Miami, Houston, Boston, Ann Arbor, Idaho or Malibu?

Boston
BTW, Idaho is a whole state in the NW U.S.

Boston is far and away the most interesting city on that list. Miami, Houston and Malibu are cultural wastelands. the only advantages to Malibu and Miami are the beach and the warmth, but you can get that in Hawaii and a hundred other places.

I have never been to Ann Arbor, but have heard good things about it for students. but it gets damn cold there.

Another vote for Boston – a great city! There will be winters, though.

It has been a long time since I was there, but the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor is a beautiful campus and a wonderful college town- just be prepared for cold winters! Boston is very expensive, as is Malibu. Idaho, outside of college towns, is very conservative if that’s a concern for you.

Good school in Ann Arbor. Crappy football team.
Boston is fabulous for schools, plus US history and other cool stuff.

Save Miami or Malibu for spring break or something.

Ann Arbor is great!
I have done their art fair before and got to check out the town.I loved it! :)

I perfer Idaho but it is small compared to most the others. You get to experience all the seasons. You would find more of a family life there and less things to do during the evening or late hours. Lots less congestion and rush rush everyday life.

Houston has lousy traffic.

Is climate a consideration for you?

Ann Arbor is terrible. Boston, Houston, and Miami are all good but very big (Boston is probably the most “American” experience of those three). Dunno about Malibu.. Idaho is full of small towns and would give you a rural-American view probably.

There really is no ONE “American Experience” Depending on the coast, state, city, etc…. you can have a dramatically different experience.

What country are you coming from?

Boston and Michigan are great collegiate experiences. But cold. If you are going for a full year, the cold can be annoying if you don’t like it. Boston you can also easily see NY and DC with some weekend trips.

Miami is great for fun in the sun while studying. I love Florida, so I am very partial. Miami is international, but with a large amount of people from Latin America, a lot of Spanish spoken. I am loath to say this won’t be a typical American experience, because for me having Spanish speaking people around is normal and part of my America, but Miami has a tremendous Latin American influence.

Boston will be very international also, and be more of a tradition American feel in the city in my opinion. Michigan, also international because it is a very good school, but you will really get a feel for the people in the midwest, middle America. Each part of the US has its own regional distinctions.

Full disclosure: I was raised in the northeast, went to school at Michigan State University, and lived in Florida most of my adult life.

@tedd Why do you say Ann Arbor is terrible?

@bigjay Do you like sports? Would you want to go to college football games, things like that? Also, I was curious what you will be studying?

Oh, wait, I just read your original question again. Not much traffic? Boston has some of the worst traffic in the country, and Miami and Houston have a ton too. Are you expecting to have a car while at school?

Boston will give you the best cultural experience of that list. It has wonderful museums, lots of music and art. It is the most metropolitan. It has horrible traffic, but most people don’t drive because the train system is so good. Boston is also the most liberal politically of the list that you gave.

Miami is a beach town with a lot of happening night life.

Houston is a metropolis with a Texas flair.

Ann Arbor is a really good school (UM) and an interesting small college town. The climate in Michigan can leave a lot to be desired with freezing, snowy winters and baking summers. There are a lot of lakes around.

Idaho is mountainous (the Rockies) and full of outdoor recreation opportunities. Politically, it is to the right of God. There is not much culture.

Malibu is a beach town in California full of the wealthy. It is sort of an unreal place. But it is very beautiful. You would be able to travel to Los Angeles and San Francisco pretty easily.

@marinelife Excellent synopsis.

@JLeslie Go Bucks, thats why :D

@tedd That is not a good enough reason!! Lol. I am a Spartan! Wolverines are to be avoided at all costs. But, I would not steer someone away from spending a year at UM.

If you get the chance try BYU in Utah or the UofU. Great place to live. Smile

My immediate thought was Boston. Malibu would be cool, but I thought it has a lot of traffic, being in Southern California. But then people mentioned Boston’s traffic. Still, if you live in town or near town and take the T, then you won’t need to deal with it, mostly. But then, this is true on almost any campus. You’re going to mostly be on campus, and traffic won’t matter.

Ann Arbor goes crazy on days the football team has a home game. It’s got good restaurants and culture. It’s a college town. Pretty liberal. But the winters are cold and the summers are hot.

Houston is, well, an oil town. People are conservative down there. They may not be friendly to foreigners who look brown. It is beastly hot and humid in the summer. Everyone lives indoors in the summer, so they can have air conditioning.

Miami is a party town. Good football teams. Lots of school spirit. I’m sure you could get a good education if you stay focused, and don’t just party all the time.

Idaho is small and it is a backwater. You won’t nearly as much opportunity for plays, concerts, or roller derby there as you do in the other cities. But it is beautiful. Mountains and wild rivers. Salmon fishing. If you want an outdoor experience, and don’t mind smallness, go to Idaho.

