She got a service job at a place called The Greenheart Shop and will be living near Humboldt Park. She’ll be there for a year.
What should she know about the city?
First, she shouldn’t live near Humboldt park. Not entirely the Safest part of the city, but I don’t know your daughter, she might be OK.
She should get herself a Chicago Card for the CTA if she hasn’t already.
Chase and Bank of America have the largest presence in the City, making it easiest to get cash.
Assuming she will be renting, the knowledge of The RLTO is a good thing to have.
For non-emergency information of ALL kinds, dial 311, for all emergencies 911 and 836-7000 for train/bus/travel information.
Walgreens’ stores are everywhere and have many essentials.
Dominick’s Grocery tends to be cheaper on the whole than Jewel (but get the fresh values/preferred card), and Whole Foods is a giant rip-off. If she drives, a short trip to Oak Park or Evanston will save her more on groceries.
Travelling on a bike is well tolerated in the city and there are bike lanes almost everywhere.
If she’s driving to and from work, parking will suck and the gas prices are insane in the city, plus the cost of a vehicle registration is $75 bucks.
The parking meters take only quarters, dollar coins and credit cards, but are easy to use.
The south and southwest sides of the city have the highest crime rate and the north and northwest sides have a lower crime rate, but it can be block-to-block.
If she has any specific questions or wants recommendations, feel free to ask or PM.
The apartment was chosen for her – it’s called Sojourner Truth House and houses four in the program she’s in (sort of like Americorps, but run by the Lutheran Church). They are also supposed to supply a bus pass.
From the map, it looks like she has to walk about mile down Division Street to get to work and back. She’s a few blocks east of the park itself, which seems safer than the west side of the park.
Humboldt Park isn’t that bad. A friend of mine lives there. (Although there *was *a shooting in the alleyway behind her house…)
What does your daughter enjoy doing?
Anything free. 
Mostly music, plays, and museums. She went to college in DC, so was spoiled.
Don’t just work. Spend some time finding the great things the city has to offer.
Museums, Science and Industry, Field Museum of Natural History, Art Institute, Planetarium, Aquarium, Holography,
Theatre, from Downtown big shows to Steppenwolf and Goodman, and SO many neighborhood small theatres.
Music venues, from Symphony Center to blues clubs, to rock halls to local bars with no cover charges.
Outdoor music and art and craft fairs all summer and fall
Study music at the Old Town School of Folk Music, art at the School of the Art Institute, dance at Columbia.
There are also theatre, music and dance shows, and art exhibits at all of the many colleges and universities.
Get the Reader, in which Straight Dope appears, for a what’s going on where guide.
Damn, I sound like the chamber of commerce! But, Chicago is a great place.
Welcome!
David
Don’t know what things are like in Schenectady, and how old or worldly your daughter is, but she is going to be living pretty close to some pretty rough areas. I would strongly suggest that she not just think it would be fine to “explore” in any given direction without figuring out ahead of time where she is heading. And she should learn and faithfully practice behaviors any young woman in a big city should follow to lessen their chances of being a victim.
Well, there are often free things in Millennium Park - I once saw the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (with special guest star Senator Obama - he did the speechifying parts from Lincoln Portrait) perform there, that was fun.
The museums in Chicago are quite pricey, but you can actually check out a pass that will get you into all of the museums at the library. It’s extremely cool! There’s also a discount for city residents at the museums if all of the passes are checked out and she needs to go NOW. Another, much more time consuming way to get into all of the museums for free is to volunteer at one of them. I used to be a dinosaur docent at the Field Museum and my docent ID got me (and my guests) free access to all of the museums, which was fantastic.
There are a million fairs all over the city throughout the summer. Every neighborhood has at least one. People party in Chicago in the summer! It’s so much fun.
Chicago is a GREAT city for biking. Lots of bike lanes, and it’s so flat.
Everyone takes the bus. I know in some places, only “poor people” ride the bus, but in Chicago, everyone does. El, too, but if you don’t have a car and biking isn’t feasible, it’s best to get to know the CTA system. The el doesn’t go everywhere but a combination of bus + el can get you anywhere you want to go, pretty much.
The suburbs are horrible and should be avoided at all cost. Unless you really, really need to go to IKEA, I guess. There are a few exceptions: Oak Park and Evanston are both nice (and accessible on CTA).
The Reader really is the best place to find out info about what’s going on.
My favorite used bookstore is Myopic, in Wicker Park.
Yep - and full of entirely horrible people as well! 
I’d still have her get the Chicago Card, anyway. It’ll help speed her along if they give her a paper bus pass.
I’ll echo the free-stuff at Millennium, Pritzker and Navy Pier (fireworks 2 days a week for free). But if she really wants to enjoy the city for it’s own flavor, the neighborhoods are where it’s at. Though each of the museums has a free day, so tell her to get that done before the fall because in winter it sucks coming downtown.
The Reader will point her in the good directions and it’s free all over the place. Tell her don’t bother with the Red Eye paper, it’s a piece of crap.
The street fairs are great, the bands are usually top notch locals that span the music spectrum from 80’s cover to hip-hop. She’s missed the majority of the larger music festivals this year (save Lolla) but there are plenty of the smaller fairs still waiting.
I’d say that until she has friends she can hang with, she needs to pack it in early, no staying out til the wee hours, especially during this hot weather, unless she’s being driven home. She’s not living in Lincoln Park or on the Gold Coast, HP isn’t a place to let your guard down.
I’m not trying to sound like an alarmist, but I live here, I know what the streets are like, and safer is better.
This is all great stuff. I’m not too concerned about her going around – she’ll be living with a group of people who might go with here to events, and, anyway, she’d not a party person.
Awful people. Hate them.
I heard some of them were over thirty … and shop at the Jewels instead of Whole Foods!
Me too.
(Speaking as a Trader Joe’s man!)
This is a great websiteto get all kinds of information about certain areas, including information on what sorts of specific crimes are happening in the area and health code violations. Just type in an address.
Incidentally, I don’t know how well the Google Maps “public transportation” thing works everywhere, but it works very well in Chicago.
Also, if she’s a foodie or interested in ethnic food, check out lthforum.com, which is a Chicago-based foodie message board and has threads on pretty much anything imaginable, restaurant-wise.
Some good websites, speaking as a 26-year-old guy:
http://www.pollstar.com/resultsCity.aspx?ID=14174&SortBy=Date
Since she’s a museum fan, many of the museums have free admission days one day a week. I’d advise her to check out the websites for the museums to confirm which might have this and on what day of the week.
Groupon is awesome; it really lets you punch above your weight in terms of going to nice restaurants.
If she is willing to risk venturing into the burbs, she definitely should check out my fave bar/music venue. If she is in town over the 4th next summer, the American Music Festival is tough to beat. It is pretty much just down the road from her, in beautiful Berwyn.
And in September she should check out Oaktoberfest in Oak Park. Free, right across the street from the el/Metra stop, and the Waco Brothers always close it up in spectacular fashion.