Chicago anyone?

[Fran101]

Originally Posted by Emily

I live in Chicago proper, Fran. I'm wiped and my back is out (doh) but I PROMISE to get back to this tomorrow.

IT'S TOMORROW!! lol

Originally Posted by Grab

This.
Both my and my husband's hometown is just a few hours south of Chicago. I used to take day or weekend trips there often. The city is quite enjoyable and I always thought the lack of needing to drive was a huge draw, lol.

I'm not a fan of IL in general, but I do love Chicago. Probably because I live in a place with no museums whatsoever. Horrors

I can't drive (people with epilepsy driving tends to be frowned upon lol go figure ) so I certainly see the draw!

Originally Posted by ACooper

I'm very close to Chicago too I think SillySally is as well. I can get to Chicago (driving) in about an hour-ish......depending on traffic of course.

We normally have about the same weather Chicago is having since we live nearly straight east, and being a Florida girl, you most definitely will not like it, LOL This winter has been very mild though with only a couple snow storms. It is snowing right this minute though BOO!

As others have said, shopping, museums, shopping, restaurants, shopping, plays, shopping.......tons to do if you like the big city! LOL

PS The south shore train will only cost you $8 to come see me! hahahaha

I am down for any chazzer visits!! lol especially for $8!

As for weather.. I adapt pretty well. I go home (to Miami) on school holidays, so I'm not too worried about it honestly lol

Originally Posted by oakash

They do have really good public transportation, which is why my sister really wanted to go there. A different sister did go to Wheaton, which is outside of Chicago, so we've visited there, and I love that city. It was so much prettier then New York, it was fun, windy, clean, the atmosphere was awesome. And they have cool parks. And the bean is epic.

I totally forgot about the beach!! I do miss being around water!

Originally Posted by -bogart-

All I know about Chicago is Jerry Springer and Oprah where filmed there.

I vote give Chicago a try , You know what Boston is Like and why not expand your horzions , especially if it is almost free. Heck you did cold and snow last year in so the weather should not be a put off.

What about your medical issues , do they have to be considered , or you commuting to the doc? well really not my business just wanted to throw that ot if you had not considered it.


Okay that is all.

Lol Oh god Oprah! I should go just to meet her!!

That's also been on my mind lately.. I mean, I KNOW I love Boston, I have family in boston and have been there plenty of times.. I'll be attending basically for free so I figure.. why not give it a shot? Boston will always be there if I don't like it lol

Distance from home really isn't an issue I've found. Flights from Chicago-Miami and Boston-Miami are about the same price range.. and either way, theres no way I am road-tripping home lol

Oh and yea, the reason why I picked some cities to apply to schools to and not others is because they have recommended Doctors/hospital programs near by. Most of my work will still be done at home during breaks (research and check up wise), but I do have doctors I trust in both Chicago and Boston if need be for more frequent visits/emergencies

It's pretty lucky that I love cities because everything that kind of comes with my condition (not being able to drive, needing to be near hospitals and such) comes with city life lol

[Skivvies]

Originally Posted by oakash

They do have really good public transportation, which is why my sister really wanted to go there. A different sister did go to Wheaton, which is outside of Chicago, so we've visited there, and I love that city. It was so much prettier then New York, it was fun, windy, clean, the atmosphere was awesome. And they have cool parks. And the bean is epic.

Wheaton is where I live now. It's a really nice little town, although I wouldn't mind moving to a burb that's closer to the city one day (Oak Park would be my dream, love that place).

Loyola's campus is far north within the city (Rogers Park I think?) so the traffic and stuff isn't as bad as, say, the Loop. Also, public transportation around the city is pretty decent. Some of my friends will drive us in the city, but I'm a terrible driver so I've always managed to get where I need to go using public transportation.

I didn't realize there were so many Chicago-area people here either!

[Fran101]

Originally Posted by Beanie

NO kidding... mmmmmm.

The closest Giordanos to me is still about an hour and forty minutes away... waaaay too far. Though maybe that's a good thing because I might be really fat if one was closer.

I don't even LIKE deep dish pizza. It's THAT good people.
OMG.


Oh yeah, and there's also ANY dog sport you could want up there. Dock diving? Okay. Earth dog? Sure. Agility? Uh-huh. Confo? Yup. Flyball? Fo' sho'.
Down here I can get agility and earth dog aaaaand that's about it.

I really need to try this pizza now!! lol

and good to hear about dog sports I had no idea Chicago was so doggy friendly!!

Originally Posted by *blackrose

I've only ever been to Chicago on trips, mainly to see concerts. We were there last year for an anime convention, as well as a Distant Worlds concert. LOL The parts I've been in, I've liked. For the convention we drove (3 hours away from us) and our world basically existed of the hotel (and the hot tub. Bwahahaha). But for the concert, my friend, sister, and I took the train up and walked everywhere we needed to go. It was great. My back hurt from walking after awhile, as we were lugging our luggage in a backpack about 90% of the time, but it was still great.

Glad to hear you can pretty much walk/make my way everywhere

and Anime convention sounds awesome!! is it like comic-con?

