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^ I agree, Philadelphia has a better location in case you want to visit other great cities (NYC, Boston, DC) and has some better surrounding nature outside of the city.
Sorry Charlie. Pound for pound ? Philadelphia blows the doors off of DC and Boston.
Honestly, Chicago is better city. NYC and Chicago and Los Angeles are the three truly better cities in the US than Philadelphia, and Philadelphia does a lot of things better than LA. I think Philly is next in line and is truly a fierce competitor for San Francisco, DC and Boston. However, Chicago truly just does most things better as a city, from nightlife, to public transit, to shopping, to highrises, to museums, to attracting jobs, to parks, etc. However, Philly is better in higher education and hospitals, also might be better in the historical preservation and charming neighborhoods. Also probably better in natural beauty, and definitely better in location. They're probably tied when it comes to food and crime and even architecture. Chicago definitely has better highrise architecture even though Philly is no slouch here, but Philly definitely has better midrise and lowrise or home architecture.
Sorry Charlie. Pound for pound ? Philadelphia blows the doors off of DC and Boston.
What are you talking about? I was comparing Chicago and Philadelphia. Nothing else - Philadelphia has a better location for getting to other, better cities than Chicago does. DC, Boston, NYC, etc are better cities than the likes of Milwaukee, Madison, Indianapolis, Minneapolis, etc.
Honestly, Chicago is better city. NYC and Chicago and Los Angeles are the three truly better cities in the US than Philadelphia, and Philadelphia does a lot of things better than LA. I think Philly is next in line and is truly a fierce competitor for San Francisco, DC and Boston. However, Chicago truly just does most things better as a city, from nightlife, to public transit, to shopping, to highrises, to museums, to attracting jobs, to parks, etc. However, Philly is better in higher education and hospitals, also might be better in the historical preservation and charming neighborhoods. Also probably better in natural beauty, and definitely better in location. They're probably tied when it comes to food and crime and even architecture. Chicago definitely has better highrise architecture even though Philly is no slouch here, but Philly definitely has better midrise and lowrise or home architecture.
Either way Chicago comes out on top for sure.
Not sure where you come up with this, but IMO they're about even. While Philadelphia has UPenn, an Ivy League school, Chicago has U of Chicago which is essentially an Ivy League school and rated slightly higher than UPenn (though they're close). Chicago also have Northwestern University near it which is rated in the top 15 universities in the nation. While the main campus is not in Chicago proper, Evanston is directly adjacent to the city and they have small campuses downtown where students attend. The main campus is located less than 4 miles from Loyola University and is also accessible via a city train that will take 30 minutes to get between there and downtown (which is just as long as some areas inside the city).
Anyway, if you go by US News Rankings:
4 ) University of Chicago
8 ) University of Pennyslvania
13) Northwestern University (Chicago)
95) Drexel (Philadelphia)
106) Loyola University - Chicago
116) Illinois Institute of Technology
121) DePaul (Chicago)
121) Temple (Philadelphia)
149) U of Illinois - Chicago
Even if you took Northwestern out, it would be pretty even and IMO may still slightly favor Chicago. I think if you can count Northwestern (and IMO you can since they have a campus inside the city and their main campus is within a mile or two of the edge of Chicago) then it would put Chicago over the edge easily.
As far as "Charming Neighborhoods" goes - very subjective. Philadelphia has a lot, but so too does Chicago. There are many charming neighborhoods that tourists never, ever see like Roscoe Village, Ukrainian Village, Bucktown, Lincoln Square, Edgewater, Lincoln Square, etc that are just as charming if not moreso than the likes of a Lincoln Park or Old Town.
For Hospitals, UPenn is on average ranked more highly than the likes of Northwestern or U of Chicago, but Northwestern is not that far behind it with most things. I'd probably agree with you on this, though Chicago is not that far behind in reality.
Not sure where you come up with this, but IMO they're about even. While Philadelphia has UPenn, an Ivy League school, Chicago has U of Chicago which is essentially an Ivy League school and rated slightly higher than UPenn (though they're close). Chicago also have Northwestern University near it which is rated in the top 15 universities in the nation. While the main campus is not in Chicago proper, Evanston is directly adjacent to the city and they have small campuses downtown where students attend. The main campus is located less than 4 miles from Loyola University and is also accessible via a city train that will take 30 minutes to get between there and downtown (which is just as long as some areas inside the city).
Anyway, if you go by US News Rankings:
4 ) University of Chicago
8 ) University of Pennyslvania
13) Northwestern University (Chicago)
95) Drexel (Philadelphia)
106) Loyola University - Chicago
116) Illinois Institute of Technology
121) DePaul (Chicago)
121) Temple (Philadelphia)
149) U of Illinois - Chicago
Even if you took Northwestern out, it would be pretty even and IMO may still slightly favor Chicago. I think if you can count Northwestern (and IMO you can since they have a campus inside the city and their main campus is within a mile or two of the edge of Chicago) then it would put Chicago over the edge easily.
