<p>One problem with the airport thing - most (not all) schools with a great sense of community are located in college towns, not big cities.</p>
<p>
You can fly to Lincoln 1-stop through MSP. Not perfect, but it could be worse. And the drive from OMA could be worse - it takes a little over an hour. The DEN -> Fort Collins drive is a little longer but equally simple.</p>
<p>It’s a bit of a commuter school, but the University of Utah has much of what you’re looking for.</p>
<p>Have you spent a winter in Norman? You might be surprised just how cold and wintery it gets there. Although it’s relatively close to Dallas, the weather is quite a bit different during the winter months.</p>
<p>If you like OU for everything but the weather, it’s worth keeping on the list. I promise you a Dallas kid will be plenty cold at certain times of the year.</p>
<p>Missypie…I know you are looking for schools other than OU(University of Oklahoma) but wouldn’t you agree that it is a beautiful campus…great school spirit, great size, up and coming academics, an EASY drive from the DFW area and they got losts of snow this past year…I think there is even an Amtrack train that goes from Dallas to Norman or Oklahoma City. We visited with D in the fall and went to a football game and it was amazing…My D is not going there but I actually mourned the loss of OU when she decided to go somewhere eles…I loved OU…just my .02</p>
<p>I have not visited Arkansas but I had actually heard that the campus was beautiful?? Maybe the construction is the problem??</p>
<p>ARRDAD…I cross posted with you, but I would have to agree that the weather in Norman is quite different than here in DFW…I was often amazed at the amount of snow that they were getting there this past year and we had nothing here in DFW…</p>
<p>Back from road trip. The problem is the weather in August and September (and November)…the question is “When does it cool off?” and if the answer is October (or November), that is the wrong answer.</p>
<p>We had our official visit at Arkansas yesterday and D actually liked it a lot. (I did tell her that if she went there there would be money left over for grad school; I don’t think it had occured to her before that grad school could be on her own nickel.)</p>
<p>Here’s the deal with the aesthetics: OU and Oklahoma State have beautiful campuses…the buildings are all the same color brick…OSU even has the same Georgian architecture. All grass is green. Many flowers. (Trust me, construction is not the issue because every campus had major construction.) Arkansas…brown grass, bare patches, no flowers. BUT, the furnture and carpeting in the dorms seemed nicer/more recently updated at Arkansas…I guess one school’s flower budget is other school’s dorm furniture budget.</p>
<p>D knows that it would be difficult to find (and pay for and be admitted to) a business school better than the Walton School. (If she chooses Arkansas, I’ll have to wrestle with my D being educated by Evil Walmart…)</p>
<p>As for Northern Arizona…D is not outdoorsy in the least…but if it were me, that school would be high on my own list!</p>
<p>Hi Missypie…I have heard that Arkansas gives good merit aide…I did not check in to it when D was looking at schools…She refused to even look at Arkansas because so many from her HS were going there and she didn’t want a repeat of HS…OU and Tech were the same problem…even though we told her that most likely she will never see those people if she doesn’t want to…funny thing is she is going to UT and there are about 25-30 kids from her class going there too…I guess because it is sooo big, she doesn’t care 
good luck with your search!!!</p>
<p>Tennessee?</p>
<p>Have you thought about the University of Vermont?</p>
<p>There’s nothing to recommend UTenn, as loyal as I may be to my home state’s U. The schools the OP’s daughter has looked at are better (or at least as good) and Knoxville isn’t the easiest place to get to from DFW either. Plus- it’s huge. Indiana would be the much better choice.</p>
<p>Missypie, thanks! You guys certainly were here on a hot and humid day. It gets down to the 70s and high 60s here in September, then on down to 60s-50s in October, then it gets moderately cold (probably like the other schools you looked at).</p>
<p>Thanks for the details about aesthetics. You’re completely right about the homogeneous nature of the other two campuses compared to ours. We were doing well until the 60s and then they abandoned the master plan and started putting modern buildings throughout. We’ve now gone back to that and are blending the campus into architectural districts with new construction and renovations. Back when I was doing my own search (admittedly, a few years back) I was pleased with OU’s landscaping, and I know our flower beds aren’t near as eye-catching (but they have been working on it. We took a beating in the 09 ice story and they’ve finally gotten all the trees replanted and are now going back to focus on the landscaping). If you get time, could you message me with areas that were unattractive, especially if there was brown grass or patches? I think they keep the core part of campus (Old Main, etc.) pretty attractive, but I’m curious what wasn’t. I don’t get out of the office all that much these days, so it’d help me to know what areas need to be fixed so all of campus looks nice.
If it makes you feel better about Walton- most of the professors have no connection to Wal-Mart at all, it’s just the people that got wealthy off of Wal-mart that helped endow their college .
Anyway, I’m sorry I somewhat hijacked your thread, but I would appreciate it if you get a chance to let me know which areas of campus we need to talk to our grounds crews about. Also, I’ll put another recommendation in for Colorado State, and one for Iowa State (it was on my list when I was looking), for your daughter to look at.
-Matt</p>