Originally Posted by Taqroy

I can't be that close and NOT meet you guys! I'm trying to figure out a way to bring Mu with me but I'm not having much luck. I'm planning on flying and she's just a little too tall and heavy to fit in an under the seat kennel.

I'm thinking I might fly into Chicago, see my sister for a couple days, rent a car and drive out to Minneapolis (and stop and see Moth for a bit on the way), crash somewhere there and then fly out of Minneapolis. Just priced it out and it looks totally do-able. Now I just have to find out when my in-laws want us to come visit them so I can plan around that.

Uh...sorry for the massive threadjacking Fran! Lol.

No problem about the threadjacking! lol if I do decide to move there we can do a meet up part 2! haha

Originally Posted by Shai

Well...I like Chicago and I'm not really a big-city person. For some reason, even though it's huge and "the" Midwestern city, it never struck me as too crowded the way many coastal cities do. To be fair I lived outside the city, not in it, but I was close and would visit for various things. Shows to see, pretty much unlimited shopping, lots of dog activities...

It's a nice city but definitely has a midwestern vibe. It may be different but that doesn't make it bad. If nothing else, you can explore something new for your college career then flee back to the eastern seaboard with an education and no debt

That really is important to me... like I could do pretty well in Boston no problem with your basic work/study thing but to be able to really just live and go to school for free..it's an awesome opportunity.

and yea, as much as I love cities and hustle and bustle and people.. I don't like crowds. So that's good! lol

Originally Posted by release the hounds

I'm not much of a big city person. It's fun to visit Chicago sometimes, but it's not a place for me to live in. I guess the traffic really turns me off, but that's any big city. But usually when we're going somewhere, we're going thru chicago at the worst times and I always wonder how people can live with this everyday But i'm sure they find ways to adapt.

I guess I'm adapted lol or maybe that's not the right word considering I was born/raised in the city. It did take a while for me to adapt to little town, connecticut though! lol it's funny but I really was stressed my first months here, everything is so QUIET!! haha

Originally Posted by Dekka

I find winters are easier in big cities, Toronto always has less snow and is warmer (even though its on the shore of lake ontario) than here. The buildings and pavement store heat from the sun. So it shouldn't be bad.

That said I find the idea of religious universities bizarre. Here the only religious post secondary schools we have are bible colleges that you go to if you want to get involved in a religious based career. Do religious colleges teach the same things? Do they add religion to your courses?

They teach the same things are regular colleges (as in, religion doesn't make it's way into regular coursework) some do add extra required courses such as theology but as with Loyola, you can choose to fulfill that requirement by taking philosophy, world religions or some kind of non-catholic equivalent course.

The only real difference is that there are some religious stuffs dotted around campus (crosses, church) and sometimes student rules tend to correspond with religious teachings (for example, many catholic universities discourage co-ed sleepovers in dorms.. where-as at regular unis they honestly don't care lol)

I've heard that Loyola is pretty forward thinking, it's a Jesuit school, which I've heard tends to run on the much looser/liberal side of the catholic church stuff.. which is nice.

It's also nice that kind of part of the whole religious school thing is that the schools tend to focus a lot on smaller class sizes and such.. which is awesome!

[Dizzy]

I have nothing to add except I want to visit now.

[Saeleofu]

It's also nice that kind of part of the whole religious school thing is that the schools tend to focus a lot on smaller class sizes and such.. which is awesome!

That's my favorite part. 13 people in a class? AWESOME!

[Dekka]

I have only 14 people in one of my classes. I just go to a smallish university.

Do they have multiple classes of each subject to keep them small, or is the draw just that limited?

[Fran101]

Originally Posted by Dekka

I have only 14 people in one of my classes. I just go to a smallish university.

Do they have multiple classes of each subject to keep them small, or is the draw just that limited?

The schools tend to be smaller/more selective in general.
To find a school with gen-eds with less than 50 people I'd say is pretty rare.. I go to a LARGE university now and one of my gen-ed classes has over 200 students lol

I said I was an atheist on my application lol so I assume they are ready to deal with me
but for real I think if I can survive 4 years of catholic (as in, nuns teaching you about abstinence and walking around being scary) high school.. I can deal with this lol

I have been checking the interwebs and it seems that the school is very liberal. There are gay pride/pro-choice groups on campus, and it seems that the school has even had issues with the catholic church
which only makes me want to go there even more! LOL

[Bigpoodleperson]

I live about 2 hours from Chicago too! Very nice city! It is beautiful and very pretty.

Should I keep my mouth shut about the fact that we have a Giordanos in my town?

[Saeleofu]

Originally Posted by Dekka

I have only 14 people in one of my classes. I just go to a smallish university.

Do they have multiple classes of each subject to keep them small, or is the draw just that limited?

For the basics, there are multiple sections of each course, so classes are still usually 20 or less. The Zoo Science classes do not have multiples per semester, it's just a small program.

[Southpaw]

Originally Posted by Bigpoodleperson

Should I keep my mouth shut about the fact that we have a Giordanos in my town?

Yes.

We actually had a frozen one shipped up here a while back and while it obviously was not as amazing as eating it fresh... it was still REALLY FREAKING DELICIOUS.
Ugh now I have the biggest craving ever. Must. Go. To. Chicago.