I know it's hard to believe, but the winters really are milder than the midwest. Like I said, there can be exceptions to that, but generally when it snows, the snow is gone within a day. The big difference out here is that because we don't get much precipitation during the year (it IS a desert), they don't salt the roads during the winter, which can make things interesting! They use sand or magnesium chloride instead.
My husband (then boyfriend) and I moved here from Illinois right after undergrad to attend graduate school at the University of Colorado at Boulder. We weren't ready to get jobs yet. Since I knew I had a better chance of finding an aerospace job if I lived in an area big on that industry, and we LOVE the mountains and weather, CO seemed like the logical choice. We got married a few years after we moved out here.
I guess you have to define "close"... There are quite a few universities out here, state universities in Boulder, Denver, and Fort Collins, smaller colleges elsewhere... I think if you were attending college, you'd want to live close to or in the particular city, or make sure you're on a bus route, which is what we did in grad school.
Yes, I would have been very scared to move out here alone But I know several people who have done it in recent years. Denver's a great place to be single, by the way!!!
I'm SO happy here! In fact, my parents hope to move out here within 3 years, which I'm very excited about!!! Knowing their grandchild is on the way is good motivation for them, I think!