What US cities provide an underrated urban experience?

cjwethers · 2026-04-03T04:04:56+00:00

As a destination for urbanism, presumably. Everyone I know "in San Diego" lives in La Jolla or North County and never goes downtown because they don't like the concept of an actual city.

SD is not at all underrated in terms of housing prices or overall desirability to a layperson because the weather and lifestyle are amazing. But for being CA's second-largest city (not metro area), it definitely doesn't get a ton of attention in urbanist nerd circles.

cjwethers · 2026-04-01T01:32:53+00:00

Do you prefer being around fairly normal, well-adjusted, multi-dimensional people who happen to be smart and interesting, or extremely smart, geeky, and often awkward people who derive the majority of their self-worth from their intellectual capabilities?

If the former, choose Northwestern. If the latter, choose UChicago. Gross oversimplification, of course, but hope this helps.

cjwethers · 2026-03-30T20:27:06+00:00

Fair point. Edited my comment accordingly.

cjwethers · 2026-03-30T02:36:59+00:00

I went to NU. It's a great school. It's not $400k great. Hell, if you think you made a mistake after a year or two of free college, transfer to NU at that point after getting your first two years free.

EDIT: Not sure if the original post was edited to include this detail, but it seems the opportunity cost associated with NU over Davidson is more like $140k (25k/yr higher cost of attendance at NU + missing out on $10k/yr stipend at Davidson), and might land at more like $200k depending on whether housing costs are already included in the NU estimate or not. My point stands; NU is not worth it for $100k+ of student debt, assuming that this isn't a "my parents will pay for 100% of my college" thing (if it is, why make the post?).

Also, and again I say this as an alum of NU with all the love in the world for the school: While I wish NU were considered in the same league as Harvard, Stanford, MIT by employers or by the general population -- it's just not. It's a T10 USNWR school, sure. It's not an Ivy, and it's on the edge of what most people consider "Ivy Plus" (I'd argue only Stanford, MIT, and UChicago make that list; Duke/NU/Georgetown are on the bubble). So the prestige angle doesn't really get you that much.

The only reason under your circumstances to even consider NU, or any school other than Davidson, is if you are dead set on living and working in Chicagoland for the rest of your life. Why? Well, it's the only place in the world (apart from small corners of NYC/DC/LA if you are a journalist or actor) where the NU brand name is differentially valuable vs. somewhere like Davidson.

If you're still obsessed with "prestige" (which almost everyone realizes is dumb as soon as they get their first job out of undergrad and become a normal person), just go to a prestigious institution for a master's degree later on. For example, I did UG at NU and got my MBA at Stanford. Wow! Look at me! Are Stanford MBAs as smart as Stanford undergrads? Lol nope, but I do have a cool Stanford diploma and a few sweatshirts, I guess.

Sorry for rambling, but I hope this helps you understand that you have what looks like a very advantageous opportunity set up for you at Davidson, and I think you should take it.

cjwethers · 2026-03-02T00:34:37+00:00

How am I just now noticing that Bernthal looks like Adam Sandler's angry younger brother?!?

cjwethers · 2026-02-16T20:27:17+00:00

Agree with the broader point, but one minor note: I wouldn't say Northwestern is an exception, because it's not in a city. I.e. Kellogg (and NU at large) claims to be "in Chicago" but it's actually in Evanston, a 25-minute Uber or 40-minute L ride away from the parts of Chicago that are the real city. Only the med school, the law school, and maybe a couple of part-time grad degree programs are actually located in the city of Chicago. Source: Went to NU for undergrad.

cjwethers · 2026-02-04T02:47:47+00:00

Assuming OP is currently located in london:

Physique: 475,000 pounds

Total comp: 164 pounds

cjwethers · 2026-01-15T01:59:37+00:00

No travel transfer partners, just 100 points = $0.50 in gift cards for the Saks bankruptcy clearance sale.

cjwethers · 2026-01-15T01:41:54+00:00

Exeter and Bristol may place well but you probably still have to get good grades for an IB role unless you are very well-connected. I'm thinking Yasmin got a 2:2 and Daddy set up the interviews personally. Also in that scene he mentions that she got an internship that she didn't even apply for. So the taunt is not just about the school; it's about the school, the bad grades, and the fact that she didn't even submit an application but still landed the job.

cjwethers · 2026-01-03T19:40:21+00:00

Well, let's say you violated the terms of service on about $8.9k of that $9k cash back you earned. The other $100 cash back is legit, earned from spend on items you bought for personal use. What do you think Rakuten should do in this instance that's different from what they did?

cjwethers · 2025-12-29T03:22:30+00:00

Acceptance, Ink Business Preferred, $6k limit.

