UC MercedLook at this picture; how necessary is it to explain why it made the bottom 3? It goes without saying that you’ll likely spend most of your time on campus, considering there is nothing in the near vicinity except fields and maybe a cornfield. This environment may help students focus on school, because there’s not much else to do. I don’t even want to know how far the nearest movie theatre is, because it’s likely to cost more for gas than the movie itself. So if you suffer from a severe case of ADD and need absolutely no distractions, you might like this place. Otherwise, pick another UC that isn’t in the middle of nowhere, they’re all over California.

University of Alaska, AnchorageIf you transfer here, make sure to pack a snow jacket. With an average temperature of 15 degrees Fahrenheit during the winter and 60 degrees Fahrenheit in the summer, beach trips are out of the question. Many students look forward to going to school near by some water, but I don’t think this is what they had in mind. And don’t expect to meet a whole lot of people because Alaska averages a whopping one person for every square mile. Cross your fingers that you don’t end up lost in the wilderness on your way to class. Diversity isn’t very good either; the university has 14,000 white students out of a total of 20,000.

University of PhoenixOkay, so this seems like more a specialization school of some sort. It reminds me of DeVry College. I mean, every time I go online this place keeps on popping up, clearly interrupting my MySpace time. So what I understand is that there are campus sites all over the country, but what I don’t understand is why. Top universities don’t need to add campuses all over the nation because they’re good enough that students come to them! They seem way too desperate for enrollment. For example, the homepage of their Web site features an information fill out form, leading me to believe that they want your information, so they can call you and e-mail you to death. I remember when I gave my information to DeVry, they were worse than the army, calling me all the time trying to recruit me. This is a good safety net university just in case you don’t get into your top, oh say … 100 choices.