***WHAT MAKES IT GOOD***

The University of Colorado is a bastion of intellectualism despite its setbacks, when it is devoid of many of its undergraduates.  The university is a progressively minded, cosmopolitan, hub of academic culture.  It possesses incredible resources and a breadth of opportunities for those interested in walking through its hallowed halls of learning.  The faculty has contributed graciously to the development of knowledge.  Education almost self-perpetuates itself in these labs and offices.  Those students serious about their studies receive possibly an unparalleled level of education as good as any top-notch university.  Passionate, driven, intellectually oriented students reap the rewards.  On a good day, the students here have as much potential as at peer institutions like the Universities of Virginia, Michigan, California-Berkeley, Washington, and Georgia Tech.  On their very best day, students here could manage with Rice, Penn, Duke, and University of Chicago students.  However, this crop of students I am speaking of may be dwindling due to the ever increasing refuse making its way to campus. 

***NOW THE BAD***

Though the best students here will likely have bright futures and leave behind impressionable legacies, the other MANY do not appreciate the education they receive.  Many at CU are vane, doddering fools preoccupied with clothing, cars, or spring-break plans.  They simply do not care about studying, learning, or reading books for the fun and benefit of it.  They could care less if their chemistry professor is part of the National Academy or if their English instructor is a Pulitzer Prize winner.  Those students are simply here because the weather is great, the mountains have snow, and because their parents left them with an ultimatum to either attend college (for free) or find a job.  I have spoken to students such as these who have not the slightest clue as to what studying entails or what it means to work for something, to devote unbridled passion to an academic task because one wants to. 

Some would rather get roaring drunk, damage property, smoke an ounce of weed, and wake up underneath a car the following morning while not being implicated in the rape. 

Rinse and repeat. 

Again, many would rather get through by the path of least resistance, the bear minimum, so as to not broadside their Wednesday-through-Sunday-night plans in their proverbial “real-world.” For some, this is their version of MTV's “The Real World."

***TRANSITION***

Though some of the students I mentioned above can be quite pitiful with their committal acts of stupidity, this should not detract from the university’s impressiveness.  Students are what they are wherever you go, even the frustrating ones.  I cannot change the demeanor of those around me, I can only take example, recoil, and instead surround myself with people whose abilities are superior to my own to be continually motivated.  That is not elitist, that is simply smart. 

***BACK TO THE GOOD***

Quite literally a student’s output is in natural agreement with the student’s input.  In words, one gets out what one puts in.  A few hard-working, passionate, driven friends I have that already graduated are grad students at Caltech, McGill, Yale, Washington, Colorado State, and UC-Santa Barbara.  Others found nice jobs around the area.  These people were not binge drinkers or “party people,” if memory serves, but they still had fun; life within reason and moderation. 

A few others I know that drank, smoked, or were lazy fools wondering aimlessly through life, have either dropped out, been thrown life-lines by the college or the parents, or have transferred elsewhere.  Such is life.