pattib

Can anyone tell me about this university and/or Fort Collins, CO?

bookiemom

My D is moving to Fort Collins this week. She just graduated from University of Northern Colorado, which is about half an hour south of Fort Collins. She is excited to move to a more hip and larger college town, and Fort Collins has a lot of interesting restaurants and shops.

I think the college has a good reputation for a large state school. Their vet school is highly rated. What else do you want to know?

pattib

Thnaks for your reply. Just want to know what the locals have to say about this school. We live in MA and know nothing about CSU. My dtr's been accepted there and is waiting to hear from UC Boulder. She is a snowboarder and wants to go to school in CO. She plans to major in marketing. So any further info. you have is appreciated. Thanks!

socraticgf

CU Boulder is more highly rated. USC has nicer dorms and apartments.

Ft. Collins, home of USC is urban sprawl and further from the mountains than CU. I think its main employers are Anh Busch, the beer maker, and HP. It is full of people from Nebraska who think Ft. Collins is the big city. It has a large Evangelical population. Republican. Town is highly sports oriented and has excellent facilities - similar to Texas.

Boulder is much closer to the mountains, pricier, a pre-eminent scientific community, more laid back, over 70% vote Dem, highly athletic population, significant Buddhist community. CU has a highly rated engineering and space/Mars/Hubble program. CU has some highly rated graduate classes in Business, though I don't know about undergrad.

Honestly, she will like either school.

pattib

Thanks so much for all the info.!

drb

CU is putting some significant $ into its business school. Boulder would be less culture shock for a girl from MA and is closer to mts. Eldora is up the road on a public bus line. My Boston suburbs D is having a blast and doing fine in classes. No classes on Thursday so she can ski. Either school would probably like your OOS tuition.

pattib

Why less of a culture shock?

drb

See post #4.

socraticgf

"Good To Great" by Jim Collins, a business book best seller - I think Collins teaches at CU and came from Stanford.

ColoradoMomof2

I think that socraticgf's assessment of the two communities in #4 is pretty accurate. My D is a second year student at CU-
Boulder; my S will enter CU-Boulder this fall as a freshman. D is an economics/journalism (emphasis advertising) major and S will major in a biological science. D's experience has been very positive all the way around. Neither really considered CSU although they have (and will have) plenty of high school classmates that attend there. CU gets better funding than CSU, to a small degree, and the admission standards are higher. Both are fine schools.

pattib

Thanks ColoradoMomof2. Since you live in CO, what do you know about Ft. Lewis College in Durango? Thanks.

mammall

Fort Collins is one of the loveliest and friendliest towns I've ever visited. I remember thinking . . . what a great place this would be to college.

pattib

Thanks Mammall

ColoradoMomof2

Pattib, I don't know a lot about Fort Lewis as far as academics go, except that many of the kids that go to school there end up staying in that community. They usually get a lot of snow in that area and that's the reason why a lot of kids go to school there.

I know of two kids (actually I know their parents) that went to Fort Lewis and both experiences didn't end well. One, in fact, ended tragically. The son of the Senior VP of my company went there two years ago in the fall. He partied and never went to class and flunked out after one semester.

In the other instance, the kid started there this fall. After a night of heavy drinking with friends, he jumped the fence of a closed hot springs pool at 3:00 a.m. The pool had a cover, and somehow he got underneath it and tried to swim around. Unfortunately, he drowned.

Of course, these are exceptions and not the rule of what usually happens at Fort Lewis. But it probably points out that alcohol can play a significant role in the school's social life.

If your D is interested in marketing and she wants to snowboard regularly, another school to look into is Western State at Gunnison. The school is very close to Crested Butte and is a wonderful place for outdoors activities all year round. Two of our best friends graduated from there (both in business) and they loved it there. We love it down there as well - it's a beautiful place.

Good luck with your decision making.

LakeWashington

The Biological Sciences and Animal Science in particular at CSU is rigorous and well regarded.