Remember, U of Illinois has two campuses, Urbana and Chicago. The Chicago campus has dormitories also and the immediate surrounding area has add'l dorms and off-campus housing. UIC medical center has shuttles that go between campuses and is a plethora of different medical facilities including two other major hospitals. The schools of medicine, pharmacy, nursing, etc, are also within the medical center arena.

And, of course, the proximity to downtown Chicago with its entertainment, museums, food galore, etc, is a major draw. If you are in Chicago, it's worth visiting. UIC and Urbana are different as night and day. It's a city university like NYU.

UIC is one of our safety schools. DC has fallen in love with Chicago.

Anonymous wrote:OP,
Northwestern and UWSL are highly selective, single digit accepts this round. Good luck.

Head on over to college confidential to see the wreckage from this year's application process. Lots of kids "with University of Chicago stats" who will not be attending University of Chicago. As a former midwesterner, I'll put in a plug for Univ. of Wisconsin -- similar to Michigan but a lot cheaper out of state. Also, Univ. of Illinois may not be as attractive a school as Madison, but its engineering school is one of the best in the country so not exactly a safety if he goes that route.

If your son wants to go to med school, it really doesn't matter where he goes to undergrad, provided his grades are excellent.

Madison is a great town and also so is Ann Arbor especially if he wants a city feel. Chicago of course is the best city in the country says this former Chicago girl . Since you're there u could check out Chicago and NW. I'm not a huge fan of Purdue unless you're an engineering student. Its a safety school for a lot of kids in the South Chicago suburbs and its one of those places where you leave the same person you were when u came in if that makes sense. Plus West Lafayette is a small town.

OP,
Northwestern and UWSL are highly selective, single digit accepts this round. Good luck.

Anonymous wrote:How far is STL from Chicago? That's going to be our 'base' city...we want to spend some time just doing city stuff there in addition to the colleges. I'd be fine Wisconsin and Michigan and CW since they're at least on the path, but not really interested in adding a huge leg to our trip.

If you want to see WUSTL, but don't want to spend more than a day on it, you can fly. Round-trip tickets are about $100 between St. Louis and Chicago. The flight is about an hour. When you get to St. Louis, you can take the Metrolink from the airport to the WUSTL campus. Do the campus tour and go have lunch in the Loop. (3 blocks off campus).

If you don't have a car in Chicago, you can take the El out to O'Hare of Midway.

Anonymous wrote:Lots of research opportunities for a science major at Wisconsin. Illinois is a good school but the city of Madison is so much nicer than Urbana.

OP here. Yeah, this was my thought, too. It just doesn't seem that nice. Plus, while he's not necessarily against smaller cities, I think he'd prefer somewhere where the college isn't the only thing going for the town. That's why he said absolutely not when I suggested Penn State.

Anonymous wrote:Lots of research opportunities for a science major at Wisconsin. Illinois is a good school but the city of Madison is so much nicer than Urbana.

This. Madison is a great city! It's cold in the winter, but Spring/Summer/Fall are glorious

Lots of research opportunities for a science major at Wisconsin. Illinois is a good school but the city of Madison is so much nicer than Urbana.

We're pretty much open to almost anything, but he's not interested in really small schools (less than 2000) or isolated/rural schools. He's looking at doing a pre-med track, probably majoring in biology, chemistry or biomedical engineering. He has the stats for an elite school like Chicago, but I would like to see some safeties too (And maybe some a little nicer on the bank account).

Wisconsin and Case Western are sounding like they could be good fits.

Anonymous wrote:Are you talking same caliber or safety? I think U.Chicago is the only elite elite school in the midwest, although Northwestern comes the closest. But there are plenty of good but not top 10 schools out there worth checking out, like Michigan and Wisconsin.

And Purdue, yes. And University of Illinois, if you are already out there.