When I attended Michigan 2003-2009, part of the problem was getting to and around Detroit. My first 3 years I didn't have a car. We simply couldn't get there unless we knew someone with a car. Getting to Chicago on the other hand was easy. Amtrak took us right to downtown where we had an abudance of frequent bus service, el trains, and Metra. We could go anywhere in the Chicagoland area we wanted for less than $7 and get there fast.

Take Amtrak to Detroit and you're pretty much stranded. I did it once before. It was the worst idea. I waited forever for buses that never came or even skipped me. It was just impossible getting around and really the only areas I could visit with some sort of ease were Midtown and Downtown simply by walking.

Eventually at the end of my senior year and all through graduate school I owned a car, but it seemed like my classmates were more interested in going to Chicago just because the quantity of things you could pack into a weekend were far greater.