Tempe, Arizona

bump

The school's overall academics are average at best, but some specific programs are fairly good. Running will be manageable 8 months of the year, the other 4 will be rough unless you run early. As you said it is a party school, and consequently has a party school reputation amongst most employers.

Are you serious what's the social life like? Well it takes a 2.5 grade point to get in and the school is full of out of state kids away from Mom and Dad with plenty of money. Throw in good weather and its the reason why I had to move away before I was dead or in rehab.....Summer running can be horrible, however Oct through May is awesome

I didnt ask how the social life is. I was asking how the running was there. I hear its really all sidewalk and cement.

My bad reading comprehension fail = ASU grad....Yes concrete jungle, some trail running and mountain running but mostly sidewalks and traffic....

yeah lots of sidewalk, mostly i have run around tempe town lake, and papago park which you can get to from tempe town lake, and is only about a mile (north?) from campus. It won't take long though to cover most of the trails there, but it is nice for a change, and it has hills.

Lots of sidewalk if you are a recreational jogger. Great trails if you are a serious competitive runner. Most trails are easy access from campus. Great place to go to school - I know the team practices at 6 in the morning in the fall - but in the afternoon in the spring - I would recommend getting in touch with the coach.

I'd say late June-Sept you'll need to get out real early or real late. The rest of the year it's almost perfect. Trails are available, but your options will expand exponentially if you have a car.

I went to ASU, and we ran on soft surfaces everyday, about a mile run from the track through Papago Park and the canal mostly. There is also Tempe lake, and depending on where you live Kiwanis Park is only a few miles from campus. There are a handful of dirt canals in the area that go on for a long time. Also South Mountain is a great place for a run - if I'm not mistaken it is the largest metropolitan park in the country, there are miles and miles of trails there and it is about a 15 min. drive from campus. Also there is really good running in North Scottsdale, granted it's a bit of a haul (35-45 min), but occasionaly it would be worth it. The heat in the summer is brutal, no way around that. From May to October plan on running by 6am, but for me the rest of the year more than made up for it, it is beautiful. You can wake up early and get it done in the summer, but you can't avoid the snow no matter when you run if you live in a cold climate.

I live in Tucson, came from Indiana/Illinois last year. Tucson is cooler most times by 5-10 degrees than Phoenix/Tempe. Tucson is hot, Phoenix is worse. Plus Phoenix is much more humid, probalby due to all the lawns compared to Tuscon where only like 5% of the houses seem to have a lawn (probably for a dog).

Some of the other posters say only June-Sept is too hot.

Look at the averages. May, even April, are hot. Remember the average is just that, which means the beginning of the month the average is more like the previous month and the end of the month is more like the next month.

ASU is bigger and has party rep, U of A is smaller but looks to have an active bar/club scene. Around 1 million in metro Tucson, like 5 million in metro Phoenix.

NAU in Flagstaff is much cooler (temp wise not party wise!)

If you can run at night or early in the morning for 6 months a year, go for it. But I can tell you even in Tucson at 6:00 AM it's often 85 degrees in August and goes up to 105 and at 9:00 PM it's still 90-100.

But I love October thru April!

