Colorado State University - Fort Collins

Date: Dec 31 1969
Major: Political Science (This Major's Salary over time)
Here is the overriding problem: CSU is located in an EXTREMELY anti-student, anti-business community. Fort Collins is a horrific place to live while attending CSU. Most students leave in disgust about 2 - 4 semesters after arriving. As far as anyone can tell, most complete their degrees elsewhere. Those that don't leave are local students who live with their parents the entire time.

Fort Collins student housing & relations with locals - Most of the off-campus housing for students has not been brought up to code since the 1960's. Carbon monoxide poisoning from ancient appliances is a problem. Students are almost always referred to as "transients" by locals in the most negative sense possible. The only time we are referred to in the local paper is when people are discussing how to "keep us out of their neighborhoods". I am more clean cut than most people and very shy. I accidently went to the wrong address in a middle class neighborhood to pick up a friend. A middle aged man answered the door and yelled to his wife to "sic the dogs on her". Colorado is legally a pro-landlord state. Landlords are completely out of control and break the law at all times. They are never held accountable. A good friend came home to find her belongings on the street and didn't know why. A police officer sauntered up several hours later (students are always low priority) and informed her that they deal with conflicts between local landlords and students all the time. The police officer told her to move out and pay the landlord for the rest of her lease. HUH???

Fort Collins law enforcement/student relations - The police hate the students and blame students for any and all community problems. If you have a problem, the police will blow you off and possibly tell you to leave. The local sheriff has a nasty habit of locking university up in jail (yes, JAIL) for very minor traffic violations (burned out headlight, no insurance with no other offence, 2 miles over the speed limit, etc.) I have lost count of how many other perfectly normal students I have helped bail out of actual jail. Fort Collins also has an extremely high rate of sexual assaults for a community of it's small size.

Fort Collins transportation - You must have a car in constant working order. There is one taxi cab company and it charges significantly higher rates than the ones in Denver. The wait for a cab is approx. THREE HOURS at all times. There is no bus service or any other transportation on Sundays or holidays. Bus service on all other days is shoddy and stops by 4:30 - 6:30 pm depending on your route.

The university is wonderful…but pass on it unless you are going to live in a surrounding town and commute. Going to school here was the worst mistake of my life (and many others) depite CSU being so cool. There are way too many chronic cultural problems.