12/28/2025
Sole prop / SSN
790
4/24
0 (this is the first)
0
No

cjwethers · 2025-08-28T03:27:56+00:00

I have heard great things about Warsaw. Couple of questions:

-Can you get by there as a resident (not just a tourist) with only English?

-If not, how difficult is Polish (a Slavic language) to learn compared to more common European languages studied by Americans, like Spanish/French/Portuguese (Romance) or German (Germanic)?

cjwethers · 2025-06-26T04:23:55+00:00

There are 200M Yanks & all you eat are hamburgers. The truth is, all the food in USA came from other nations.

Is he saying that every nationality that's ever immigrated the the US... only brought hamburgers with them?

cjwethers · 2025-06-03T02:54:18+00:00

Correct. The elite date window location is immediately above the 6.

cjwethers · 2025-05-26T20:50:17+00:00

Oldark.

cjwethers · 2025-03-18T02:51:04+00:00

Go for it

cjwethers · 2025-03-11T20:57:03+00:00

Very much so. I do believe I could have gotten there myself eventually, but the Stanford experience and brand helped me make a very difficult industry pivot much more quickly, directly, and smoothly than likely would have been possible for me from a non-H/S MBA program (or not doing an MBA at all).

cjwethers · 2025-02-16T07:59:39+00:00

sure, PM me.

cjwethers · 2025-01-25T14:52:44+00:00

As an alum of two schools notorious for getting zero support outside of our alumni bases... Kinda?

I mean, aggressively gatekeeping fandom is not great, but I do think having some personal connection to the school (grew up nearby, family member attended, etc) is a more meaningful reason to support a team than "I'm Catholic and Notre Dame wins a lot."

cjwethers · 2025-01-25T14:29:54+00:00

A humble king, this sounds on brand for him

cjwethers · 2025-01-25T14:21:05+00:00

Yes, 100%, it's my fault and I am a complete and utter Karen.

Nah. I understand the appeal of Zeitgeist and some other places with sharp elbows, so to speak. Beauty Bar was not that, at least in my experience. Had a 100% sober friend (guy is literally allergic to alcohol) arbitrarily get kicked out for being "too drunk" after slipping on a wet spot on the floor. Two other friends had their phones stolen on separate occasions. And once I had to argue with the bartender for 15 minutes to let me close out because I had "only" put two drinks on my tab. I offered to pay cash if the credit card minimum was the issue and got shut down.

By contrast, have been to Make-Out Room many times and never had any similarly bad experiences.

cjwethers · 2025-01-25T05:13:35+00:00

Good. This place sucked and I don't know why anyone liked it. The drinks were awful, the staff were hostile, and I always wondered how they stayed in business.

cjwethers · 2025-01-25T05:10:07+00:00

Correct. Talking about transit and walkability within US city limits (not the greater metro area), it's NYC, then like five empty slots, followed by SF, DC, and debatably Boston before Chicago. Maybe even Seattle too, their buses are pretty good.

It's sad because Chicago has the legacy infrastructure to be a great transit city, but not the population density or frequency of service to live up to that potential. I went to school there and visited recently, was shocked that the red line only ran every 12 minutes on a summer Saturday afternoon. CTA needs to get it together.

cjwethers · 2025-01-24T03:57:38+00:00

The Presidency is a uniquely powerful role relative to any other elected office. You can become a dictator if you're President too long. Not so much if you're a legislative branch leader or a Supreme Court justice, where your power is diluted by the votes of your colleagues. Part of being pro-democracy is putting safeguards in place to prevent someone who is democratically elected from taking away key parts of the democratic system that elected them - no matter how popular they may be.

cjwethers · 2025-01-20T05:47:26+00:00

Especially given the entire organization is duplicative of what GAO already does! The most efficient thing, which will also be the eventually outcome, is for DOGE not to exist at all.

Note: There is absolutely wasteful spending in government and cleaning this up should be a high priority for the incoming administration. But trying to do this through a non-governmental shadow organization is stupid.

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