(COLORADO-Boulder) Many of the comments about Boulder seem to be

How this student rated the school

Educational Quality	A+	Faculty Accessibility	A+
Useful Schoolwork	A+	Excess Competition	A+
Academic Success	A+	Creativity/ Innovation	A+
Individual Value	A+	University Resource Use	A+
Campus Aesthetics/ Beauty	A+	Friendliness	A+
Campus Maintenance	B+	Social Life	A+
Surrounding City	A+	Extra Curriculars	A+
Safety	A+

Describes the student body as: Friendly, Arrogant, Approachable Describes the faculty as: Friendly, Helpful

Male

Average

Lowest Rating Campus Maintenance	B+

Highest Rating Educational Quality	A+

He rated most things higher than other students did.

Date: Jan 02 2008
Major: Chemical Engineering (This Major's Salary over time)
Many of the comments about Boulder seem to be very negative. And I'd say that they all have their own validity, yet overlook numerous aspects of the school.

First and foremost, it is not worth going to this school if you are not in-state, and do not plan to study engineering or hard science. The school has a top notch engineering program that competes with Berkley, Stanford, MIT, etc. If you are out of state, science/engineering is not your interest, and you want to receive the best education for your money, then go elsewhere. The remaining departments will not be nearly as strong as those that can be found at other schools. In addition, however, the arts and science school does not issue BS degrees, only BAs. If you are therefore in a science discipline, your future plans should be open to Graduate School.

For the first year or two, the class size will be very large, and highly impersonal. This is true for almost every department in the school. The school tries to remedy this problem by having smaller, more contained classes (recitations) for most of the common pre-req classes. Recitations are usually taught by TAs, are around 20-30 kids, and take place once a week. As such, many of your contacts will be with graduate students. This is a great thing if you are interested in conducting research, as you are given the opportunity to talk with these graduate students to see what research may be available within the department.

All of your professors will be concerned with research. This is a research school, and relies heavily upon this. The school is called a state school, but in actuality, less than 10% of the school's upkeep is paid for by state funding, relying on research to make up the difference. This sort of environment nearly mandates that you be involved with research as an undergraduate—that means take this opportunity. If you do not take advantage of this environment to pursue individual learning, then your time at CU could be spent better elsewhere.

As far as social life is concerned, it varies. The school should not be referred to as a party school, as it really isn't. There are parties, there is a lot of alcohol, but it's on par with most other universities out there. Boulder is much more of a

get stoned and play Halo

sort of school rather than a party school. With that said, the student body is large, and if you make an effort, you can find just about anything that you would like.

A significant portion of the student body comes from highly affluent suburban areas, and they are aware of this. Many students are not there to get the highest level of education, and instead will take advantage of the outdoor environment that Boulder and the surrounding area has to offer.

Many people associate Boulder with a hippie town, and this is correct after a fashion. What should be understood is that Boulder is the yuppie capital of the world—these will not be your standard 60s-styled hippies. Boulder hippies are the sort that advocate organic foods (shopping at whole foods) and buying sweat-shop free and hand crafted furniture over that which is mass produced. This may be confused with the snobbish/rich nature of the campus which has been mentioned elsewhere. There are the few 60s-styled hippies, but those are significantly rare.

Boulder has a very liberal political mindset, but is not that politically active (the most active group on the campus is college republicans). If you're imagining a leftest campus consisting of war protests every other day that most of the student body takes part in, then you'll be thoroughly disappointed. However, if you're looking for people that think progressively, then even the "conservative" groups of people will be significantly more liberal and open-minded than elsewhere in the nation.

You will come across complete idiots on the campus, but for the most part, the students are intelligent, even if their primary concern is not academics. As CU is a state school, many students you meet will have their fair share of high school friends. That's not to say that they're not open to making new ones.

With that said, Boulder will not just hand you what you're looking for, you need to take initiative to get it.

To summarize:

Unless you're sure you want to major in science or engineering or you receive instate tuition, go elsewhere.

Take the opportunity to do research as an undergraduate student.

You will not be spoon-fed everything you want, and need to put energy into getting it.

Responses

Do you have any advice on someone choosing between Penn State and boulder?
I'm planning on studying biology, enjoy "social" activities, and like skiing. I'm just a little apprehensive about taking the plunge and going out to colorado. I'm from maryland

I would recommend visiting both schools before making a final decision. Many people I know that have had experience at both universities (Summer REU programs and the like), have preferred the atmosphere around Boulder. I'm not sure where Boulder's Biology program ranks in comparison to Penn's. I would also tell you to consider looking into Chemical and Biological Engineering, depending on your interests. I can tell you that Boulder has one of the strongest Biological Engineering programs in the nation, with top notch faculty and state of the art research. The school has just recently added the Biological Engineering degree which had previously only been an extension of the Chemical Engineering program.

From interaction with other students who are studying more bio-specific fields, such as MCDB (Molecular Cellular Developmental Biology), they have not been that impressed with the program.

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