Student Exchange Programs

Ok so I’m going on a student exchange to America when I finish school, next year. I’m from Australia, so naturally I have very little knowledge of where I should go. The good thing is, I get regional choice, so I get to pick which region I live in (one of the states in the region). The regions are as follows:

REGION 1: Oregon, Nevada, California, Arizona, New Mexico

REGION 2: Washington (not DC), Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, Colorado

REGION 3: North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Illinois, Indiana, Missouri

REGION 4: Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina

REGION 5: New York, Maine, Virginia, West Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania.

I am kind of tossing up between region 1 & 5. I don’t want to live in the ‘country’. My sister has traveled around America before, and even she doesn’t recommend living in the country for a year.
I want to be a place that has:
-Lots of famous landmarks (sister said NY was good for that, also Cali. Eg Empire State building, golden gate bridge, walk of fame, Grand canyon, statue of liberty, broadway… ETC)
-Lots of things to do (i.e. a Six Flags, lol. Museums, famous parks, famous libraries)
-A place with a good history (i.e. Washington, DC)
-Preferrably somewhere that snows (you get sick of hot weather in Australia)
-Somewhere not too hot
-A ‘typical’ American high school (it sounds so cliche, but I’m going on a student exchange, so I kinda want to get as close to the ‘real thing’ as possible)
-Somewhere safe!!! America has guns, and that terrifies me.
-Close to/in a main city (you have no idea how cool NYC looks to me)

Anyway, I’m not the expert, I need your opinions. By the way, I’m not interested in your opinion of how America isn’t a good country. I have come across too many anti-American Australians and vice versa telling me that I should go somewhere like Germany because the US is a shithole -_-. I don’t believe that.

Thanks in advance!