wearing layers under my jeans, under my coat, under my boots, a hat, ear muffs, ski mask, scarf, gloves, etc. Yes, this is a person who stubbornly refuses to wear winter clothing normally, gladly throwing a ski mask on. However, if your D is as excited about cities/adventures as I am, then she’ll still have fun at the outdoor attractions (people from Chicago whine so much about their winter weather, but correct clothing pending, it’s not so bad!). Then again, I’m from the mid-atlantic, so maybe you’re from the area and know all about it already.</p>
<p>If you have the resources – and I suggest this based on time, not safety – consider taking a taxi between UChicago and NU to get the most out of the time on campus. It’s a one-time thing. Once she knows the area, she’ll be fine taking public transpo any other day.</p>
<p>There are so many ways to get mixed up that I wouldn’t couple first-time-on-public-transpo with a tight campus tour schedule. Can she visit each campus on separate days?</p>
<p>If she finishes up in Evanston and wants to come back to your H’s hotel in Chicago, that’s a good time to try public transpo. Or the next day.</p>
<p>We lived outside Chicago for 3 years and loved it. Downtown in winter is colder than you’d think because of 2 things other than just the thermometer: winds blowing hard off the Lake causing a damp chill, and skyscrapers (of amazing architecture!) that tunnel the wind even more.</p>
<p>UMCP11 has it right about the cold, even on bright sunny winter days. Go for a tight fit in the outergarment around wrists and neck; cover-the-butt jackets; hat and scarf (sometimes needed for her face). SInce she’s an invincible teen, carry a backpack to toss in those things if she’s getting hot with them.</p>
<p>It wasn’t clear to me from your post whether you were thinking that she could do both the U of C and NU on the same day. I would say definitely not. </p>
<p>There are lots of great things to see in Chicago. I’d say the Art Institute and Millenium Park, The Aquarium and Field Museum, just walking around in the vicinity of the Hancock building and Oak St: all things that she can probably get to by taking the bus up and down Michigan Ave or walking (She’d have to take a bus or something to the Field and Aquarium.). I don’t think that the zoo is going to be much of a draw in the middle of the winter.</p>
<p>She can take the EL to Evanston. I’m not sure how much of a trek it is to the NU campus, but she should be prepared to do a lot of walking when visiting either campus. This is not the time for fashionable footwear! </p>
<p>I would consider springing for a taxi to take her to the U of C and back if she is unaccustomed to public transportation and the city. If not, she can take the C train down and walk over to the main part of the campus in perfect safety. (The rocky areas are between the Loop and Hyde Park/Kenwood, and south and west of HP/K.) 57th Street is a good choice because it goes by some Hyde Park institutions like the Medici Cafe and various book stores (used and new), and will take her to the Regenstein Library and the main gates into the quads.</p>
<p>I don’t know that anyone has said this just yet, but unless ALL she is going to do at UChicago is take the tour, it’s going to be tough to get to Northwestern in time for a 1:15 tour there. Even if you take a cab, I think you have to budget an hour or more to travel between the two universities. (On public transportation, it will take 2 hours+.) Two-and-a-half hours isn’t a lot of time to visit UChicago – it’s pretty spread out, and what you really want is to get a sense of the culture, not just the architecture.</p>
<p>I heard the NU one was particularly bad :P. </p>
<p>You get more of a flavor for the school walking around by yourself, in my opinion. Esp. since class is in session, you could even get a chance to talk to students in a dining hall or something.</p>
<p>As others have said, it’s preferable NOT to try to go to both universities in one day. I’d second the suggestion D take a cab to/from UofC. Northwestern is easy to reach by L - (either the Red line to the Purple line or the Purple line straight from downtown - the purple line from downtown runs only certain hours - Get off at Davis and it’s a few block walk to campus.)</p>
<p>I recommend the campus tours (some are better than others but it will give D a better sense of the campus than if she merely wanders around on her own - she can wander after she gets her bearings on the tour).</p>
<p>Do not do both in one day.
The CTA has cut back on buses and trains (yesterday was called CTA doomsday.) Add to this possible weather and I would not suggest it.</p>
<p>Take a cab from the Loop to the University of Chicago. I would suggest having a prearrranged ride to go back. (I can give you the number of some cabs in the city.)
