How dangerous exactly are these places?

[RomulusAugustulus]

Here are some of the precautions they warned me to take:

-If someone ask you to buy food for them at a nearby food place, they are luring you through an empty place to rob you.

-Do not use ATM to withdraw money inpublic place, people will know you are carrying bag of money, follow you to rob you.

-Do not make eye contact with youngster, they will think you are provoking them and beat you.

-If a beggar as for money, they are just trying to figure out where you put your money to pickpocket you.

-Do not come in close proximity to youngster, they will bump into you and claim that you hurt them, to beat you.

etc.

Of course, this is Philly and NY, I can't say much for Chicago, but considering the similar murder rate, it's probably just as violent.

 

This is at best extremely naive and at worst highly offensive. I have lived in Philadelphia for 24 years. Yes there are parts that are more dangerous than others. I live in one of the so-so parts of Philly (not highly dangerous, but not the safest). I have still never been robbed, beaten, pick-pocketed, or harmed in any other way. I am small, and female. 

Cities like NY, Philly, Chicago, etc. are large, they are not homogenous. There are parts of Philly that are extremely safe, and parts that I would not want to live in. Please don't generalize and please don't mis-inform people about the dangers of living in a city. You don't live in a large city. You are speaking from a prejudiced point of view, which is not helpful to the OP in making an informed and logical decision about applying to schools. 

[rising_star]

panicking, that list of advice you gave is familiar to me. I was given it once. In Tegucigalpa, Honduras, which is widely considered the world's most dangerous city (Honduras = highest per capita murder rate in the world). It's just overkill for being in most major cities in the USA.

 

Also, not sure why you think crime doesn't happen in small towns. It does. Just because it hasn't happened to you, doesn't mean it never occurs.

[juilletmercredi]

I live in the largest city of the United States, and I can walk home safely carrying money.  I wouldn't carry a sack with "$$$" printed on the front in the dark down a deserted alley, but I wouldn't do that anywhere.  Small town, big city, rural area - that just seems kind of stupid.  I also don't lock my door when I run out for a quick errand and I help random people on the street.  I have had people tuck money back into my pocket when it was clearly visible and point out that my purse is unzipped (it always is).  Yesterday I watched a 12-year-old boy chase down a woman who dropped a dollar on the street.  Today a woman in a restaurant asked me to watch her things while she took her daughter to the bathroom.  The people here aren't worse than they are anywhere else; there are just more of us.

I think everybody should use common sense every day no matter where you live.  Not wanting to move to a big city because you want to avoid using common sense sounds rather silly.  There is nothing restrictive about using common sense, and I find it frankly frightening that someone would say that.  And personally, I do not feel a lack of freedom because I have to lock my door when I leave for the day (which I would do regardless of where I lived!) or because I realize it's probably not a good idea to wander aimlessly down dark alleys when I'm drunk at night.  New York feels incredibly liberating.  I used to live in a small town out in the sticks and I would still lock my door at night and would feel less safe walking around in the dark (where there are no street lights and no people outside after around 10 pm) than I would feel walking around in brightly-lit, still-awake NYC at 3 am.

No I'm not saying it's some sort of chaotic night of urban violence. An analogy is like this: living in a small town is like owning a pet rat, but a big city like yours is like owning a pet boa constrictor. Sure, if you are careful, no harms would come to you from owning a boa constrictor. And even if you are not, usually nothing bad happen either. But occasionally, the situation is just right and suddenly you're dead. If you own a pet rat, the worse would happen is the rat die. Would you rather have a pet boa constrictor or a pet rat?

No, this is a really bad analogy.  There are some small towns that are actually more dangerous than large cities.  New York - especially Manhattan - is one of the safest large cities in the country.  But there's a small city, Camden, NJ, that has one of the highest murder rates in the country.  Actually, most of the most dangerous cities in the U.S. are smaller cities - Camden being one, and some others being Flint, MI; Bessemer, AL; Gary, IN; Newburgh, NY; and Bridgeport, CT.

Your friends sound extremely paranoid, panicking.  The ATM advice is especially rich.  Where the hell you are supposed to get money from, then?  All ATMs in NYC are in public places.  There also used to be a lot of teenagers on my block.  They were generally friendly, and would make eye contact and wave when they saw me walking.  If they were using that as some long-term plot to mug me, they waited too long, because I moved out of the neighborhood before they got the chance.

[structuralBio]

I toured Johns Hopkins, though was not admitted. I had to say I was a little concerned for safety because baltimore is known for crime. I have to say the following though. The area north of the medical campus is a little bit sketchy, but in general if you avoid certain bad areas of the city you will be fine. the homewood campus and surrounding area is VERY safe. JHU has invested millions in campus security so on campus at either the med school or homewood you will be totally safe. There is also shuttle transit for the students so you don't have to walk through bad areas. As far as the city of Baltimore in general, there are a lot of really safe places, and some pretty bad areas, but if you stay away for certain neighborhoods and generally have common sense you shouldn't feel unsafe at all.

[Vene]

panicking, that list of advice you gave is familiar to me. I was given it once. In Tegucigalpa, Honduras, which is widely considered the world's most dangerous city (Honduras = highest per capita murder rate in the world). It's just overkill for being in most major cities in the USA.

 

Also, not sure why you think crime doesn't happen in small towns. It does. Just because it hasn't happened to you, doesn't mean it never occurs.

My grandparents live on the far outskirts of a town of <2000 people, they've had their house broken into. Shit happens everywhere.