Cheekily called the Harvard of the west, Northwestern University was founded in 1851 to serve the Northwest Territory, an area that now includes the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin and part of Minnesota. In 1853 the founders wisely purchased a 379-acre tract of land along Lake Michigan. That area now serves as the 240-acre Evanston campus, which stretches from Clark Street north to Central Avenue along the lake.

The nearly 8,000 undergraduates call the Evanston campus home (there's also 6,000 grads at a Chicago campus off the Mag Mile). In terms of higher learning, research awards and grants totaled $355 million in 2004, the library holds 4 million books and there are a number of renowned professors. There's plenty of fun to be had, too, in the booming town of Evanston, on the lake's beaches and by jumping on the Purple Line, which heads straight into Chicago.