a campus in the city

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onto today’s topic: a campus in the city 🏙️ 

i never really toured college campuses during my university admissions season 2 years ago, so of course, when i visited boston this past weekend i had to take a look around mit and harvard.

there’s an entirely different charm to campuses built within a major city (mit, harvard, columbia etc.) versus those where the entire town is practically the college campus (unc). i quickly realized that they both have their pros and cons.

3 points that exemplify the differences:

1) college culture / student life 🫂 

perhaps the weather was a factor (boston is cold!) but the city campuses definitely weren’t as charged with student life as unc is, and that’s largely because there likely isn’t shared common space where students just hang out and eat food. since mit and harvard are in the city, it’s like those spaces have been “outsourced” to the city, rather than including them intentionally throughout the campus. of course, that can also be fun, but i personally really enjoy my experience of being able to sit on the quad and knowing i’ll run into a friend to eat with.

2) diversity of experience 🎇 

there’s a lot to do in the city. there’s also a lot of people you can meet since it’s not just students from your own school within range. unlike unc, there are working professionals, students from dozens of other schools, and people traveling in and out of the city at all times in places like toronto, boston, and san francisco. there are undoubtedly a lot more opportunities for serendipity and heightened excitement in a city, but that doesn’t mean they don’t exist in a college town. (:

3) accessibility 🚌 

long live public transportation. i was able to easily get from one end of the city to another in a reasonable amount of time in boston. the accessibility of the city truly makes up for the lack of student culture in some of the big city campuses. in the end, it’s just what you value more out of an experience. 🤷‍♀️ i will say i seriously missed being able to hop on a bus efficiently, because tell me why a 10-minute drive is a 2-hour bus route in north carolina …

i can definitely appreciate both worlds, but i was happy to conclude that i enjoy the unique experience of a college town just a liiiittle bit more. the immediate sun and warm weather when i landed at rdu definitely helped my case too. 😋 

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