<p>When I read this thread, it looks like OSU comes in last among Penn State and Indiana. It looks like MSU, Minnesota and Iowa are liked better than OSU.</p>
<p>And some people actually like the weather at the Big Ten schools. :)</p>
<p>Hey if you walk down that road even further there is a huge mansion, all decked out in Blue and White, waiting for the true god of football JoePa. </p>
<p>On a more serrious note, the Big Ten is where its at. This fall when I was trying to decided where it was that I wanted to spend the next 4 yrs of my life I considered all of the factors and limited my selection to 4 schools, PENN STATE, Cornell, Udel and a horrible place called Michigan. I had really had no idea what was going to be the deciding factor until one fateful weekend in October when I accepeted an invitation to join a friend for the weekend of the Penn State Ohio State game. I got a student ticket off ebay and went up. It was the most amazing thing I have been. 110,000 people (all 30,0000 students where all in white) all packed into Beaver Stadium all yelling and cheering for the team. I had the time of my life and the rest of the weekend was great fun. (I had the true college experience.) The next weekend I went out to Ann Arbor (who I should note is a whore) to see them play Penn State and to tour the school. It was pretty much the same atmosphere. It was at that point I decided I was going to go to Big 10 school and pretty much dismissed Cornell and Udel. </p>
<p>So if you are looking for incredible school spirit, great sports as well as superb achidemics look no further than the 11 schools of the Big 10.</p>
<p>Weather - it's all relative. S is UMich grad and soon-to-be UW-Madison law grad. He prefers the changes of seasons and the variety. He was raised in Calif. and WA State. He has taken up ice-skating and hockey, all outdoors, while in Madison. Lots of smaller city lakes in Madison for winter sport fun. He couldn't do that at UM as only a river ran through town and didn't freeze over. One February, I watched a pickup truck drive across Lake Mendota. As for spectator sports, the Pac10 (H and I went to two of their power-houses) has nothing on the Big10.</p>
<p>The big ten is the place to be for any college sports fan. Part of the reason for me choosing Indiana was getting a chance to go to the Hoosier basketball games. Yea their football team is dissapointing, but they have a great basketball tradition and they are going to have a good team this year. Kelvin Sampson is now the coach and he has already signed 2 top JUCO players.</p>
<p>It depends what sport you prefer. If you are a huge basketball fan than Indiana should be at the top of your list.</p>
<p>Sorry, for this one time only, I've got to agree with ex-coach Bob Knight of Indiana; Penn State should have never been admitted to the Big Ten. Talk about bad layovers! Is there even an airport within 200 miles of Penn State?</p>
<p>Oh, come on. University Park airport is less than five miles from campus; and now we have jet service! So what if it's three flights from everywhere?</p>
<p>Northwest has non-stop flights from our area to University Park Airport, State College, PA (SCE). I believe Delta, United, and US Air have flights into there as well.</p>
<p>Iowa has a great town, serious academics, excellent sports, and the university is significantly smaller than all the other Big 10 schools except Northwestern.</p>
<p>Is it hard for students to get tickets to basketball games in the Big 10? The arenas are in the 14,000 to 17,000 range, but the student populations are huge (esp places like UIUC & Purdue).</p>
<p>Of course. Wisconsin has a lottery. Freshmen get in once, sophs twice, jrs three times, srs four times (it is done by student ID). I've yet to win, however you will find people selling season/individual tickets, and I've gotten to a lot of games.</p>
<p>Edit- the thing about UW is that the student section, in comparison to other schools, is way too small. I want to say it is around 3000 students?</p>
<p>Last year I cried when my daughter selected Illinois over Tulane. I thought she was making a huge mistake. Well, I was wrong. She is extremely happy with her classes, faculty, dorm, new friends, and life in general. She is excelling academically and I am convinced it is because she made the right choice.</p>
<p>Campus life is great. There are lots of entertainment options. There are clubs for just about anything you can imagine. The Greek life is strong, but not at all necessary. And, she can't be bothered going to a sports event. There are lots of ways to have fun.</p>
<p>UIUC is better than tulane anyway</p>
<p>Wisconsin's student section at the Kohl Center is very, very small. I have been told, but don't no for sure, that when the Kohl Center was being built the stduents declined to increae their fees to pay for part of it. Most of the money came from alums, and they get most of the seats. If that's wrong perhaps Barrons can can provide the reason.</p>
<p>I'm not sure how it works at Illinois but I know the Orange Krush camps out overnight to get floor seats. They're the die-hard fans and you have to do a certain amount of fundraising to be in Orange Krush -- they usually raise about $100,000 a year overall. The student tickets are given out by a lottery where the older students take priority. We give a substantial donation every year for the opportunity to buy football and basketball tickets and we aren't even alumni -- we give way more to UI than we give to our alma mater. Illinois has very loyal alumni and a lot of them stick around after they graduate.</p>
<p>I think TSDAD was pretty accurate on the reasons for the small student section at Kohl. The alums--of which there are many in the area, are very protective of their seats. They built the place. All students think their tuition and fees are too high but the UW instate kids have nearly the lowest total fees in the Big 10. Next the alums will rebuild the Union and ban the students from the area. After all they voted not to raise fees to remodel the building and Terrace.
It was not a problem in the old barn before Kohl.</p>
<p>I just need to throw some love out to U of Minnesota...the city and campus are amazing - great facilities for the most part, and you will get a great education there.</p>
<p>A bit underrated, if you ask me...if you are looking for an urban campus setting, you can't go wrong with U of Minn. <3<3</p>
<p>(I love Wisconsin too...I grew up around Madison and grew up wanting to go there...but I'm planning to attend U of Minn - I just like it better...but I just can't bring myself to even say the phrase they use to refer to the Badgers: "Better dead than red!" But I think I'll get used to it after a while. ^.^)</p>