For most anyone who has read the Harry Potter books or seen the movie, it’s a cloaked dream to visit the exquisite and dignified Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Now, an online college counseling center is saying that with only a short ride to Hyde Park, Harry Potter lovers can experience the elegance of a look-alike Hogwarts, no magic involved.
ApplyWise.com recently named the University of Chicago as one of five American universities’ most closely resembling the school of magic in the Harry Potter series, the Chicago Tribune reported.
Thankfully, the University of Chicago is bereft of dark wizards, deadly spells and the constant worry of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named lurking around, but what it does have is key similarities to Hogwarts in architecture and campus culture.
Complete with gothic buildings and gargoyles, “the University of Chicago has got Hogwarts written all over it,” Applywise said.
Even the dining hall Hutchinson Commons bares a resemblance to that of the Great Hall at Hogwarts. Not a surprise though because the hall is a replica of Oxford’s Christ Church, the same used in the Harry Potter films.
As far as campus culture, instead of having four houses, the University of Chicago has 38 houses that all have unique personalities, traditions and rivalries. Alex Pniecki, a second year student who lives in Snell House, said that with names like Talbot, Blackstone and Chamberlain, they even “sound like something you’d hear in Harry Potter.”
Matt Kearney, a fourth-year student and Wallace House resident, agreed.
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"It's not like Gryffindor or Ravenclaw, but we all eat together and all sit together and leer at our rivals," Kearney said.
Other colleges included in the Potter look-alikes are Cornell University in New York, Kenyon College in Ohio, Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania, and Yale University in Connecticut.