As far as "Charming Neighborhoods" goes - very subjective. Philadelphia has a lot, but so too does Chicago. There are many charming neighborhoods that tourists never, ever see like Roscoe Village, Ukrainian Village, Bucktown, Lincoln Square, Edgewater, Lincoln Square, etc that are just as charming if not moreso than the likes of a Lincoln Park or Old Town.
For Hospitals, UPenn is on average ranked more highly than the likes of Northwestern or U of Chicago, but Northwestern is not that far behind it with most things. I'd probably agree with you on this, though Chicago is not that far behind in reality.
Fair enough, they can be tied on Universities. I wasn't sure of the rankings off the top of my head honestly and was just guessing at ratings and honestly forgot about U of Chi.
Philly is definitely the better hospital/healthcare/medical/pharmaceutical city. Not only does Penn rank higher than Northwestern slightly, but Thomas Jefferson and Temple Hospital tend to rank very highly as well.
Also, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia consistently ranks as the number 1 Children's Hospital in the country year after year.
All on all, I still would consider Chicago the better city. It does the majority of categories in which you rank cities better than Philly, but I think Chicagoan's should at least acknowledge the categories in which Philly does better.
For Hospitals, UPenn is on average ranked more highly than the likes of Northwestern or U of Chicago, but Northwestern is not that far behind it with most things. I'd probably agree with you on this, though Chicago is not that far behind in reality.
It's interesting to note the that according to the US News & World Report the Children's Hospital Of Philadelphia (CHOP) was ranked not only #1 pediatric hospital in the US but also #1 in the entire world.
On the other hand these rankings fluctuate from year to year so we can't hold them up as some kind of indisputable fact.
The main thing that makes Philly more appealing to me personally is A.) the weather, B.) the historical heritage, and C.) it's geographic location.
No I am not denying that Chicago has "charming" neighborhoods, but Philly has more 18th Century streets, lanes, and houses than any city in the US. Not important to most people, but I love wandering down some of the narrow cobblestone (Elfreth's Alley is true cobblestone, most are Belgian block, but a couple of blocks of Camac are wooden) lanes that Franklin, Washington, Jefferson and others strolled down.
To be fair Chicago is unquestionably superior city when it comes to "big city amenities" - restaurants, shopping, business, theater, etc. Marshal Field's (now Macy's) is so much more impressive than Wannamaker's (now Macy's). I even think Chicagoans are friendlier than Philadelphians.
Not sure where you come up with this, but IMO they're about even. While Philadelphia has UPenn, an Ivy League school, Chicago has U of Chicago which is essentially an Ivy League school and rated slightly higher than UPenn (though they're close). Chicago also have Northwestern University near it which is rated in the top 15 universities in the nation. While the main campus is not in Chicago proper, Evanston is directly adjacent to the city and they have small campuses downtown where students attend. The main campus is located less than 4 miles from Loyola University and is also accessible via a city train that will take 30 minutes to get between there and downtown (which is just as long as some areas inside the city).
Anyway, if you go by US News Rankings:
4 ) University of Chicago
8 ) University of Pennyslvania
13) Northwestern University (Chicago)
95) Drexel (Philadelphia)
106) Loyola University - Chicago
116) Illinois Institute of Technology
121) DePaul (Chicago)
121) Temple (Philadelphia)
149) U of Illinois - Chicago
Even if you took Northwestern out, it would be pretty even and IMO may still slightly favor Chicago. I think if you can count Northwestern (and IMO you can since they have a campus inside the city and their main campus is within a mile or two of the edge of Chicago) then it would put Chicago over the edge easily.
You forgot to include Princeton University which happens to be ranked #1 on the US News list. Overall, you have to give the edge to Philly area when it comes to higher education. Not only in quantity but quality as well. The Philly area is more solid on all levels of college ( Division-1, 2, 3, etc).
Philadelphia, its not in the midwest and has a much better location with all the amenities of a major city, plus amazing history.
I know Philadelphia made so much history, but during this right now, Philadelphia is nothing, because Philadelphia has most poor people and lots ghetto house more than Chicago, and there is lots of murders and shooting in Philadelphia and Chicago, so I have to agree with Chicago
You forgot to include Princeton University which happens to be ranked #1 on the US News list. Overall, you have to give the edge to Philly area when it comes to higher education. Not only in quantity but quality as well. The Philly area is more solid on all levels of college ( Division-1, 2, 3, etc).
No, I didn't forget to include Princeton because it shouldn't be included in it. Princeton is almost 45 miles from Philadelphia. Everything I listed in that list above is either in the city of Philadelphia or in the city of Chicago. Except for Northwestern which is in Evanston, which is literally 1 mile outside of the city and has a large medical school/medical campus in downtown Chicago.
No, I didn't forget to include Princeton because it shouldn't be included in it. Princeton is almost 45 miles from Philadelphia. Everything I listed in that list above is either in the city of Philadelphia or in the city of Chicago. Except for Northwestern which is in Evanston, which is literally 1 mile outside of the city and has a large medical school/medical campus in downtown Chicago.
This is about metropolitan regions, though, right? Princeton is in Central New Jersey, which arguably is within overlapping Philadelphia and New York spheres of influence--so it's not out of the question to associate the school with the Philly region.
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