Exchange in America

College Search & Selection
21

Fall is football season, and sororities typically have lots of events this time of year. If you want the quintessential college experience like that, then you should definitely choose fall semester. However, the universities on your list are not similar at all, and each one would have a very different experience.

You said: The options that I’m interested in are:
-Arizona State University
-North Carolina State University
-Pennsylvania State University
-University of Arizona
-University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
-University of Missouri-Columbia
-University of Oklahoma
-Boston College

Arizona is a warm state, and the entire climate, scenery and culture there are different than the “typical” American place, unless what you are after is the typical Southwestern experience. Arizona State and U of Arizona are essentially in the desert, with significant cultural influence from Mexico affecting everything from the food to the architecture and general vibe. I love Arizona, but it is not typical, and if you are trying to avoid modern buildings as you say, and are seeking the more traditional-looking campus, then those universities are not for you.

Boston College is a private Catholic college. While it is a typical Catholic college, I wouldn’t say it is reflective of the typical American (public) university experience. Probably not the best choice if you are after that quintessential experience, unless you are eager to be in metro Boston area to explore the city and be able to hop on a train and visit other cities in the Northeast (or go on a snow skiing trip North of there).

North Carolina State University is not a “flagship” university, and also does not have the classic American campus and experience.

That leaves on your list the following top prospects for a Fall Semester that will be closest to typical American college experience as you can get: Pennsylvania State U, U North Carolina, U Missouri, and U Oklahoma.

Oddly, you claim to love “Midwestern” towns and states, yet you don’t include a single university in the Midwest in your list aside from U Missouri. If that is to avoid the cold, then you will need to take Pennsylvania State and U Missouri off your list, because it is also cold and snowy in those locations.

That leaves you with these two options: U North Carolina, and U Oklahoma. Both of them have Sorority Houses, so either choice would do, but UNC is the more highly ranked university, and Chapel Hill is often voted the best college town in America. That means University of North Carolina- Chapel Hill is your best choice to provide the experience you seek.

22

^U of NC is no longer available.

The Sororities should not even be a factor for OP since OP will not have anything to do with them in reality.

23

The religious component at Boston College would not be too significant. Most students will be Catholic, but lots of non-Catholics go because it is a good school. There aren’t going to be any religious requirements or expectations for you. It will probably be slightly more conservative than the typically liberal US campus, and students will be affluent overall. Otherwise, there will not be much difference. And Boston is a great college town with lots to do.

I agree Mizzou would offer the big-time football, college-town, Midwest experience. I don’t know Mizzou specifically but know it has had some budget issues in the last couple of years. Some protests cut applications and enrollment, which affected the budget. I wouldn’t worry about that in general–I’d even look at it from a contrarian perspective, a good opportunity. However, I would research to make sure there have not been cuts to your department and classes are available. Weather would be nice until the last weeks of the semester. I think they are getting a cold snap this weekend and one next week. Here’s a good article that includes Mizzou:

https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2017/10/midwestern-public-research-universities-funding/542889/

Oklahoma would be a lot like Mizzou, but without the recent budget issues.

Arizona might be a very good choice too. Very much the same type school, but with American Southwest flavor. I think ASU might feel more suburban, but maybe someone who knows more can compare the two schools for you.

I’d probably not recommend NC State for a high school student who wanted to study English/linguistics, although it would be fine, the school’s focus is just a little different. But it might have very good faculty for that and for a semester your classes might be great. You might just go to the department page and see what research the faculty is doing, what articles they are writing. You can also google rate my professors to see what students think of them.

Penn State would be very much like MIzzou in terms of being a big state flagship, big-time football (huge, huge game against Ohio State today), etc. Students love it there. It is very isolated in the middle of the state. There’s no city nearby at all. So student culture is very campus-centered. It would probably be cold the last month or so of the semester. It is more socioeconomically diverse, and the school has a great reputation for offering a great education to a wide array of students.

Miami is an excellent school in a fun city. It does have more of the Florida, beachy thing going on, compared to the other schools on your list. Like BC, it is very affluent and will have less socioeconomic diversity than one of the state flagships.

24

I’ll just add that Raleigh (NC State) is a very nice mid-size city. If you like basketball, it plays in a great conference with huge rivals nearby (Duke, UNC, Wake Forest), so that can be fun.

25

@gearmom I don’t know what it is in Fahrenheit, but we use celsius in Aus and i’d say roughly 20-30 degrees celsius is ideal. In Winter, probably 15 and below, i tend to shrivel up and become a hermit. Haha. Yeah, I’m really leaning towards Penn state now that UNC CH is out of the list! What’s purdue like? I’ve looked at the website but there isn’t much about it with regard to things that aren’t in the ‘brochure’.

26

@mommyrocks this is ridiculously helpful! thank you!

