DePaul

[pbiflyer]

My daughter will be entering college next year. She has a narrow interest in themed entertainment development.
One of the schools that has something along those lines, due to their strong technical theatre program is DePaul.
Other than knowing their basketball team sucks, I don't know anything about it.
Is there a campus life, atmosphere?
Anyone have kids that went there?
Any insight would be appreciated.

[JWags85]

My daughter will be entering college next year. She has a narrow interest in themed entertainment development.
One of the schools that has something along those lines, due to their strong technical theatre program is DePaul.
Other than knowing their basketball team sucks, I don't know anything about it.
Is there a campus life, atmosphere?
Anyone have kids that went there?
Any insight would be appreciated.

Campus life is quite different from Marquette, cause even though its an urban campus, its in Lincoln Park, which is an affluent neighborhood, by and large.  But at the same time, there is just one main Quad and you can't really tell where Depaul campus ends and the neighborhood begins and vice versa.

As far as residentially, its more like NYU than Marquette.  Whereas most kids at MU move off campus but within a few blocks, the friends I knew that went to Depaul ended up living all over the city.  I had friends that were living by Soldier Field their senior year (though that was partially because the business school buildings are downtown in the Loop)

Overall, YMMV, but Ive always thought Depaul was like going to college in the city as opposed to going to a college on a campus in the city, if that makes sense.

[Herman Cain]

Very much a city campus. In a nice Lincoln Park neighborhood. For those who want to enjoy all the city has to offer , it is a very good location.

Historically was a commuter school but that has changed a bit over the years, but some of that legacy lives on.

[Skatastrophy]

You can see Wish Field (DePaul's soccer field) from the Fullerton Brown Line stop, which is most of what I know about their campus. I caught a few seconds of the DePaul Men v Oakland game last Saturday morning and a few seconds of the Women playing Eastern Illinois last Saturday when I had to run some errands.

Like JWags said, the kids live all over. A few live in the South Loop by the B school, Roosevelt University, & Columbia University. Some live up closer to Belmont on the Brown line.

My colleagues that went to DePaul don't seem to have the strong school spirit that MU grads have, but they are very much Chicago people. Probably the lack of a strong campus as well as weak athletics for the past few decades.

[Galway Eagle]

Dated a Depaul girl for 2.5yrs and one of my best friends went there. Very different college experience than most other schools but college is what you make of it.

Students live everywhere, on my block at the end of the blue line there's a house of Depaul kids and I've also been to places in Lincoln park where a student's parents bought them a fancy condo to live in for school. My ex gf lived up by Loyola and most of her friends were living everywhere from Naperville in the burbs, to portage park north west, Rogers to the north, Bridgeport south, and wicker going west so the students are all over.

It's a school where you have to be active in club activities to really make a college experience since you aren't going for a walk to find a kegger and meeting people at those.

Wags description of it being more integrated into the city is very accurate.

[pbiflyer]

Thanks for all the input. It is a plan B school, but the description fits her, so good to know.
We are visiting Fordham in a couple weeks.

[warriorchick]

Also, it's a long El ride to go see their sucky basketball team.

[pbiflyer]

Also, it's a long El ride to go see their sucky basketball team.

She wouldn't be cheering for them at least twice a year.

[MU Fan in Connecticut]

Thanks for all the input. It is a plan B school, but the description fits her, so good to know.
We are visiting Fordham in a couple weeks.

That will be an intriguing visit for you.  Wedged next to the beautiful NY Botanical Garden and the famous Bronx Zoo and Arthur Avenue (NYC's real Little Italy) it then gets very tough outside that cluster.
Fordham even has their own Metro North Station.

[pbiflyer]

That will be an intriguing visit for you.  Wedged next to the beautiful NY Botanical Garden and the famous Bronx Zoo and Arthur Avenue (NYC's real Little Italy) it then gets very tough outside that cluster.
Fordham even has their own Metro North Station.

Good to know. We planned on spending time in the area just wandering around.

[MU Fan in Connecticut]

My cousin went there, and both my college age daughters know students who go there.

[Billy Hoyle]

That will be an intriguing visit for you.  Wedged next to the beautiful NY Botanical Garden and the famous Bronx Zoo and Arthur Avenue (NYC's real Little Italy) it then gets very tough outside that cluster.
Fordham even has their own Metro North Station.

