Arizona

NAU has the reputation for being fairly granola and laid back. It's 7 miles from Flagstaff to Snowbowl: http://www.arizonasnowbowl.com/index.html. I've only really passed through it, but Flagstaff seems like a pretty cool place.

Depends on what you want to major in. They have the nation's top "hotel and restaurant management" program, other than that it is lackluster, but not a bad school. It's small, and has a nice campus full of hippy types. They don't get that much snow though, especially in the last 5 years. It's been a battle every year to get the slopes open and sometimes it doesn't happen. As of this year they have snowmaking though, might help.

Yeah like sharko said, the skiing is wanting. This is my first year here and I have had no complaints with the education. I'm in economics and while its definitely nothing spectacular, I think you get out of it what you want and the small class sizes mean you can go talk to you profs whenever. But there are a few nice urban hits on campus, all subtle, not many stair cases. Next snowfall me and a few friends are going to go film some, so hopefully that happens and I can get a little edit posted. But yeah come visit the school and see if you like it yourself. I know I'll have a good time here the next 3 and a half years