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University of Chicago is not a safety school. Their admission criteria is as strict as Northwestern's. The area right around it didn't seem bad. There were a lot of people out and about in the neighborhoods and it seemed like mostly hipster types. That's usually a sign of gentrification, at least in the Detroit area. The lack of activity on campus on a beautiful fall Saturday afternoon was disconcerting to her. Northwestern had students all over the place. I know it's a smaller school but you'd think we'd see more than 20 students on a campus of 6000. Even when we drove by DePaul there were students on blankets all over the lawn. Some were hula-hooping, some were studying, some were just hanging out, but they were outside.
I kind of think finding the right school is like finding your home in a sorority, buying a wedding dress or buying a house. When you walk on the campus, it just feels right, like home. I know it was like that for me. She felt that feeling at Barnard, Columbia, Northwestern and to a slightly lesser extent, Brown. Personally, I was really uncomfortable on the U Chicago campus. I felt really anxious there and I don't know why. It wasn't the neighborhood. There were two weddings going on at the campus with brides taking pictures in the area. There were a variety of elderly people sitting on benches on the campus. But, where were the students???
And yeah, it would be a stretch financially for me to bring her home for things like Thanksgiving if she was in California. That's a really pricey flight. Providence was a really pricey flight too. NYC or Chicago, easy peasy to get home. With Chicago, there's always the train to Detroit (which is how we got there this weekend).
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