Our daughter Alaina is a high school junior, so we’ve got visits scheduled for her university wish list starting this year. And our little Princess wants to look at colleges and universities outside of the Pacific Northwest. This breaks my “University of Oregon” heart, but fuels her dad’s “Northwestern University Kellogg” ego. That being said, once I saw Chicago on her list I thought the February winter break would be the perfect time to introduce Alaina to the midwest. Here’s a little about our three days in heaven — aka “Chi-Town”
Expecting to experience a traditional Chicago winter, I was shocked when my strategy backfired. The weather was in the low 40s and sunny for our entire trip. No snow. No ice. No wind. This rare and extremely mild winter condition furthered Alaina’s desire to move Chicago to the top of her college short list. As for universities, we were surprised about which school was “in” and which one was “out”. Here are some highlights of our Chicago trip:
– University of Chicago. Received top ratings and is her #1 choice to date! Described by Alaina as a college version of John Hopkins University’s CTY Program (Center for Talented Youth). Clearly the trendiness of going to a “geek” school has hit the Hartley house hard. The laid back highly intellectual student mix, combined with the extremely warm and authentic orientation by the Director of Admissions, made this school worthy of a first choice pick. The look of the school, with its beautiful gothic architecture and charm, ambience and urban setting received an A+. In addition to its world class academics, UChicago has loads of extra curricular opportunities to balance out her geekness, a greek presence that offers an open invite to the entire student population for all Greek hosted parties held each Friday, and an incredible opportunity to gain worthwhile experience in research. In fact, for her particular interest area, Economics, she could even potentially work for Steven Levitt (author of Freakonmics) and attend their new Institute of Economics which will open next year.
– Northwestern University was a bit of a surprise. We opted to tour the town of Evanston prior to our orientation and Alaina lamented about how it was such a cute college town and she could see why “dad” went there because it reminded her of Claremont (his under graduate alma mater in California). Well, that was pretty much the highlight of our visit. Once we got to the packed orientation room at Northwestern University’s admissions office to hear the Director of Admissions randomly pass on pretty much all of the school related questions from the audience, we knew we should’ve probably stayed on Michigan Avenue and shopped. He actually stated that he didn’t know how many credits were required for graduation. Nonetheless, he seemed rushed and a bit put out by having to give a dog and pony show to prospective parents and students. After 30 to 45 minutes, we were handed off to students who came fashionably late to the orientation and whose job it was to give us a tour of the university. Grimly, our guide was a Northwestern University senior who shared such highlights as “pride in not having gone to the library since his freshman year”, “his Greek party life”, “… and more about partying in Chicago” and “the need to have a tutor for his major, Economics”. Our takeaway — the Northwestern University undergrad program was not on the same the academic level we’d associated with the Kellogg School of Business Management. We’d seen enough. Alaina’s decision was made. We opted to cancel our session with their Communications school (because of their emphasis on dance and theater) and headed to Michigan Avenue for a much welcomed afternoon of shopping.
– Michigan Avenue. If you love to shop, this area is a must see and offers the same experience you might find in New York or LA — with all of the latest and trendiest stores. We focused on visiting retail establishments we didn’t have in Seattle — primarily Kate Moss’s hot new store — Top Shop. And our favorite, Zara. It was our first trip to Top Shop and I’m still dreaming of their incredible shoe department. Plus, there were three stories of the coolest and really “wearable” fashionable clothes–all affordably priced. Simply said, we couldn’t get enough. It was a great afternoon with my 16 year old daughter, but sadly, I was reminded walking by the American Girl store of our last Mommy/Daughter trip to Chicago nearly ten years ago where we had tea at the AG store and spent a wonderful afternoon with everything Samantha.
– Cafe Toma. Around the corner from Top Shop, is our new favorite Chicago restaurant which was actually recommended to us by an aspiring Chicago food writer who was working parttime at Top Shop. This place was great — cool, street side atmosphere with lots of action. An impressive, affordable menu featuring an unusual combo of tapas, pizza and cocktails (for me, mom!) We ended up with the hand made fresh tomato mozzarella roll. Creamy semolina appetizer with red sauce. And a nouveau Italian (not Chicago style) pizza. At the end we had the most incredible gelato I’ve ever had — whipped up fresh daily by Italy’s state of the art gelato machines.
– Culture. Having done the architectural boat tour in the past, we opted to visit Frank Lloyd Wright’s Robie House which is actually on the University of Chicago campus. It was cool to learn that it featured the first attached garage, complete with a pit (for Mr. Robie to work on his cars) and indoor car wash. Quite unique for the early 1900s. Even though the house was under renovation, it was a superb experience which was enhanced by the tour guide’s brief visit to the graduate school across the street. This building was designed to complement the Robie house — with its 21st centure modern design, they shared a commitment to Frank Lloyd Wright’s horizontal design and complimentary architecture. Visiting Robie House is a “must visit” for any one who appreciates FLW’s impact on architecture.
Helpful links for visiting Chicago:
University of Chicago – http://www.uchicago.edu
Northwestern University – http://www.northwestern.edu
TopShop – http://www.us.topshop.com
Zara – http://www.zara.com
Bar Toma – http://www.bartomachicago.com
Robie House – http://www.gowright.org/research/wright-robie-house.html
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