PHOENIX -- Picture yourself as a high school senior, traveling around the country, touring college campuses to figure out which school is right for you. When you left Wisconsin for your spring break, it was snowing. Then you get to Tempe, home of Arizona State University and it's sunny and warm, and the girls are wearing bathing suits (albeit under cover) to class. You pinch yourself and come to the conclusion that you plan to spend the next four years of your life -- and maybe more -- studying in a desert oasis. You wonder why you hadn't decided this years before.

Now picture yourself as a high school student from Hawaii. You've never see a flake of snow in your life. But something draws you to the cold climate of college in Wisconsin. What's right for one student is different for another. Or maybe the grass -- or the frost -- is just greener on the other side.

"When I walked around ASU, I fell in love with it," says Swapna Kulkarni, a college senior from Brookfield. "I love the weather, and they have a really good business program."

"When it came to school, I really just wanted a total different scenery," says Kyle Porter, a 2004 graduate from Beloit who now works in commercial real estate in Phoenix. "I wanted to see a different part of the country. I wasn't getting away from anything, but I wanted something different than the schools I saw in Wisconsin."

"Plus, I love to golf," he says. "It pretty much took one visit. Between the attractive females walking around the campus, plus golfing in January ... there's so much to do in Phoenix."

What's the best part about going to college in Arizona? Of course, Kulkarni says it's the weather. But she also likes other aspects of Phoenix, too.

"There's a lot of camping and hiking, but also a lot of good live music, which is awesome," she says.

Porter agrees. "There's just so much to do. Obviously, there's Spring Training. But I don't care what kind of music you like, Phoenix is always on everyone's tour schedule."

For right or for wrong, ASU has earned a reputation a school that likes to party. Can that be distracting?

"Yeah, it is," says Kulkarni. "You have to get your priorities straight."

Still, others Kulkarni knows from back home just couldn't cut it.

"Usually, people transfer back after the first year. But if you can survive and hang tough in this different culture, you'll be fine."

Says Porter, "The first thing people would say to me would be, 'Aw, man, I would never go to class down there.' It's funny that they have that mentality, because there aren't a ton of nice days during the school season in Wisconsin. I thought it was the complete opposite -- if it was cold I wouldn't be going to class."

Porter says he knew three people from the Midwest who dropped out of ASU. For his own sophomore year, he transferred back to UW-Whitewater for a semester, "but I came right back."

"The culture is so different in the students," he says, noting all the California transplants on campus. "And it's tough when you see a million beautiful women, and you're not with any of them."

But Milwaukee, for its part, is actually quite well-represented at ASU -- which, for some reason, isn't too surprising.

"There's a lot of Wisconsin pride," says Kulkarni. "If you see people wearing Wisconsin stuff, you'll call them out for sure. There's a lot of friendliness between us, which is really good, because we can relate to home."

"There are a lot of Wisconsin people here, actually," says Porter. "I lived in the dorms, and on my floor alone, there were two people from Wisconsin. In every class, there was someone wearing a UW shirt. I've even had people stop me asking if my Beloit shirt was from Wisconsin."

But coming home for winter break is tough, says Kulkarni, and not just because of the weather.

"When you live out here, your blood thins. But when you go home, you readjust. But I miss Milwaukee -- the familiarity, the friendliness and the good beer."