| CSU: Disappointed
Well, my daughter and I have returned from our tour of prospective colleges and are sad to report that we were disappointed with CSU. To be fair, I should begin by saying that Fort Collins and the surrounding area are beautiful . . . great town, lots to do, the snow-capped Rocky Mountains in the background, 300+ days of sunshine annually, etc. As for the university, my daughter took an almost immediate dislike to the look of the campus . . . lots of concrete, modern architecture, wide expanses of lawn with very little ornamental landscaping -- kind of cold and austere, almost a complete opposite of the older, more ornate "traditional" campuses that we previously visited at the University of Missouri -Columbia and Kansas State University. The undergraduate admissions presentation was fair, at best. We sat and listened to an admissions counselor for nearly an hour as she essentially read from the 36 page undergraduate viewbook. During the middle of the presentation, a freight train came through the middle of the campus (more about this below) and was loud enough so that we couldn't hear part of the admissions presentation. As strange as this may seem, the train tracks -- which run right through the middle of the campus -- were there long before the university and are still in use -- several trains come through daily from what we were told. Following the admissions presentation, we were taken on a tour by a student who I would have to charitably describe as uninformed and disinterested (didn't know the names of many of the buildings on campus and couldn't answer some of our most basic questions). I noticed during the course of the tour that we were taken by the exteriors of many of the buildings, but went inside only a few), which leads me to speculate that many campus facilities were probably in need of repair or upgrading. Those that we did see were not impressive -- the dorms, in particular, were dreadful. My daughter was impressed with the equine facilities (which are among the best that I've seen anywhere) and the School of Veterinary Medicine, but on the whole, she was far more impressed with the campuses, facilities, student body and the way that she was treated at Mizzou and K-State than at CSU. To be fair, I'm sure that CSU is a great school and a perfect choice for many students, but it wasn't a good fit for my daughter and I think she'll be happier elsewhere.
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