<p>UT austin, UMass Amherst, Ohio State, Wisconsin all fit your standards</p>
<p>^ Add UIUC to that.</p>
<p>i dont know much about UIUC but i hear they have great concerts</p>
<p>And UVA…</p>
<p>^Right. And Midwestern winters tend to be sunnier than those on the East Coast. We also seem to have fewer ice storms, which I find really scary.</p>
<p>Again, with the exception of a few specialty and commuter schools (BYU, Army, UL Monroe) or those that don’t have traditional frats, I can’t think of a single D1 school that doesn’t have a robust party scene. Maybe UNLV?</p>
<p>Big Div I Sports and party scenes tend to go hand in hand.</p>
<p>that said, a student who wants to have the grades for med school needs to practice a good bit of self-constraint.</p>
<p>@mom2collegekids Definitely! I know better than to party every single night. Mt GPA would plummet, and my med school dream would be ruined. Plus, the med schools I’m interested require top stats (Penn, Harvard, UCSF, UCLA, USC, Temple, and NYU). </p>
<p>@Everyone else thanks for all the suggestions! To the person who mentioned CU Boulder: their campus is one of the most beautiful college campuses I’ve ever seen; however, their OOS tuition is insane! Also, to the person who mentioned UVA: I’m looking at UVA and UNC-CH closely because they are two school which fit my requirements and also meet 100% of financial need.</p>
<p>It is foolish to go into excess debt just to finish one good state school over an OOS one. This goes double if you are looking at med school where you will go into massive debt. So your first goal is to keep costs down as much as possible, especially when you have attractive instate option.</p>
<p>no ones mentioned Umich yet?</p>
<p>It’s too cold, is too cloudy, and snows too much at Penn State.</p>
<p>This is my opinion having attended college there. The fraternities were fine, though. Also, If you are bright and studious, you should be able to keep a really high GPA there.</p>
<p>UNC-CH isn’t a good choice if you are from outside of NC because it’s too NC-centric. Its also a harder school to keep up a GPA at, I think. If you want a high GPA in NC, you should go to NC State. </p>
<p><em>However</em>, it doesn’t snow as much at UNC-CH and the weather is nicer.</p>
<p>If the weather is the ultimate decider for you, I think you’ve done something wrong.</p>
<p>I think you are missing a couple of important things.</p>
<p>Some CCs have articulation agreements with in state Us. Usually, these are with the public Us, but sometimes private schools have them as well. Before choosing your courses, find out which 4 year colleges the CC you will attend has articulation agreements with. Only take courses that will transfer, except for a few which may be required for an AA degree. </p>
<p>It may well be…I can’t say it will be…that your in state public will accept most of your CC credits and that some of the big OOS publics will not. So, you may face a situation in which you will be able to transfer and complete college in 2 years at your in-state public vs. having to take 1-2 extra semesters to get your degree OOS. </p>
<p>If you’d really like some OOS options, contact someone in the transfer office and ask whether you can get any advice as to which courses will be accepted for credit before you take them. My understanding is that many colleges will not answer this question but you may get lucky and get some advice.</p>
<p>You should also talk to the person in charge of transferring at your CC. That person may know where past grads of your CC have transferred and which courses they were able to get credit for. I think this is one of the most important considerations in choosing your target 4 year colleges.</p>
<p>@johnri You are right about the articulation agreements. My CC has agreements with several in-state (including Penn State and Temple), private (including Villanova), and even OOS (including UDel). The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania has a system where any credits attained at a Pennsylvania CC will transfer into their state-owned universities (ex. Millersville, IUP, West Chester, etc.). They also transfer to the state-related universities, including Penn State and Temple. </p>
<p>Also, my CC has a program where they will design a course load that will be transferrable to a student’s desired university. I still have my heart set out on Maryland at the moment, so I will most likely tell my advisor that I want to attend Maryland in two years. The only thing I would have to do on my own time is get in contact with an advisor from Maryland so that the two schools can have a mutual understanding of what will transfer. Hopefully, if I do select Maryland as my transfer school, my credits will also transfer to some of the other universities that I want to apply to!</p>
<p>University of Delaware, UMich and UVA</p>
<p>“If the weather is the ultimate decider for you, I think you’ve done something wrong.”</p>
<p>Cost was the ultimate decider for me back in the day.</p>
<p>Penn State agreed to give me a free ride.</p>
<p>Weather is a major reason to not live in PA.</p>
<p>Take a look at LSU. I am from out of state and love it. Louisiana has been awesome and LSU has a gorgeous campus. Plenty of nice on campus/off campus housing choices and a huge Greek Scene. Take a look! Geaux Tigers</p>
<p>“Weather is a major reason not to live in PA.”</p>
<p>You get used to it hahaha! I’m from the Philly area, and I love how we get to enjoy all four seasons (although the past two or three winters have been warmer than usual).</p>
<p>@LiveUnited I’ll check out LSU! I’ve heard great things about it, but never looked into it when I was a senior this year</p>
<p>UW-Madison, as others have mentioned. Madison was rated the number one college sports town by Sports Illustrated, and is always high on the list of top party schools. On the other hand, it has great academics and should be looked favorably upon when you start applying to med schools. </p>
<p>The same can be said for most Big Ten universities, but UW just seems to be the epitome of it.</p>
<p>I’m thinking it might be hard or impossible to pledge a fraternity/sorority as a Junior if you go to Community College for two years. I don’t believe LSU, for example, allow you to go through rush as a junior.</p>
<p>Those fraternity houses at Alabama are unbelievable (we took our child to visit Bama). I have heard they are very $$$$. A friend’s son pledged a frat there and the dues were $6,000 and that didn’t include any housing. Not sure if that’s accurate but that’s what I heard.</p>