Neighborhood with the most college town feel? (Chicago, Evanston: chapel, home)

[chikid]

So in your opinion what neighborhood (or town in NU's case) has the most college town feel? In my opinion it would be at tie between Lincoln Park, more specifically, by the DePaul sub-neighborhood and Evanston.

DePaul/Lincoln Park has a significant amount of students that live on-near campus, and a significant amount that don't. What makes it feel like a college town are college staple companies like Pita Pit and all the college age oriented bars and restaurants. Lincoln between Fullerton and Webster is comparable to Green St in Champaign. It's definitely the most livliest college area in the city.

Northwestern/Evanston, I believe is probably the most like a college town in the traditional sense. Just in the simple fact that Northwestern is almost dominant and synonmous when the words Evanston are uttered. Having most of it's undergraduate students living in Evanstion and in or near campus also helps. It just lacks that little spark of nightlife that you would find in Lincoln Park, or places like Green St in Champaign.

UIC/Near Southside area is definitely up and coming and getting more of that college town feel, especially down Halsted.

Loyola/Roger's Park I find to be quite lacking.

University of Chicago/Hyde Park I think has a very good feel of a college town due to its isolated like feel from the surrounding neighborhoods and it's dominance of the neighborhood.

[chet everett]

The fact that w/o UofC Hyde Park has little reason for existing in any form that resembles what it currently is echoes the feel of true college towns of theNig Ten , the Ivy League and even smaller liberal arts schools.

Evanston is not the home to NU's Law or Medical Schools, and this both dilutes the "college town" feel of Evanston while giving grads of the professional schools an excuse to basically have no association with Evanston.

Every other area listed suffers from "the urban school problem" -- no one in their right mind calls Milwauke a "college town" despite the presence of Marquette, the UW Medical School, and other colleges. Ditto for NYC despite Columbia, NYU and dozen lesser know colleges. Ditto for LA despite UCLA , USC and many other schools.

Contrast the feel of ann Arbor or Tempe or Chapel Hill or Madison or Oxford MS or Yellow Springs OH...

[chitown85]

It depends how college town is defined.

In the traditional definition, there is no college town in Chicago. It doesn't feel like Chambana, Madison, or Bloomington.

In the definition you describe of having lots of college kids and college bars and campus type activities, DePaul area of Lincoln Park. Lots of frat guy and sorority girl types at the college like bars in the area. Big sports theme in the bars. The bars are more of the polo and shorts crowd rather than having to get dressed nice.

I don't consider Evanston a college town because it is a very urban suburb of a very large city. Most people don't really associate Evanston as continguous with Northwestern, while Madison is almost always continguous with UW and Bloomington with IU. Evanston exists independent of NU.

[chitown85]

Boston is the ultimate college town, but it isn't a college town. Boston has hundreds of colleges and about 250,000 students per semester descend on the city.

[chikid]

Well okay, well maybe people didn't get my question. I am not comparing it to towns that feel like Champaign-Urbana, Bloomington, Iowa City, etc. I am well aware due to Chicago's size there is not a true "college town". What I am asking is what area comes closeset to having that feeling? UW Seattle, is in the middle of the city, and the area around it has a very college like feeling. No, Seattle is not a college town, but it has has a college neighborhood. Is that fair to say? Perhaps that is what I mean. What neighboorhood has the most college feel to it?

As for campuses being separated as you note Northwestern's Med and Law school, I disagree with that point, some of the most traditional colleges have that. Cornell's med school is in NYC, yet Cornell and Ithaca are a very traditional college town. The med students would have no reason to ever go to Ithaca. Even school's like Arizona State have their business school nowhere near their main campus. Honestly, I feel that grad students don't contribute that much to the college feel of college towns and college neighboorhoods, except when they are there just for class or research. I am a grad student at UIUC, and virtually no grad students live next to campus or near the undergrads. Most grad students live in downtown Champaign or near downtown Urbana. Grad students are more concerned with work and networking which is why most of the major grad programs for Loyola, DePaul, Northwestern, and IIT (some of it) are located in downtown. Virtually almost all the grad students in my program at UIUC could care less about Green St, frats/sororties, Illini athletics (unless it is their alma mater) or the whole college experience. For that matter most have never even been to the Engineering Quad which is the most beautiful quad, IMO, on campus.

[chitown85]

I really don't think any of the Chicago campuses have a college town feel. UIC has a campus, but the surrounding area doesn't give it the college feel. There really isn't a true college neighborhood in Chicago. Lincoln Park doesn't meet the definition either.

[chikid]

I have to disagree. For instance compare the feeling of the neighborhood around Northeastern Illinois University, IIT and North Park University to University of Chicago, DePaul and Northwestern. There is definitely a difference in the way those neighborhoods feel in comparison to others, in terms of college students (yes and I am aware that demographics has something to do with it). If there really was not a neighborhood that had a college feel to it, then I think we should say that NEIU, IIT, UIC, DePaul, UC, NU and Loyola all have the same feel because, well there is no neighborhood that has more of a college feel to it than the other. However, that is not true. There are some that the college gives the neighborhood a special characterstic compared to other places. How would the immediate DePaul area be without DePaul? Probably just as nice but definitely a much older, stuffier crowd. Hyde Park without UC? Would be totally different.

To me a college neighborhood is a neighborhood that has a significant percentage of college students (like 30% or more) that lives near or around the campus, but it doesn't have to be the majority of the population, just a very visible one. Also a place where you would find stores, bars restaurants that typically are "college like". Wrigleyville has plenty of those types of bars, restaurants however it lacks a significant college student population (although it is definitely overrcorwed with recent Big Ten alumni). However a place like DePaul has a visible student population in that area with businesses that go hand in hand with that. Same for NU and UC. Have you ever been around DePaul's campus when they have FEST? It might change your opinon.

[Manigault]

I really feel that 57th street epitomizes college for me. I've been on quite a few campuses and the bookstores, eateries, cobblestones and blowing leaves on the street really just exude that higher education riff. Plus, it is hard to think of a more diverse atmosphere.

[chitown85]

Originally Posted by chikid

I have to disagree. For instance compare the feeling of the neighborhood around Northeastern Illinois University, IIT and North Park University to University of Chicago, DePaul and Northwestern. There is definitely a difference in the way those neighborhoods feel in comparison to others, in terms of college students (yes and I am aware that demographics has something to do with it). If there really was not a neighborhood that had a college feel to it, then I think we should say that NEIU, IIT, UIC, DePaul, UC, NU and Loyola all have the same feel because, well there is no neighborhood that has more of a college feel to it than the other. However, that is not true. There are some that the college gives the neighborhood a special characterstic compared to other places. How would the immediate DePaul area be without DePaul? Probably just as nice but definitely a much older, stuffier crowd. Hyde Park without UC? Would be totally different.

To me a college neighborhood is a neighborhood that has a significant percentage of college students (like 30% or more) that lives near or around the campus, but it doesn't have to be the majority of the population, just a very visible one. Also a place where you would find stores, bars restaurants that typically are "college like". Wrigleyville has plenty of those types of bars, restaurants however it lacks a significant college student population (although it is definitely overrcorwed with recent Big Ten alumni). However a place like DePaul has a visible student population in that area with businesses that go hand in hand with that. Same for NU and UC. Have you ever been around DePaul's campus when they have FEST? It might change your opinon.

I still don't think it is college like. The neighborhoods around NEIU and North Park are not made by the schools. This is a feature of a collegelike atmosphere. The school makes the area. This is noticeable absent in Chicagoland.

[AmosBanks]

I voted Hyde Park because nothing says "college town feel" more than a Fiji Islands party on your block.