The University of Connecticut, located in Storrs, was originally known as the Storrs Agricultural School a fitting name for an institution surrounded by farmland. Storrs is a sleepy town about a 30-minute drive from Hartford; 60 minutes from Providence, R.I.; and 90 minutes from Boston. Without many activities off campus, students can get involved in the more than 450 clubs and organizations on campus, including more than 30 fraternities and sororities. They can also catch a film in the on-campus movie theater and skate for free in the schools ice rink. Sports are a major focus for students; the UConn Huskies compete in the NCAA Division I American Athletic Conference, in which UConns basketball teams are especially ferocious competitors. Freshmen do not have to live on campus, though more than 70 percent of all undergraduates choose to do so. Each year before final exams, students gather for Spring Weekend, a fun-filled, multi-day celebration that began as the schools Campus Community Carnival in the 1940s.The University of Connecticut has many graduate offerings, including the highly ranked Neag School of Education. UConn is the state of Connecticuts sea grant institution and receives funds for research and outreach to the regions waterways. Notable alumni of the University of Connecticut include WNBA star Sue Bird; George Harrison, former senior vice president at Nintendo; and David Lee, who won the Nobel Prize in Physics.

At Fordham University, "New York is [your] campus" as the schools website says. With campuses throughout New York City, students live and learn in the thick of an urban experience. The schools original Bronx campus, Rose Hill, is in walking distance to the Bronx Zoo, New York Botanical Gardens and Little Italy. Today, Fordham has two more campuses: Lincoln Center, which is close to Central Park, and Westchester campus, which is in West Harrison, N.Y. Freshmen do not have to live on campus, but any student who is promised housing upon admittance to the school is guaranteed a room for four consecutive years. Students can travel between campuses on the schools Ram Van, a burgundy shuttle that runs every half hour. The van makes enough trips, the school has calculated, that its covered a distance equivalent to traveling around the world 18.5 times a year. The Fordham Rams play in the NCAA Division I Atlantic 10 Conference. Fordham University, a Jesuit institution, does not have a Greek system.Among Fordhams graduate programs is the highly ranked Fordham School of Law, which is home to the first Fashion Law Institute in the country. Graduates and undergraduates alike may take advantage of the Louis Calder Center, a biological field station where environmental studies courses and research are conducted. A dozen graduate students a year can live in log cabins on the biological field station to be closer to their research. Notable alumni include NBA sportscaster Mike Breen, former U.S. Rep. Robert Giaimo of Connecticut and former U.S. Postmaster General John E. Potter.