<p>And how applicable is this report from the Yale Daily News?</p>
<p>
[quote]
In comparison to Harvard, Princeton, the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia, Yale reported the second highest number of on-campus burglaries in 2004, the last year for which data is currently available. Harvard had the highest number, reporting 372 on-campus burglaries, while Yale reported 82 incidents. Columbia reported 16 burglaries, the fewest among the four schools.
<p>Incidents can happen in rural bucolic places too. Check with the crime stats that each college must produce to the USDept of Educ. But in general, common sense is what works best. Its extremely rare for incidents to happen on most campuses. Most incidents occur in rental apartments and homes in the vicinity of the campus. </p>
<p>Don’t go out alone. Don’t wander around at night in bad places. Don’t drink and go outside wandering around.</p>
<p>On campus data is available through Clery Act reports for each college, which you can find in a google search. It is harder to find data for surrounding neighborhoods, which can be important, especially if a person lives off-campus. For a small town, you can look at data for the whole town, which is often available through state websites or the FBI. Some cities post data by neighborhood. Some municipalities also map the scenes of crimes or partner with websites that map the information. However, I find those mapping sites a little hard to use. </p>
<p>Also, overall crime rates can be skewed by the aggressiveness of the police - the more arrests they make, sometimes the higher the crime rate appears. You need to look at rates of serious violent crime.</p>
<p>For big cities I personally prefer maps of homicide locations. For example, there are online maps showing homicides in Philadelphia for each year, going back many years. I believe those maps are on philly.com. It also helps to tell you neighborhoods to avoid.</p>
<p>I was surprised to see Yale with no murders reported for the last three years in the article posted by drac313. In 2009, one of America’s most notorious campus murders occurred. Annie Le was scheduled to marry just a few days after she disappeared. Le had previously written an article for Yale Medical School’s B Magazine titled “Crime and Safety in New Haven,” published in February 2009. [Murder</a> of Annie Le - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Annie_Le]Murder”>Murder of Annie Le - Wikipedia)</p>
<p>New Haven is kind of a sketchy place. Just saying. If I had to guess I would think that Yale would be in the most dangerous environment. It’s not un-livable but it’s not exactly the ideal place to live. jmo</p>
<p>The question is slightly inane. Depends on many things. If you exercise common sense, you will find all these universities very safe. New Haven, the south side of Chicago and Morningside are all areas with higher crime rates. However, the vast majority of students have no problems. Best thing to do if you are worried is talk to current students. All the universities will put you in touch with students.</p>
<p>I’d also mention that the universities you mention are among the most selective in the US. So you may well find that your question is purely rhetorical.</p>
<p>In inner city areas with high rates of crime, the vast majority of violent crime is committed against persons involved in the drug trade,women with abusive boyfriends or people in drunken arguments outside of bars. The main impact on a college student is typically property crime, such as cars broken into, stolen Ipads, etc. </p>
<p>Near Temple University in North Philly, a bunch of students were getting hit by home invasions. However, it turned out they were selling marijuana out of their apartments, and the real drug dealers realized they were an easy target.</p>
<p>If a person follows some basic street smarts, and doesn’t do anything to get anyone mad at them, they are unlikely to experience violence. Most street violence against innocent people seems to mainly occur at 2 or 3 am. Don’t risk your life to save your property - give it up quickly.</p>