City: Chicago, IL

Category: Education

Telephone: (312) 362-8000, outside Illino

Address: 1 E. Jackson Blvd.

Description: This not-for-profit school dates back to 1898 and is the largest Catholic university in the US (the founding Vincentians still sponsor the school). Today, DePaul attracts a wide-reaching student body of more than 25,000 from all 50 states and 90 countries—it was ranked number 10 in the “Diverse Student Population” category of the 2008 Princeton Review. On its two main Chicago campuses and four suburban campuses, it offers 275 undergrad and graduate programs, the most popular majors being psychology, business administration, public relations/advertising, political science, and biology. The Loop campus is known for its College of Law, where the Intellectual Property and Health Law programs get national attention for their excellence, and for its part-time MBA program and innovative technology courses, including an award-winning game development program. The largest campus is its 36-acre patch of Lincoln Park, which houses a popular College of Liberal Arts and Sciences; residents who live around the campus often simply say they live “in the DePaul neighborhood.” The suburban campuses are located in Naperville, Rolling Meadows, Oak Forest, and near O’Hare. Though students in DePaul’s School of Music and Theatre School only amount to about 2 percent of total enrollment, acceptance to the schools is hard to come by, and the talented young men and women who get in make a big splash with several hundred open-to-the-public performances each year. Athletics are also big here, and the DePaul Blue Demons sports teams always rank tops, at least in fan enthusiasm. The athletic teams compete in NCAA Division I, the Big East conference in basketball (men’s and women’s), soccer, softball, golf, tennis, and more. A bonus for students here: Tens of thousands of alumni establish their careers in Chicago, giving young graduates an amazing resource to begin theirs.