<p>In my college search I have visited Penn, Penn State, Michigan, Michigan State, and Ohio State. I liked the layout of Penn, Penn State, and Michigan State much better than Michigan or Ohio State. The major difference I noticed was that the campuses I liked better had primarily school buildings on campus with most shops and restaurants just outside of campus. In comparison, Michigan and Ohio State seemed to have many non-school related buildings scattered all throughout campus.</p>
<p>The other schools I am interested in but will be unable to visit before applying are Columbia University, Boston University, Georgia State, University of Texas (Austin) and UC Santa Barbara.</p>
<p>Can anyone help explain which of the groups any of these colleges would fall into?</p>
<p>BU is different from the other colleges you’ve mentioned as it really doesn’t have a distinct campus, a large part of it is located on a busy city street.</p>
<p>Columbia seems to have the setup you prefer. Most of its buildings are within its campus area (though some spill over into the streets). The stores, restaurants, etc. are on Broadway, which is adjacent to the campus.</p>
<p>Michigan campus has buildings scattered around because the city of Ann Arbor grew around it over time. I initially thought the layout was weird too (I attended a university with a traditional campus for my undergrad). As an employee, I personally like the fact there are restaurants and shops blended on the campus because it makes it a very pedestrian-friendly (encourages walking) campus and the shuttles provide easy access to all parts of the university. I don’t need to go back to my car to grab something to eat. I can walk inside a restaurant and take my lunch back to my office building.</p>
<p>at UCSB the student store/cafeteria and a snack building are on campus; these are owned by the Associated students and the student store has chain restaurant outlets in it (Subway, Starbucks, etc). The shopping and independent restaurants are off-campus in Isla Vista, which adjoins the campus.</p>
<p>Nix Georgia State. It’s Atlanta’s version of NYU or BU. Just city style buildings in downtown Atlanta. I got a graduate degree there and loved it, but it doesn’t sound like what you’re looking for in a campus.</p>