The University of Colorado - Denver

I will keep break down my comments on the university as a whole as well as the college of engineering organized for your convenience on the topics I'll cover on my experiences at the university.

1. Mechanical Engineering professors/instructors
2. Math professors/instructors
3. Other professors/instructors
4. Engineering computer labs/resources
5. Other computer labs
6. Student housing
7. Career services
8. Scholarship/Financial Aid services
9. Overall experience with College of Engineering
10. Overall experience with UCD
11. How UCD prepared me for my professional career?
1. Mechanical Engineering professors/instructors
-In all honestly, my professors were hits or misses in terms of the quality of instruction with the courses. I either had to work extremely hard on my own time when the instruction wasn't spoon-fed and clear cut, it was completely spoon-fed to the point where I am put in danger of not learning anything (but get the good grade), or the instruction was great and balanced the amount of individual work and instruction for a great academic experience. On the other hand, the professors here do a great job on developing the physics foundation necessary to become academically successful in mechanical engineering.

OUTSIDE of class, the majority of mechanical engineering professors were great mentors (given you put an effort to be more than just a student whose ONLY school involvement is showing up to class). Being a smaller school than the sister school, CU Boulder, the chance of building a nice network and pursuing great opportunities with these professors kind of balances out the lack of quality with the class instruction.

2. Math professors/instructors
-I've had many other classmates who despised the math department at UCD. I beg to differ. The reason for my strong mathematical foundation and preparedness for mechanical engineering was due to the top quality of math professors and instructors at this school. That's as far as I'll go on that topic.

3. Other professors/instructors
-I won't go into any other departments since I've had only a class or two for Gen. Ed.'s; but, from my experiences with most of the general elective classes I've taken, I am not pleased with the amount of inflation there is with those classes. You'd essentially have lazy, incompetent students earning A's and B's they technically shouldn't've earned. I'll also briefly mention that my experiences with the foundational courses from the Physics department (General Physics I and II), I found to be somewhat worthless in terms of the quality of the course and what I ended up getting out the course.

4. Engineering computer labs/resources
-This is unfortunately one of the downsides of the college of engineering. While the labs provide the necessary programs for a typical engineering student (SolidWorks, AutoCAD, LABVIEW, MATLAB, etc.), the computers are completely a mess and could be due to the fact that the engineering computer labs are maintained by themselves rather than the university's IT department.

Some good thing about other engineering resources though include access to NIST in Boulder (which is a HUGE plus for the mechanical engineers), measurements lab, various prototyping machines, GD&T tools, machine shop, etc. The tricky part about these amenities is that the engineering professors expect you to learn most of these things and build these skills on your own (beats the concept of taking engineering courses, no?). But to sum this up, the amenities are there, it's just up to the student to make efforts to take advantages of these tools.

5. Other computer labs
-This pretty much blows the engineering computer labs away. They're greatly maintained and provide great programs for the students (except engineering programs, thus we're stuck with the engineering computer labs).

6. Student housing
-I lived in one of the student dorms for one year during my freshman year of undergrad in the dorms formally called "The Inn at Auraria." Worst experience ever. Drug trafficking, insane parties, dirty. Essentially, it is DEFINITELY a negative environment for a college student... even for those who love to party. Yes, I party and go to the bars; but, I'm not to pleased with the ecstasy and other drugs often used when I lived there. It was simply over the top. The same experiences were when I'd visit friends at their other dorm, Campus Village. Then again, it's been since 2008-2009 since I've lived/been there. Things may have changed there... hopefully.

Best advice here? Find an apartment/house away from the dorms considering costs and from past experiences.

7. Career services
-For an engineering student, the career services in terms of networking with engineering professionals is completely worthless. Well, almost. Let's just say it's RARE for nice engineering opportunities to come by to meet UCD students, that's all.

In terms of advice for direction, the services are there. It was convenient for me to get my resume and cover letters checked. Unfortunately, although I took some of their advice, I learned best for career advice outside of the career services the school provides to its students.

