Just wanted to circle back and revive this thread now that kids are getting closer to making a decision. And because we just sent in our deposit.
Son ultimately chose CSU. Here was the thought process:
CSU was definitely the school that kept him the most engaged after his acceptance. I know that is to protect its yield, but it did provide him with a lot of information that he was able to use to evaluate his top two choices. Although he understands “yield protection”, he did weigh the engagement because the other school seemed to show no love for accepted students. They wanted you to post that you were UMN bound all over social media but didn’t send out any information on their accepted students day until a couple of weeks ago and even that was “more info coming”. By contrast, CSU provided multiple dates upfront and included an itinerary so we could decide if it was worth the visit. They also had weekly webinars on a variety of topics.
We got to spend 2 evenings in Fort Collins which is a great college town. While DS thought he really wanted to be in a big city, safety concerns around UMN have been weighing on mom’s mind recently. He pictured himself exploring all over the city using the light rail system and that just isn’t safe at this time (I’ve lived in Boston and Chicago so I feel like I have a sense of measure when it comes to “use common sense” vs. “just don’t do it”). He thought Old Towne was accessible and fun and was excited about all of the outdoor opportunities offered through the rec center.
We showed up a day early to Choose CSU and decided to drop by campus to show S23’s girlfriend (also accepted to CSU in the same major) around and stop into Warner. Despite showing up at 4:30 on a Friday we happened to run into some student ambassadors that were also Wildlife Bio majors that were very gracious with their time and talked to us for over an hour about classes, research opportunities, the honors program, their experiences, etc. DS loved how hands-on everything was and how most of the experiences aligned exactly with what he wants to do. For a kid that wants to study apex predators, the fact that Colorado is currently reintroducing wolves (the topic he plans on researching for his Honors thesis) and that CSU houses the Center for Human-Carnivore Co-existence couldn’t have been a more perfect fit.
We also remet with the director of the Honors program. CSU’s program is definitely value added while UMN’s was more of a nuisance.
What ultimately drove the decision was a deep dive into his major. He liked the fact that The School of Natural Resources was its own college at CSU (Warner College of Natural Resources), whereas it was part of the College of Food, Agriculture and Natural Sciences (CFANS) at UMN. CFANS at UMN was on the St. Paul campus and although in one way being on the quieter side of campus seemed like a nice retreat, it didn’t seem as integrated into the school as a whole the way Warner was at CSU. Being on the SP campus also drove home (excuse the pun) how much time he would be spending on buses at UMN.
We were waiting to make our flight arrangements to UMN to go to their Accepted Students Day until we got more info (which happened to come out the day we came home) but DS told us to hold off as he was definitely leaning toward CSU and was trying to decide if he even needed to do another visit to UMN to make the decision. A couple of days later he asked us to make the deposit at CSU.