<p>University of Miami - This school seems to have everything I want, but I have a few concerns. I know their social life is mostly about the beach/clubs/bars, but is there still a strong campus life? Also I heard Miami is very influenced by spanish culture. English is the only language I know, so will this be a problem/inconvenience for me?</p>
<p>Penn State/Indiana U - I've never been anywhere rural, and I haven't lived in the cold...Is it a huge shock to attend a school like this? Or do you get used to it really fast?</p>
<p>Arizona St. - I know large schools like these can't have everyone live on campus, but how big of a commuter school is ASU?</p>
<p>San Diego St. - Are the academics good enough? Is it even worth it to attend? Also how big of a commuter school is SDSU?</p>
<p>Pepperdine/LMU - Since they are affiliated with a church, are they way more strict than my other universities?</p>
<p>My other school is UCSB, but I don't have any concerns with it.</p>
<p>For Miami, I've heard that the school is pretty big on school spirit. The football team is popular, and they put out a newspaper that's well-read. As for culture...well, I've heard that a good percentage of the students are New Englanders, so I'm guessing you won't be the only one who speaks English. ;)</p>
<p>Lots of people live in dorms at ASU. Seriously, they couldn't party as much without lots of people on campus. And they LOVE to party.</p>
<p>University of Miami is attracting a lot of very smart kids from the northeast, they are offering a lot of financial aid. I have a friend whose son attended the same "well known" prep school as my son, and he turned down Columbia, Tufts, and Duke for U Miami because the money they offered was too good, and he loooooves it down there! Same goes for my dentist, son turned down Duke and a couple of other really great schools for UMiami. I tried my hardest to get my son to apply but he wants to stay in New England...... :(</p>
<p>U of Maimi has from what I know become a very hot sought after school which incidentally has the awesome adv. of being in Miami and being surrounded by cool hot spots under great weather all the time....not bad! What once was a party school has now become quite a serious school, my cousin goes there, I visited him and its amazing...beautiful! He LOVES it there and is from Ct. there are tons of kids from the Northeast. My best friends sis is at Indiana and again loves it, its a big rah rah school, part of the big 10 I think Miami is harder to get into than Indiana but both have very high levels of student satisfaction/happiness...good luck! Go visit because it can really change the way you think about a school.:)</p>
<p>Thanks for all of the info. I really think UMiami is the best school for me. So if I get accepted (next year, since I'm only a junior), I will definately visit. And I've already seen UCSB and Pepperdine, and I'm going to visit LMU and SDSU really soon. I may also visit ASU sometime this year. As for the other OOS schools I don't plan on visiting unless I really want to attend.</p>
<p>And that won't happen if I get into UCSB or Miami</p>