Hi everyone, i’m from uk, i love college football and basketball and i follow on tv since about 10 years. I’m planning to visit colleges campus and watch a game. Pease can you help me to choose from your experiences ? I have some requirements to submit :
Good atmosphere and easy to walk around
Not too expensive college area
Big football and basketball fanbase and traditions
not too greek and pretentious students
quite conservative
Please you’ll be very graceful to help me to choose from my list of schools : Ucla, Michigan State, Texas, Kansas State, Nevada, Rutgers, iowa, colorado, missouri, northwestern or Any other suggestions !! i know it’s different from every person but according to you best college town for me please !
@Tomyman I am confused by your original post. Do you just want to visit one time, or are you looking for a university to attend for four years? If you are only visiting one time, then why does it matter whether there are pretentious students or the school is conservative or liberal? On the other hand, if you are planning on attending as a student, then we need a lot more information such as what you can afford and what stat’s you have that might help you get in and what you might think about studying.
Yes you’re absolutely right, sorry for this confusion, all this colleges have good atmosphere i think but best college town to visit, hang in bars, according to your experiences … Thanks a lot
Are you 21 years old or older? The US is pretty tough about enforcing minimum drinking age laws.
The month that you intend to visit will also matter. Winter is a significant thing in the North (such as Michigan), but is a LOT milder in for example Texas and pretty much doesn’t happen in southern California.
The US is also quite large by European standards, so the various locations in the US are pretty far apart. If you fly from the UK to Boston, you are just barely more than half way to California.
Based on post #9, I think that there are 100 good choices. If you are visiting pretty much anywhere in the US, there should be some way to find a local large university with a game and a find a ticket and a beer.
I am thinking that if you have another reason to visit the US, or if you have relatives or friends to visit, then you might want to make tentative plans and then ask again when you know approximately where you will be visiting and when.
September, so… a year from now?
There are great college towns in almost every state in the country. There won’t be any basketball in September; just football. So you’d need to make sure the team was playing a home game at the time you were there. And also that the team was competitive (nothing worse than a half-empty football stadium on a losing day). Hard to judge this far in advance for many teams.
that said, several schools have football powerhouses and great college towns. But almost all are liberal, not conservative. Try Utah State or Clemson.
I would fully endorse the #1 on this list. http://fanindex.usatoday.com/2014/12/01/americas-10-best-college-football-towns/
It is really impossible to beat Madison in Sept/ early Oct. However, it doesn’t meet your conservative criteria. If that was really a requirement, you would have to go to one of the southern schools like Texas A&M. Be warned, Kyle Field is nearly unbearable in September due to heat. You really need to remove UCLA and Northwestern from your list. They do not have the college town atmosphere. To be a true college town, the college needs to be omnipresent. That doesn’t happen in LA or Chicago.
At 28 I don’t know how much fun a college town will be to visit. If you go to a bar you will feel very old.Also, why do you care about Greek life and pretentiousness if you’re just coming for a short visit?
Ucla [X] Too liberal, expensive
Michigan State
UT- Austin[X] Too liberal, expensive
Kansas State
Nevada[X] apathetic fanbase
Rutgers[X] apathetic fanbase, expensive, subpar local area
Iowa
Colorado
Missouri
Northwestern[X] Too liberal, apathetic fanbase, very Greek, expensive