@ninanelso: My son attended the University of AZ on a generous scholarship a few years ago (the only reason—he wanted to go elsewhere). The campus is immaculate, not too large, and the administration is great. However, he found out that the social life sucks big time. The majority of the students are from AZ and not excited to be there, it’s just their state school so they choose it. He lived in Highland Dorms and everyone was antisocial, doors closed. Students knew people from high school so they didn’t care about making new friends. He went to a dorm event and everyone took the pizza and left, didn’t even stay to socialize! Tucson is a very boring town so people vape and smoke, and drink for entertainment because there is nothing else to do. Perhaps the heat has led people to grow up complacent and they get used to a boring level of life. He tried going Greek and was accepted but quit because all they cared about was partying, not decent conversation. My son is handsome but the sorority girls would only acknowledge Greeks. There is only one cafeteria near the party dorm, across campus, so most of the students eat at the food court, EVERY DAY (there is a small dining hall at the stadium too). Junky food at the Food Court and no bonding because you don’t see the same people all the time. (There’s also 40,000 students so you don’t see a lot of the same people on campus often for bonding). Fortunately, there is good off-campus food within walking distance. He had two roommates (one each semester) and both left UA after one semester due to lack of friendships. Since it is a state college, there are a lot of people who work too, so they don’t have time to hangout (nor money). My son tried another year (mistake) but there was no improvement and he was lonely so transferred to his dream school and is now having an absolute blast with people who want to do things and have fun and are happy and on the same wavelength (because the GPA requirement is higher). He had some friends in the Honors College (and could have been in the Honors College but declined) and they were more interesting and their dorm was a bit more active, but they were still a lot of Arizonans. My daughter visited UA with us and didn’t like the people either. Sending my son there was my biggest regret but his dad wanted him to go there because he thought the dept. was well-ranked. Thank God, my son is happy in college now.
Re what you said about being “dragged down by academics”, yes, it’s probably easier academically since the GPA requirement is lower, but you might not be on the same wavelength as the other students unless you do the Honors program, but that is more work and overrated (employers don’t care, they still see the college name).
My daughter was accepted as a James Scholar at UIUC and we visited. The James Scholar Award allows priority registration and a new dorm (both very important! Some of the dorms are bad). We ate in the dining hall and the food was excellent and healthy. The dining hall was new and nice. It’s a big campus though and there are shuttles with heaters at the shuttle stops. The students here seemed more intelligent than the UA students, as UIUC has higher GPA requirements for admission. I think my son would have enjoyed the students here more, had he gotten accepted. My daughter chose a college in CA instead, although UIUC was her second choice. The 11-hour round trip day from CA to UIUC and the weather were both factors.
Nina, I encourage you to visit college campuses during the academic school year and feel the vibe of the school and students. You can do this at Spring Break. Talk to the profs in the dept., see if you can talk with students in the dept. or shadow. Being happy on campus is so important—you have to be with people you enjoy. I have lived in several different states and can tell you that learning a different subculture is overrated. You will probably most enjoy it in the region where you grew up (unless you have a passion for somewhere like NYC or somewhere else that really excites you). If you are accepted into NW, that would be a good choice. USC is in a very dangerous area and is so huge now, only a few thousand less students than UCLA, no longer a nice, private college. BC is very Catholic and homogenous; people stay in and party during the winter. Best wishes.
Chancellor’s is highest) and was invited to apply to ELITE (an Arizona program) and am applying to the Arizona honors college.