Advice Sought on Student Exchange to US

Our Number 2 offspring, the Less Favoured One, has the chance to spend a few months studying at a university in the USA between February and May 2011. At the moment she's in the process of making her choices and I'm wondering whether any V-Flyers can help with information to help in the decision making process.

We've got the hard data on costs, courses, insurances, accommodation and weather and all of the institutions market themselves as the best thing since sliced bread so I'm looking at the more qualitative aspects of the location and surroundings (though if anyone does have direct experience of the institutions I'd also like to hear about that). Just as added background the LFO is bright, reasonably academic without being bluestocking, not sporty but definitely sociable, and has been the east and west coast of the US a few times.

So her current list is

University of Tennessee at Knoxville
University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign
North Carolina State University, Raleigh
Arizona State University, Tempe

Thanks in advance for any advice or information anyone can offer..

Paul

[Scrooge]

Tennessee is a great University, great area of the country and has the sports programs.

University of Illinois, I would skip unless there is a class there not offered anywhere else.

NC, the same as Tennessee.

Arizona State....I have friends that are there right now, they seem to like it, good sports programs as well.

I will tell you though, ASU is a party school as well.

This is a pretty sound assessment, I'd give slight preference to NC State of the three from an academic standpoint.

I have to say that my reasons for rating UI lower would not be academic. It's a good school with excellent CS profiles (lots of well heeled alumni contributing to both CS and biz school) and some pretty good colleagues in other areas of academics from my past life. Stanford it ain't, but it's a good deal better in many areas than any of the other three. I'd say it is likely to be freezing for one or two months, and is frustratingly remote for being in Illinois, well over two hours from Chicago and no easy way to get there without driving a car (which you wouldn't want to do in winter). U/C have a combined population of 100k folks, about half of Knoxville or Tempe areas, and much less than the RDU area. It might feel a bit small and isolated. But if academics were a significant consideration, I would definitely revise the rankings.

[Scrooge]

Just to be clear, I wasn't ranking them, just giving general input, with that said if I had any say, it would be NC as well.