The best public transportation to UC is the Metra Electric line. It picks up riders in the station under Millennium Park. (The CTA train line is quite a walk to the campus and I would not recommend it for a novice train rider.) There is a way to walk in the underground pedway from the Metra to the Red Line. But sometimes it is closed.</p>
<p>To get to Northwestern take the red line to the purple line. Get off at Davis, which is the main station or Foster. It is a several block walk and people are very friendly in Evanston and will direct your daughter. If she gets off at Davis, there should be cabs in front of the station.</p>
<p>The only way to do both tours in one day would be to take a cab (about 50 minutes midday) between the two campuses. Public transportation will take about two hours if you include the walking at both ends. Where is your husband staying?</p>
<p>If he is willing to go on one tour, make it the U of C. While that immediate neighborhood is safe, some of the area around it is not. I would not feel comfortable with a teenage girl, alone and in a new city, trying to takethe bus or train there. There are good transportation options from downtown, south of the river, so look into that area, or at Evanston, for a hotel.</p>
<p>Evanston is very safe in the areas near the campus and downtown. No need to worry about that visit. The Purple Line is more convenient to campus than the Metra train, but Metra is faster and nicer. It’s a 15-20 minute walk from Davis stations, a half-mile closer from Noyes station.</p>
<p>Different schools have different kinds of tours and vary in length. Some present most of their information in a video session at the beginning, then spend maybe an hour walking around. Others can take up to three hours. I’d find out how long the UC session/tour is, then determine if she can do both in the same day. </p>
<p>A few years ago, I was taking a class on what was former UC property (now belongs to a seminary) in the morning. In the afternoon I had a class at Garrett Evangelical Divinity School, which is on the Northwestern campus, so I made the commute many times. I would say even with a cab, you need to give an hour for transportation. I wouldn’t even attempt public transportation between the campuses as it can be quite complicated to get to the El from the UC campus (either lots of walking, or two buses). I’ve taken public transportation to UC to avoid driving in a couple of times, but it’s very time consuming, and like I said, requires two buses. </p>
<p>If, and this is a big if, she takes the 9:30 UC tour, and it only lasts a couple of hours, and she is prepared to jump into a cab and head up to NU, I think she could make it for a 1:15 tour, especially if the cab driver drops her off exactly where she needs to sign in/begin the tour.</p>
<p>Don’t pay attention to umpc11; no school guarantees that its tour guides are 100% on, on every tour. And everyone has different expectations as to what they want from a tour. Yours may be different than his/hers.</p>
<p>Does your D know what she wants to study? H has a couple of friends on faculty at NU and if it’s in their area, we could maybe arrange a meeting with them.</p>
<p>By the way, she probably won’t be the first person (or last) to attempt touring both schools on the same day. My bet is if you call up one of the schools and explain the dilemma to them, they will tell you the best way to manage it.</p>
<p>OP,
I assume your H & D will be staying in the Loop or Near North/Michigan Ave area. I actually think public transit to the University of Chicago is pretty easy and safe even for a novice if you take the #2 Hyde Park Express bus which runs from Navy Pier across to Michigan Ave, down Michigan Ave to the Loop where it cuts over to State St running right through the heart of the Loop, then proceeds non-stop via Lake Shore Drive directly to Hyde Park. This is mainly a commuter route for people who live in Hyde Park and work downtown so the buses run only during a.m. and p.m. rush hours, but they also run in the opposite direction (southbound a.m., northbound p.m.); just check the schedule:</p>
<p>This is the easiest way to get to/from Hyde Park. You can always find a cab downtown to get down to Hyde Park but it can be nigh impossible to find a cab in Hyde Park for the return trip to the Loop. </p>
<p>She’ll definitely need a second day to see Northwestern. The public transit is just about as easy. There’s a Purple Line Evanston Express train that runs from the Loop to the Davis St. station just about 2 blocks from the Northwestern campus. This is a genuine “elevated” train, a good way to see the North Side, and she’s not likely to encounter any rough characters on this route. Takes about 45-50 minutes. </p>
<p>Alternatively, if she’s more comfortable in more of a cocoon, there’s a Metra commuter rail train from the Ogilvie Center commuter rail station in the West Loop to Davis St in Evanston, about a 25 minute trip for $3.50 each way.</p>
<p>C’mon people, this isn’t so hard. These are safe, easy routes, and it will be an educational big-city experience. If she is seriously contemplating spending four years in Chicago, she might as well see what it’s like to get around.</p>
<p>Visit tripsweb.rtachicago.com
In addition to all the possible public transportation options for a certain route sorted by time, it gives block-by-block walking directions between transfers. Like other posters, I say definitely plan separate days for the tours. A good way to get a meaningful view of a campus isn’t to do a 50 minute tour then rush out without seeing anything else, no matter how helpful the tour is. She should eat at the dining hall, visit the library, sit in on a class, etc. I know there are a billion amazing things to do in Chicago, but at least here on the southside, many students don’t get a lot of opportunity to get downtown. It might serve her better to check out restaurants and attractions closer to where she’ll be living.</p>
<p>Not sure I would advise just wandering around NU as suggested above. We did that and it didn’t tell us much except that NU has a pretty campus. Now, it would not be a stretch to assume that the OP’s daughter is more astute, but I think the info sessions and tours, no matter how redundant, are useful.</p>
<p>And I agree that, if possible, a day for each school would be best, though not necessary.</p>