Or maybe for some of the top rated programs, some award winning professors, to use their Boetcher or Daniel scholarships (full), or a number of other reasons?
But if they are all the druggies people paint them as and they manage to graduate with a resume that impresses you, wouldn’t that make them more talented than a non-druggie from another school? It takes a special skill to graduate while in a drug induced haze 24/7/365.
I’m not usually one to pile on, but the idea that some especially significant proportion of CU Boulder (Not “UC”) students are into drugs, compared to other state flagships, so much that they are unwise to hire, is ridiculous. I don’t have a student there, but I know several.
There is far more weed smell on the streets of Manhattan and DC than on the Pearl Street Mall.
The ones doing the most conspicuous consumption are presumably going into family business or using family connections to get hired anyway.
RFK Jr/Heroin, Cocaine/Harvard ring any bells?
Exactly. I think the reputation of the CU campus as drug-infested dates from an age before pot was legal almost everywhere (including in Colorado) and the city of Boulder was a counterculture mecca. These days, the city of Boulder might still have a tinge of that hippie vibe, but you have to be pretty well-off to live there, and the student population at CU was always more mainstream than the surrounding town.
The real issue here is the sweeping stereotype. Dismissing an entire university of 38,000 students because they chose CU ignores the reality of higher education everywhere. Every campus, whether it’s a prep school, small liberal arts college, highly selective Ivy, or even a music conservatory, has drugs available to those who seek them. To suggest CU students attend only for “the outdoors or drugs” unfairly erases the wide range of serious, talented students who go there for academics, research, and opportunity.
“I would be hesitant to hire a Boulder grad, yes, unless I could tell they were very into the outdoors and seemed “goody goody.””
Curious who else you’d be hesitant to hire, and on what basis. Affinity group members? Athletes from sports that historically field gay players? How far does your bias extend?
Boulder is a hotbed of Venture Capital and I suspect bright CU kids end up there through proximity. Good thing you’re not a hiring manager in this space.
The hostility is interesting. I don’t dispute that CU has some strong programs. I don’t dispute that other universities and locales have as much marijuana and other drug use as CU. However, students are not targeting these other schools because of a permissive drug culture. I’ve known young people from various states outside CO who move to CO or want to attend CU because of the permissive drug culture. The school is not so highly ranked overall as to be a target for most out of state students for other reasons, besides its natural environment/outdoor activities.
The students I’ve known (from outside CO) who have been excited about CU have been pampered, rich White kids. So yes, I suppose I am biased against pampered, rich White kids. How horrible I must be!
I asked another person, someone fairly high up in a large multinational corporation, who has had a hand in hiring probably hundreds of people for professional jobs, what she thought when she heard CU or had applicants with degrees from there. Without any prompting from me, she made a gesture of smoking pot and implied it would be a disadvantage for the applicant. That can’t be good for these students when applying for jobs, especially outside CO.
I appreciate your perspective. I disagree with it - but I appreciate it.
You are not the only person who discriminates against a certain school. Some industries discriminate against lots of schools.
So I’m sorry people dismiss your thought. If you are a hiring manager, and you are discriminating against a school, then it’s good info for someone to have.
Thanks for your contribution to the discussion.
And yet, 88% of graduates are in employment or grad school 6 months after graduation, which is comparable to many schools in the top 100. Seems pampered rich white kids can get jobs too.