The craziest thing I will admit to in this blog is that I grew up in Pennsylvania, wanted to go to a school in a rural setting, and I never even visited Penn State. I knew I wanted to go out of state so it was never a serious consideration. Still, I liked the place in theory and I expected that I would like it in person. I did like it - there are good students and a good vibe. There are attractive buildings, but no one building that stands out as being exceptional. Still, we're not judging a whole school on the absence of one building. It's a nice place with good people in it's administration as well as cool students - one could go there and really enjoy the college experience. They definitely have their own form of Penn State nationalism which would probably be kind of fun if I were one of them.
#17 University of San Diego
First off, what a beautiful campus! Seriously, I knew there were three schools named San Diego: San Diego State, UC San Diego, and isn't there another one just named the University of San Diego? Or is that just UC San Diego's nickname? Well, first of all, yes there is a small, private Catholic school named the University of San Diego on top of a hill a little north of the downtown off the 5. Second, that school is stunningly beautiful. Third, their administration is a pleasure to deal with and their students are pretty bright. I like the place and I want to get back.
#18 Clemson University
As my top 20 unfolds, you will find that I have an affinity for big schools in small towns in the South. Clemson fits the bill: attractive campus, small town, nice people. There's a nice school spirit there.
#19 - University of Pittsburgh
I'm originally from Pittsburgh and I took a Spanish class at Pitt, but I was never all that big a fan of the school. You could say that familiarity led me to take it for granted, but when I was able to compare it to so many other schools it came out much better. I am also more amenable to living in a city than I was as a high school kid. Enough about my relationship to the school, it has beautiful buildings: all over campus you see attractive, substantial, and even a few architecturally unique ones with some history (like Forbes Field). Then you have the Cathedral of Learning: Just a fantastic signature building - it is unique in appearance both outside and inside and host to historical classrooms typical of all different nationalities.
#20 - University of Georgia
First of all, the University of Georgia is in a classic college town, Athens. While it is known for it's music scene, I did not really get to see any of that. However, I found the town to be pretty nice and the campus to be attractive, the administrators were good, and the students seemed pretty cool. As someone with friends from Georgia Tech and someone who has only ever cheered against the University of Georgia when watching them play football on TV, I was not exactly inclined to like Georgia but I did. It's got a lot to recommend it.
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