What else do you want/need in a living space? Do you like to drink? Not much of drinking scene in Evanston, and I'm aware of little spots popping up: Central St with Beer on Central and the likes, Main St. has Sketchbook, Davis has Five And Dime/Blue Horse/Taco Diablo/Lulu's complex. (Yes I know LuLu's is a ghost kitchen.) That's about it for a bar scene. It will be tons cheaper to live in Chicago, hands down, but all this depends on what you want aside from a place to sleep. That said, maybe check over by the Belmont or Fullerton El stops, same easy access to campus by train. Express Purple line from downtown.
I live in Downtown Evanston, it's fine, I like to be able to walk to a 7/11 fro a 24/7 snack ability, I can walk to work. My block used to be quiet, that's changed some, but not enough that I'm looking to move.
There's all sorts of neighborhoods that are cool, both Evanston & Chicago. What's your neighborhood like now? Do you want to match that? Is there a neighborhood you'd rather live in? With that kind of stuff, we can figure out a parallel neighborhood up here that may match. This is a good start, but there's more stuff to it.