Well, I am very biased towards this particular school, but I must suggest it anyway.
The University of Michigan at Ann Arbor!
I see you are into journalism. UM Ann Arbor has a very good student newspaper called the Michigan Daily.
Ah yes, my bad. I was still hung up on the dig he took at U-M students, so I wasn’t even processing the Ohio slam.
Even though I loathe Ohio State myself (It’s a part of the charter here) I love the state of Ohio. Many lovely places to visit.
Hey Gex, the only thing I have to add is by your criteria, you should avoid Clemson. I went there and had a good time, but it’s
a) a college town
b) relatively conservative
c) hot in the summers (added bonus, sunbathers on Bowman. mmm…)
Plus, they don’t have a big communications/journalism program. The specialties are engineering, computer science :D, education, and yes, agriculture (You’ve never seen a muddy Death Valley, have you?!).
Good luck in your search.
Our public transportation is a national disgrace; if you want to get around without a car, you’ll have to fly to Sweden. 
Someone mentioned that if you do end up in Charlottesville, you’d still have transportation and lodging to deal with in D.C. A thought: Hotels can indeed be very expensive in the D.C. area, but the U.S. does have a reasonable hostel system. I used to drive by the hostel in downtown D.C. on my way to work there every day – it’s on the edge of a bad area, but considered safe and certainly well situated for sightseeing. (It’s on, I believe, 11th Street, about 6-8 blocks north of Pennsylvania Avenue.) And definitely more affordable, probably under $25 a night. (We met a Canadian tourist here in New Orleans a couple weeks ago who was staying at our local hostel, which was $22 a night during JazzFest, as opposed to the typical $200 hotel room – a good deal!) And you can probably also find friends who live in that area who’ll let you bunk on their floor for a weekend; when you live in an area like D.C. (or New Orleans!), that happens a lot!
The good part about sightseeing in D.C. is that nearly everything is free or very cheaply priced, and once you get TO town, there’s great public transportation AROUND town, trains, subway, and buses. And if you can get someone with some transportation, there’s also a LOT to see and do in Virginia, so many historic and beautiful spots.
You won’t see much snow in Charlottesburg – but there’s ski areas not that far west of you. I know that Massanutten, in the Shenandoah River valley west of Charlottesburg, has a 1200-foot-drop ski hill and snowboarding hill, so you could try out the American emergency medical system when you break your leg.
And if you’re there in the autumm, you’ll catch about the prettiest time of year in Virginia. The change of color of the leaves is lovely. Not quite as intense in color as farther north up in New England, but folks drive from far and wide to see the leaves on the Blue Ridge Parkway in western Virginia. It’s a truly lovely state.
My former boss and good friend is a triple Wahoo (3 degrees from UVA), so if you have ANY specific questions about UVA, I will be happy to pass them along to her for further input.
I’m pretty serious about Pitt, honestly. You don’t need a car to get around. (And given the parking issues on campus, you don’t want one.) Lots of culture and things to do. I’m not aware of the quality of the journalism program, but I know that the school offers a lot of really neat classes in many interesting fields. I’m going to sugest again that you get in touch with Doc Stewart from the honors college and get his ideas on what would be interesting for you here.