Fordham is not in a nice area. It's walled and gated for a reason.  Nice campus though. However, if she's doing the preforming arts program she'd be at the Lincoln Center "campus" in Manhattan, which is a high rise building that houses all of the professional schools. There is housing there too.

I was just on the DePaul campus for the first time in about 20 years. It is wedged into Lincoln Park and rather nondescript. But, as others have said, there is the advantage of Lincoln Park and everything one can do there as a student. Depaul has done a nice job buying up property in the area to improve housing options for students on or adjacent to campus.

If her choices are just Depaul and Fordham then DePaul will give her much more of a traditional college experience.

[pbiflyer]

Because of what she wants to do, the target schools are a strange mix, but also because what she wants to do is new and a niche area, she also has flexibility.

UCF and UNLV have specific programs. UCF has a specific masters program and a relationship with the Mouse.
So DePaul, Fordham, and (yesterday's announcement of a reach school - Columbia!) are all potential "normal" schools that have areas that she can leverage for admittance to the UCF masters program.  Then of course, there is that little school in Milwaukee. But she doesn't like chili. No idea where I went wrong raising her. 

[Billy Hoyle]

Because of what she wants to do, the target schools are a strange mix, but also because what she wants to do is new and a niche area, she also has flexibility.

UCF and UNLV have specific programs. UCF has a specific masters program and a relationship with the Mouse.
So DePaul, Fordham, and (yesterday's announcement of a reach school - Columbia!) are all potential "normal" schools that have areas that she can leverage for admittance to the UCF masters program.  Then of course, there is that little school in Milwaukee. But she doesn't like chili. No idea where I went wrong raising her. 

One issue with UCF will be her ability to actually take in-person classes. The school has grown at a tremendous rate and they do not have the classroom capacity for the current size of the student body. 1000+ kids will be scheduled for a class in a room that seats fewer than 200. I've known students from there who never set foot in a classroom because of this.

[pbiflyer]

One issue with UCF will be her ability to actually take in-person classes. The school has grown at a tremendous rate and they do not have the classroom capacity for the current size of the student body. 1000+ kids will be scheduled for a class in a room that seats fewer than 200. I've known students from there who never set foot in a classroom because of this.

Yeah, we are aware of this.  Not sure how a school can actively choose to grow beyond its means. Certainly a downside.
Hence why the wider range of schools. UCF has a ton of upside, with Disney moving all their creatives from CA to FL, internship opportunities, other supporting companies moving to the area. But she also may be looking for a non Florida experience.

[muwarrior69]

Fordham is not in a nice area. It's walled and gated for a reason.  Nice campus though. However, if she's doing the preforming arts program she'd be at the Lincoln Center "campus" in Manhattan, which is a high rise building that houses all of the professional schools. There is housing there too.

I was just on the DePaul campus for the first time in about 20 years. It is wedged into Lincoln Park and rather nondescript. But, as others have said, there is the advantage of Lincoln Park and everything one can do there as a student. Depaul has done a nice job buying up property in the area to improve housing options for students on or adjacent to campus.

If her choices are just Depaul and Fordham then DePaul will give her much more of a traditional college experience.

The daughter of one of my fellow choristers at church who is now a Junior at Fordham would disagree with you. She loves it.

[Billy Hoyle]

The daughter of one of my fellow choristers at church who is now a Junior at Fordham would disagree with you. She loves it.

I didn't say she wouldn't like it, but going to school in a high rise in the middle of Manhattan is not the traditional college experience. NYU is similar, there is no true campus and you don't have college bars like Murph's.

[drewm88]

Agree with what folks are saying about DePaul, especially JWags and Herman up top. I'll add that with freshman res halls, there's plenty of opportunity to settle into a traditional college social experience and meet folks. The scattering around the city is much more upperclassmen.

[Herman Cain]

Good to know. We planned on spending time in the area just wandering around.

Fordham is in very tough neighborhood. The campus itself is nice and the school very good. I would imagine her core courses would be on the main campus. With the no cash bail laws in NY, the criminals have upped their game. I would think long and hard about having her go there.

DePaul is city but a much more easily navigated experience .

[CTWarrior]

I didn't say she wouldn't like it, but going to school in a high rise in the middle of Manhattan is not the traditional college experience. NYU is similar, there is no true campus and you don't have college bars like Murph's.

My sister went to Fordham.  It has got a traditional campus, it is fenced in, but it is actually nice.  I go there once every other year to catch a football game as an excuse to tailgate with family and friends.