DePaul University

Date: Apr 13 2011
Major: Accounting (This Major's Salary over time)
I can personally speak from the perspective of the College of Commerce, specifically within the Accountancy program.

DePaul's College of Commerce, and the individual departments within the College of Commerce, are top notch. It has the best undergrad business school in the Chicago area by far. The University of Illinois might be better, but being in Chicago you have much better access to jobs and internships. The campus is nice and leafy, great for an urban campus.

What's bad about the school is that meeting friends and people can be a bit awkward. Most people meet friends by living in the dorms their freshman year or at different student organizations and clubs. DePaul also offers a lot of resources, like hundreds or clubs and university services, that hardly anyone seems to utilize. I've never really understood why, maybe nobody hears about them.

One thing I've noticed about DePaul is that the student body is very apathetic when it comes to "school spirit and the traditional college experience." Many have never been to a basketball game (they play all the way up by O'hare) and you'll very rarely see people rooting for "their demons." DePaul students by in large don't care for frat parties and playing football out in the quad-kind-of-thing. That's mostly because of Chicago. The student body seems to be pretty mature, and you grow up fast living in the city.

It's definitely not the traditional college experience. It's true that the student body is extremely diverse. There's people from virtually every walk of life. You can notice this while walking around one of the two main campuses during the school day. If you're "different" than finding acceptance at DePaul is no issue. You wouldn't be the first one. Gay or straight, white or not, suburban rich kid or financial struggling, Christian or any other religion, international student or never left the country- there's everyone and everyone seems to be accepted.

Basically, you should attend DePaul if you're looking for a college experience beyond the college town. It's a city experience and a university with plenty or resources. You grow up fast and get a unique college experience. If you're looking to go into business you should especially consider it because it's undergraduate College of Commerce is in the top 50 in the U.S. and is in the heart of the nation's second largest business center. How could you not succeed!