8. Scholarship/Financial Aid services
-Each individual school has their own scholarship services as well as an overall scholarship and financial aid office.

For my specific school (college of engineering), I was treated well in terms of scholarship advice/notice. I was fortunate being awarded the National Science Foundation REACH scholarship. So engineering students, be sure to check out scholarship aid at the college of engineering, there are MANY scholarships based on merit/goals.

The overall scholarship office has been great as well given how they implemented the processes online. There are an ABUNDANT amount of scholarships as well that'll help you pay for tuition. Here, my good experiences were due to being a Reisher Family scholar.

The financial aid office in short terms has been horrible the WHOLE time I went to school there and I doubt that'll change anytime soon. I feel like the changes in management there happens often and with them trying to separate with CU Boulder explains their disorganized ways.

9. Overall experience with College of Engineering
-It's been a pleasure. Want to make the best of your experience future engineers? Be more than just a student who goes to class. When I reached out to professors for other academic opportunities outside of class, it essentially changed my whole outlook of the school and its professors. There are some bright engineers at the school and their intentions to help and prepare the student (from my experiences) are definitely there.

I used to have regrets for not transferring to the Mines or CU Boulder; however, after looking back at what I've accomplished at this school, I won't take it back. All my successes were mainly due to the professors at this school.

10. Overall experience with UCD
-It's an interesting environment. It's an urban location filled with thousands upon thousands of students from all over the place. It's unique and different from any other school I've visited. I wouldn't call it a bad school overall, but the school still has ways to go in terms of student involvement, resources (especially the library), quality of education, and some other things I may forgotten to mention. This COULD be due to its location (downtown Denver) and the fact that this school SHARES the campus with two other schools (Community College of Denver and Metro State).

But to sum up this school, it's not as bad of a school as people make it to be.
11. How UCD prepared me for my professional career?
-Due to my network building with professors in the mechanical engineering department, I made close ties with one professor that essentially transformed me from a typical engineering student to an engineering professional with plenty of room to grow into whatever direction I want (research, teaching, industry, etc.).I was given taste of many aspects of engineering and wished I could've extended much more if it wasn't for a tempting job offer given to me. And of course, the RELEVANT job offer wouldn't be there without the guidance and help of the college of engineering as well as this specific mechanical engineering professor.

Alumnus Male -- Class 2000

Make sure you do your homework and look at what courses you need AND how many upper division classes you need to take not just credit count. Don't count on the advisors because I've realized that I have done a better job at advising myself then the CLAS advisors.

3rd Year Female -- Class 2013

Education Quality: A, Social Life: F

Good luck finding a job after receiving absolutely 0 practical skills to use in the workplace, no job fairs, and no athletics. I went to CU Denver to be able to apply to med school. Instead I ended up getting shuffled around departments, had 5 different advisors, and the pre-med advisor spent 3 minutes with me on my first visit and threw me out of his office with a packet on how to get into med school instead of for what I'd come into his office. I ended up with a degree in biology and 0 career prospects upon graduation despite several courses in business and working as a TA. If you want to go to college, great, but don't waste your money here where there are few real amenities, no support, and mostly fairly poor instruction except from a few select teachers. On and no career fairs, but the lesser expensive schools next door seem to promote sports and actually finding a job. If you're in CO, do yourself a favor, go to Mines, CU Boulder, or CSU and make sure that there are favorable job opportunities in your field before you sign up for classes. Engineering or computer science, anything that you HAVE to have a degree to do ie BSN, pre-med (here's my take... don't focus on a degree... only work on your med school requites, you'll know pretty quickly if you'll be competitive to get in and be able to change into a better field if you can't). If you want to be an artist, actor, or anything that doesn't explicitly REQUIRE a degree, save your money and knock on as many doors as you have to. If you want to use the university's cool equipment because you're into the sciences, great! (But don't go to UCD, they don't have any). If so, make friends with your prof and (s)he might bring you on as a TA. Real work experience trumps anything at a university... get a job in the field that you want to be in and go from there.

4th Year Male -- Class 2006

Surrounding City: B+, Education Quality: F