Hmm... I understand where everyone is coming from in regards with me just picking up a much cheaper mountain bike and throwing thinner tires on it, but honestly for me, this hopefully wont turn into another expensive hobby. I really wanted to go out, grab a decent road bike, and be done with it. As long as I don't end up with a road bike that craps out on me in a matter of 1-2 years, I'm fine with it I guess. I've ridden my friends slightly oversized road bike on the same course as I did with the old mountain bike, and I have to say that even while being oversized, the road bike was much more comfortable.

I am also going to try and bike everywhere I can instead of walking around on campus, so that means there will be quite a few long stretches of stairs in order to access class rooms and what not. And I don't know about the better mountain bikes, but my arm felt like it was going to fall off after carrying up the MTB up and down a couple flights of stairs while I was test riding it.

I'm not sure why, but I've just had my mind set on getting a road bike and haven't been able to open my mind up to buy a MTB at this time.

If replacing tires isn't expensive, opting for the $219.99 Costco Schwinn seems to be the best idea for me as of now. I'll snoop around some LBS this weekend and report back. One last question, it is possible to get curved handle bars swapped onto the Costco Schwinn correct?

And thank you guys so much for the fast responses, and incredible amounts of information. Probably one of the best forums I have ever been on in regards of people willing to help instead of telling a first time poster to just search.