I know its a diverse list, i just wanted to get opinions on each (like you’ve done!) so i can get a grasp of them in case i don’t get into a desired one and have to choose other preferences…I’ll definitely be applying for fall, and crossing out Arizona and Miami now that i know what i want. All of the midwest is really cold, and while i love the culture, i just can’t handle it, so i was kinda after the midwest vibe in another place (e.g. North Carolina, sort of). Penn state is probably my closest option! UNC is ‘closed’ for exchange for 2018, U of Missouri will be my second preference, and hmmm… i haven’t done much research on Oklahoma and no one’s recommended that one yet. What’s that place like?

27

@elpleskun11 Purdue is probably too cold for you then but it is a great school. I like Penn State for you. I love Pennsylvania and it will be a balanced view of America. It will be quintessentially American and I think you will have a great chance of integrating. And as someone said, Americans love Australians so you really should be good.

28

I wouldn’t worry about the cold for the fall semester. Even at Boston and Penn State, the coldest weather schools on your list, it probably won’t be consistently cold until maybe the last month of the semester, though it can vary by year. It has been nice through today, although it might be a little cold up there this weekend. I don’t think you’d have any or much snow before December 1, and the semester usually ends between Dec. 14-20. Classes usually end the second week of December.

Spring semester is another story. It starts in January and weather will likely be brutal at those schools through all of March, and even April.

Mizzou should be fine in the fall, and certainly the other ones. I’m in NC today, and it’s very nice, 60s (F). Good luck!

29

Here is Penn State: https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/penn-state-6965

Mizzou: https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/university-of-missouri-2516

Boston College: https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/boston-college-2128 I’m not sure of this for you because the campus will not be contained. I think @TTG explained the campus at Penn for you very well. BUT Boston is a super fun city, I really think the religious aspect would be a non factor is such a very liberal area. (People in the area just had a big vote last year to ban chickens or eggs that were not cage free, free range. I think that represents their mindset) So for another classmate of yours, BC would be a top school. Very strong academically. Penn State is your next strongest academically. I love the farmland areas of Pennsylvania. They also have interesting history in Philadelphia. More randomness for Penn: they also have the Amish https://lancasterpa.com/amish/ and Hershey Park http://www.hersheypark.com which is super fun to visit at Halloween. That is cool for you too to be able to share our American Halloween and Thanksgiving with a fall semester.

30

I’m afraid the only place that stays above 15 Celsius in December is Arizona.
North Carolina is 15-18 right now, great weather, but around 10 at night, and it goes down in November and December.
I’d say 15 is also what you can expect at Penn state and Mizzou in October.
However, ‘cold’, in this Midwest is minus 20 or minus 30, so that minus 5 to zero would seem mild. (Expect minus 5 to 10 in January at Penn state, close to zero at Mizzou, above zero at NCSU) versus temperatures in the minus ten to minus twenty at Purdue. Not on average all day long, but enough days for three months that it feels it’s all you have.
On the other hand it may be your only opportunity to experience winter. :slight_smile:

31

MYOS is right: all the schools you are considering will have temperatures well below 15 C in November/December & beyond.

At Penn State, the average HIGH in November is 9 degrees C… the average lows are around 0. It gets progressively colder as the winter goes one.

I also agree with MYOS that experiencing cold weather could be a part of your unique American experience. Embrace it!

32

If you are willing to be adventurous and deal with the weather in Pennsylvania, then Pennsylvania State U is a better choice than U of Oklahoma. It’s a higher ranked university, and the college town there is often on lists of best college towns in the USA. In the fall, the campus will be beautiful with the leaves on the trees in various colors. I"m not sure if sororities there have houses though, so verify that if it is important to you.

However, the U of Oklahoma is nice as well, and has been recognized for its impressive historic campus. You will have a great experience no matter which university you choose!

33

The second part is blatantly untrue. True, the campus has a lot more brick than I personally prefer, but NC State definitely has a typical large university campus and student experience. Raleigh itself, as TTG noted above, has been growing by leaps and bounds and is a very nice city.

As for flagship status, I would disagree with that as well. North Carolina is a bit different from many other states in dividing programs between UNC (liberal arts) and NC State (many professional fields). If you want to major in engineering, for example, you have to go to NC State, as UNC does not offer it at all. Most Carolinians therefore consider UNC and NCSU both de facto flagship state schools, though Carolina is obviously the more prestigious of the two out-of-state.

In any case, flagship status is not a very good indicator of academic strength. Some non-flagship schools like UC San Diego blow weaker flagships like Oklahoma and Missouri out of the water, and sometimes the flagship is not the most prestigious school within a state (e.g. Georgia Tech over UGA).

NC State has some strengths in the humanities and social sciences – creative writing and public history are both quite strong, for example – but in general I agree that it is not particularly notable in the humanities. Of course, one could debate how important that it is for only one semester.