A couple colleges that don’t get mentioned on here too terribly often:
San Diego State University both up and down: Both my C23 and C25 toured this one. It’s an absolutely beautiful campus (well, except for the library, which can most charitably be described as “1960s concrete”)—you don’t expect that sort of physical plant from a regional public. SDSU, though, started with California mission architecture and stayed all-in on it, and that’s a visual plus. The student experience seems pretty excellent, too, and everybody on campus (which wasn’t as deserted as people here seem to expect college campuses to be in the summer) was incredibly friendly and cheerful—and of course you can’t beat San Diego for year-round perfect sun and weather. It was also good to see the way mass transit options were foregrounded rather than just given a passing mention as a good option for students without cars. On the whole, both of my kids were very, very impressed by the university—but probably won’t end up applying there because on closer look the curricula of their programs of interest are pretty inflexible, with no real options for pursuing individual interests as they develop.
University of Colorado Denver (yes, Denver, not Boulder) way up: This one was probably a bit unfair because the university was the host for a summer camp my C23 went to, but then again, that meant that she had two weeks of opportunity to see not just the best but also the worst the campus had to offer. It’s kind of a weird campus, because it’s shared by the University of Colorado Denver, the Metropolitan State University of Denver, and the Community College of Denver. It’s also a very commuter-oriented campus, though there are efforts to start having a residential presence. It’s a fabulous location, with easy access to pretty much everything Denver has to offer via easy mass transit connections. They’ve put a lot of resources into my C23’s area of interest, and after seeing a lot of the equipment and spaces she’d have access to she’s pretty certain that they would be able to support her in her educational pursuits. So for students interested in one of the areas this university has opted to carve out a niche in, this could be an easy-to-miss good option. (And for those of us in the Western states, noncompetitive automatic WUE tuition for everyone who’s eligible doesn’t hurt, either!)