Most all of 'em tend to be located in rather nice territory.
I guess I needn’t tell you what I misread in place of locked.
Burlington, Vermont. Everything you asked for and more. [sup]©[/sup]
I love Vermont but it is COLD much if not most of the year by some standards. The OP should give some king of weather preference to nail things down better,
As of now, I’ve never lived anywhere where it snowed a lot, so I’m not used to the cold, but I’m willing to give it a shot if the area’s nice.
(Besides, after flying around Vegas in 117 degree weather in full Chem ensemble, cold might be nice.)
I was going to mention Charlottesville! It’s wonderful. I was only there for 4-5 days a few years ago, but it remains on my list of places I’d love to live someday. UVA is a great school…if I were forced to go back in time and choose a different college to attend, I’d probably pick UVA.
Seconded (and home prices are crashing, Lsura, so hang in there).
Washington and Oregon are both expensive, Washington absurdly so. Laramie, Wyoming is high and dry, if you enjoy the whole wild west thing.
Well, there ya go. I’m familiar with that area, and it’s not the prettiest. I lived north of the university – on the corner of Indian School and University, to be exact – and that was a nice neighborhood. My work at that time took me all over the city, so I saw good and bad neighborhoods. I recommend right around the uni.
Flagstaff, AZ. Dry weather, The Canyon nearby, has Northern Arizona University (if you’re into what they study), several observatories, smallish but a rather liberal and dorky and artistic population. Lots of hikers. Mountains, forest, NOT in the desert, but still dry and the desert is nearby. Amazing scenery, good people, wildlife.
Oh, to be the nitpicker. Deep Springs may be the weakest part of the criteria, but that’s because it has 26 students. It is not a community college but a highly selective two-year college with an acceptance rate of 7%. Most go on to Ivy’s after their two years.
And a third, fourth, whatever for Charlottesville.
Erm…Chicago (said the shameless booster)?
From the street, our outstanding architecture can look pretty mountainous! Plus, there are some large-ish hills up north in Wisco and Michigan.
Chicago isn’t nearly as large as NYC (8 mil vs. 18mil, I think). It’s also smaller than Tokyo, Mexico City, Bombay, Hong Kong, and Kiev! You can make it seem smaller by getting into a nice, well-defined neighborhood, too.
Colleges? Lots.
Expense? I’ve heard that Chicago is still fairly affordable. The rental market is supposedly hot, and you can buy stuff, too.
Southern accents? Um…no. But we have our own peculiar accents as well. We say “Da Bearz”, and end lots of things with possessive S’s.
-Cem
If you can settle for the beautiful central Texas Hill Country instead of mountains, I’d recommend Austin, Texas. If not, I’d second Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Seconding Albuquerque. Santa Fe feels much cozier, has two (tiny) colleges, and IMO, better scenery than Albuquerque. The trade off is that Santa Fe is a bit pricier than Albuquerque.
Heh, sometimes so do we! But unfortunately, we don’t meet at least 2 of the OPs wishes. 
We’re hella-spensive and really, really big. But it is beeyootiful.