I like Flagstaff. It's a pretty chill town. Not as much going on as say San Diego, but really it's pretty sweet. The school's about the right size and theres a lot of really cool people that go there. Some of my good friends went there, and I even applied there - only to really not like the program for what I wanted to do.
Snowbowl relies on natural snowfall, so if the season sucks, it REALLY sucks, and there's not another place within about a 10 hour drive, so you're kinda screwed otherwise. they only average about 260 inches, and the base is at 9200 feet - so that gives you an idea of what Arizona skiing is kinda like. East coast places get more snow in some years... It's still pretty much the desert.
Having a national park like Grand Canyon that close is really awesome though... Never can get bored with that.