Which school in Boston?

Idaho….Boise State rocks.

Malibu…

Do all of the schools in these cities really meet your needs equally well? If not, choose where to go based on the school itself. If so, I guess I’ll join those recommending Boston. It perhaps has the greatest number of opportunities for you. Terrible pizza, though.

Even as an ex Ohio State University student- (finished somewhere else). I have to add my vote for Ann Arbor. It is big enough to have much diversity but small enough to not get lost in the school. It will give you the entire “university experience”.
(Now, don’t tell any of my Ohio State friends!)

I’d go with Boston. The first shots of the American Revolutionary War against Great Britain were fired here. I live almost next door to the Paul Revere house. The city is full of historical sites to visit. It is home to Harvard and MIT, two of the finest universities on Earth, and an amalgam of ethnic communities from every major nationality.

There definitely is traffic, but the city has one of the best mass transit systems in the USA, and that gets you out of the gridlock and lack of parking on the city streets. Boston is chock full of museums. The Boston Philharmonic Orchestra and the Boston Pops are the pinnacle of its music world, but Jazz clubs abound thanks to “Berklee College of Music“http://www.berklee.edu/, and there are clubs with live performances of every musical genre imaginable. Boston boasts tons of things to do. Beaches,, sailing, biking, skiing areas, etc. It’s my city and I love it.

You don’t mention where you live now. Boston has its Chinatown as most big US cities do. But it also has the North End where I live, which is often called Little Italy. In my neighborhood there are tons of terrific Italian restaurants, and walking around (Boston is very much a walking town) you will hear heated conversations in Italian on every block. South Boston is our Irish enclave. The South End is headquarters for many of our yuppies and our gay community.

If you do decide on Boston, be sure to PM me. I would be delighted to give a fellow Fluther member a tour of the city Iove.

GracieT TRAITOR!!!!!

@tedd, ;oP
I know that for many people, Ohio State is “all that”. For me, however, it wasn’t. I came from a smaller high school ( a small pond with 213 in my grad class) and I was a fairly big fish in it. When I went to Ohio State. I went from my normal environment to being a microbe in an ocean. I just couldn’t handle it. It wasn’t Ohio State’s problem, it was mine. I just didn’t handle not being one of the mob very well. I still love Columbus. but Ohio State just wasn’t the right school for me.

@GracieT My high school graduating class was 69, including students who went to the local trade school instead. I LOVED the Ohio State :).

Cool thanks a lot for the answers guys. Boston seems to always get good reviews but I dunno lol it sounds exactly like the place I’m living in right now. Where I’m from [Paris. France], you grow up with things like museums and culture and all that other stuff until at one point it just seems like one big attraction for tourists. Malibu and Miami sound pretty darn awesome. I’ve never actually lived in a beach town, or even a town where its ever remotely hot for more than a month or two every year. Ann Arbor too sounds quite nice – a smallish town would be a refreshing change from a Metropolis.
@Jeruba For Boston, I applied to tufts and brandeis.

@bigjay If you have never had year round sunshine and palm trees…all I can say is it changes our life. Feels great, like you are on vacation all of the time. If you are going to be there through the typical school year August-May the first two months are the worst, very hot and muggy, but after that it cools down. Majority of the time will be spring-like weather. Here are Miami’s average temperatures. Here is Malibu. Personally, I prefer to have more bikini weather like FL, but many like a milder temp.

@bigjay, Brandeis is in Waltham, and Tufts is in Medford. Neither of those is Boston. Boston is close, but—not at your doorstep. What you find in Boston in terms of urban density, traffic, amenities, features, etc., you won’t find in Waltham or Medford.

Again, you can get to Boston pretty quickly, about a 20-minute drive, as I recall, and Boston still has all the wonderful features enumerated above, but at either of those schools you will not actually be in the city, as in walking out your door and being on a Boston street with trolleys and buses and subways and mad drivers and a thousand restaurants and hospitals and museums and all the rest. So take a look at those two smaller cities as well and see if they sound like your kind of place. Being a little bit out of the main flow of traffic might just be the best of both worlds for you.

@bigjay Walthan (Brandeis) is a beautirul town, but definitely not urban, just a town. Medford is not so lovely. But Tufts is a fine school.

If you decide to go the beach route, bith Miami and Malibu give you that. The water of the Pacific is almost too cold for swimming even in the middle of the summer. There is an upwell of cold water from the deep due to the rotation of the Earth. But if you know how to or learn to surf, definitely go for the West Coast. The surf there is MUCH better than Florida’s. However, the water temperature and water color off Miama are far better for swimming and snorkeling. You won’t need a wetsuit to be able to stay in more than a few minutes without turning blue.

Have fun in the US where ever you decide to matriculate.