Phoenix weather

January

Average high temperature: 66

Average low temperature: 41

Warmest ever: 88

Coldest ever: 17

Average precipitation: .8

February

Average high temperature: 70

Average low temperature: 44

Warmest ever: 92

Coldest ever: 22

Average precipitation: .6

March

Average high temperature: 75

Average low temperature: 49

Warmest ever: 100

Coldest ever: 25

Average precipitation: .9

April

Average high temperature: 84

Average low temperature: 55

Warmest ever: 105

Coldest ever: 32

Average precipitation: .3

May

Average high temperature: 93

Average low temperature: 64

Warmest ever: 113

Coldest ever: 40

Average precipitation: .1

June

Average high temperature: 103

Average low temperature: 72

Warmest ever: 122

Coldest ever: 50

Average precipitation: .1

July

Average high temperature: 105

Average low temperature: 80

Warmest ever: 121

Coldest ever: 61

Average precipitation: .8

August

Average high temperature: 103

Average low temperature: 79

Warmest ever: 116

Coldest ever: 60

Average precipitation: 1.0

September

Average high temperature: 99

Average low temperature: 72

Warmest ever: 118

Coldest ever: 47

Average precipitation: .7

October

Average high temperature: 88

Average low temperature: 61

Warmest ever: 107

Coldest ever: 34

Average precipitation: .6

November

Average high temperature: 75

Average low temperature: 48

Warmest ever: 93

Coldest ever: 25

Average precipitation: .6

December

Average high temperature: 66

Average low temperature: 42

Warmest ever: 88

Coldest ever: 22

Average precipitation: .9

Desiree Davila went to ASU!

I live, teach, coach, and train in the West Valley. Great places to run year round. During the hot day of June-Sept. is when I get the best training done. If I do not get up at 5am, then its worthless to run until 7pm roles around, so it keeps me on a schedule. Besides you can still run in the heat, my XC athletes trained yesterday on Thunderbird Mtn. at 4pm at 108degrees. Frequent water breaks and they are fine. Tough days make Nov. - March amazing. Well worth it!

Why hasn't anyone mentioned Karsten GC, directly across from the track. A perfect place to run before the golfers tee off.

No one has mentioned karsten because AFAIK no one runs there. I went to ASU and over the course of 1000s of miles I never ran there once. Played golf there a few times though.

Here's my two cents....

Yes, it is hot as hell in the summer in the valley, but do you think over 5 million people would live here if it was unbearable? Its not like all of these people lived here their whole lives... tons of people move here from cool climates and do just fine. You know why?... because the rest of the time it is amazing! Enough said.

As far as ASU goes...

Yes- its a party school,but lets be serious... what university isnt? I have never been on a college campus where most of the students didnt like to get wasted after a long week of work and school- lets get real.

And yes, it only takes a 2.5 GPA to get in (if that), but ASU isnt about turning down every student that comes by. They are about letting people get a college education. I dont think there is anything wrong with that. Whats wrong with more of America's young adults getting a better education?

ASU is also waaaayyy under rated as far as academics go. Here are a few factoids about national rankings for ya...

Business Graduate- ranked 29th

Business undergrad- 25th

College of Education- 24th

Engineering Graduate- 47th

Engineering Undergrad- 41st

(including 5 individual graduate programs in the top 30)

School of law- 55th

Public affairs- 26th

Interior Design- 2nd

Architecture- 10th

School of criminology and criminal justice- 12th

The Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication is consistently ranked in the annual Top Ten , often called the "Pulitzers of college journalism."

The Earth Science program in the School of Earth and Space Exploration was ranked 31st out of 105 programs

Ph.D. program in psychology was ranked #36 out of 240 graduate programs as of 2009

In addition, ASU maintains several programs that are ranked among the top ten nationally according to the Faculty Scholarly Productivity Index: Ecology & Evolution, Accountancy, Marketing, Curriculum & Instruction, Educational Leadership, Industrial Engineering, Interdisciplinary Studies, Speech & Hearing Science, Spanish, Physical Anthropology, Clinical Psychology, Counseling Psychology, Developmental Psychology, Educational Psychology, Justice Studies, Political Science, and Social Psychology.[62]

How does your university stack up against that? Looks like us kids in the desert are great multi-taskers.. able to party and get their school work done at the same time. haha

And here is another factoid from today's Arizona Republic:

56% of ASU students graduate (under-grad) in 6 years. So, of all the kids that enroll at ASU only 56% graduate within 6 years....ASU administrators are concerned with that stat.

At UCLA it is 89%.....just saying.

nice

All true ! Louie is a good coach.

The big question can you get up and run at 6am if you can't don't go. I could never adjust to this. I ran really well in the spring but very poorly in the fall due the heat and the morning runs. Also the soft surface trails are not that fun if you are used to wooded forest trails.

Bottom line it's hot and if you don't love the heat don't go. I went out to run one summer day at 4pm just to try it was 108 and I nearly melted into the pavement (not the smartest idea )