Having lived many years in CO, northern NV, and northern CA. I'd rate CA the best place of those to ride year round.

There are many excellent schools in the SFO Bay Area depending on what you want to study. UCSF, UC Santa Clara, UC Santa Cruz, Berkeley, Stanford... Here's a list of just those in SF proper: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of..._San_Francisco

A bit further out there's UC Davis, and many many more.