@txsparty I think you have come and gone from your campus visit in Golden, but I few comments about the area:
There is light rail to get to ball games, concerts, music and restaurants in Denver, from Golden. I think more
and more out of state kids are discovering Mines and its proximity to Denver is a positive. Golden has good proximity to downhill skiing as well, much closer than Boulder, although CU Boulder would not want you to realize that. !!! The Engineering school at Boulder is in fierce competition for top in state and out of state, engineering students. Mines scoops the best students typically but not always. Mines has faculty that focus on teaching, totally amazing teachers. Thats really worth the extra money I believe. Mines also has a required summer practicum course for every major, and that does cost extra, and is required to get a Mines bachelors degree.
@stardustmom I worked locally for Hewlett Packard and Seagate and had a son apply to Mines for CS. I think Mines computer science and applied math programs are both strong. One reason for this is some faculty are hired entirely for their teaching ability and other Mines faculty are hired for their research and teach less. Mines CS students find jobs easily, and I love that they get a firm grounding in physics and engineering, so its a much more rigorous than some light weight CS programs out there, that skim over engineering principals.
Although geology and petroleum are still king at Mines, There is less pressure on students at Mines to switch to Petroleum engineering, after the mini bust in the natural gas industry in Colorado a few years back. Basically hydraulic fracturing has saturated the natural gas market and driven down prices. Still Mines grads can get jobs in Texas and Oklahoma in that field, even with the downturn. But now Mines is very motivated to continue to hire CS faculty due to needs at Oracle in Broomfield, a major database company, Google in Boulder, Netapp in Boulder, Xilinx, IBM, DotHill in Longmont. Software is hot in Colorado right now, lots of jobs. Amazon is talking about locating in Denver, that decision is not made yet. There are top software engineering jobs in many cities, including Colorado Springs, Boulder, Broomfield, Denver, and Fort Collins. There is no one hub city for software, although Boulder is trying to make itself into that. Amazon is planning to hire 30,000 engineers in the new location, that would really impact our local economy and potentially Mines ability to recruit top CS faculty.
Colorado has so many jobs that we have to import engineers from other states, there are not enough CS students in state for the number of jobs here. With that, CSU, CU Boulder, and Mines all have good CS programs but all are pretty small so far. Meteorology is very strong at CU Boulder and Colorado State in Fort Collins so that leads to strong CS programs in state.
@Sybylla I do know a Fort Collins boy with a 36 ACT and six Colorado State chemistry classes and lots of AP exams
who did not win a Harvey Scholar award. They seem to want a variety of majors for the Harvey Scholars and there is a requirement to give back to the community and a focus on leadership to win. There are very few scholarships but its nice to have high goals, but if you need a merit award, look at schools with tons of merit like Case Western, or U of Alabama or U of Tulsa, a private school in Oklahoma. All of those schools offer way more merit awards, but not all are full rides.
Thanks CM.
@ThatOneEngineer As a senior who still doesnāt have their driving license yet (Iām aware of how strange this is), how much do you need to drive on average?
You donāt have to drive at all. Golden is a very walkable (or bikeable town if you have strong legs because there are a lot of hills). You can take light rail into Denver and from there connect to other cities like Boulder, Ft. Collins, ColoSprings)
@Vrael101 - No car allowed for Freshman so you will not need a license.
@Vrael101 I actually didnāt have my license my freshman year and I didnāt find it a hindrance at all. Echoing the sentiments above, there really is no need for a car as everything is very walk able and all students get an RTD pass which allows them to take RTD for free.
How is EE? Choice between Rose Hulman and CSM for EE.
How is food availability around the clock?
Are there kitchens in dorm buildings for students to cook?
How big are the biggest classes and which are they?
Is it really as cold as the internet says it is? (ave temp 30)
What is it like taking PE every year? Does it mess up the schedule? Are all the PEs listed (fly fishing) offered regularly?
Its not cold in Golden during the day time. Here is the weather this week: Its 56 F right now on dec 15 about 11 am
here. there will be some snow on Friday and a high of 25 but the rest of the week is more like 50 F+ and that feels like 60 degrees because such low humidity here. If you want to ski, bring a real winter coat. Otherwise a fleece jacket will do you to walk to class most winter days. Colorado had very mild winters. Some snow, but it melts fast, with the sunshine here. Now there can be snow from October to May but we are not talking big storms. October snow came and went in a day and November was in the 70s this year. Global warming? Maybe, but its been this warm in the winter all 30 years I have lived here. You can get a dip below zero, for a week in December but not this year.
EE may be a bit stronger at Rose Hulman, but not so much, that I would worry. Golden is a nicer location than Terre Haute by far! You have light rail into Denver and to the international airport from Golden.
Mines is a small school so your class sizes are going to be 20 to 50 students. Freshman math a little larger maybe.
There is a core curriculum, so those classes will be bigger than upper division classes.
Mines has outstanding physics and applied mathematics as well. Its a really good program in EE, with good connections to the aerospace industries in Colorado, like Lockheed Martin in both Littleton and Boulder, Ball Aerospace in Broomfield and Boulder etc.
Does anyone know how good study abroad programs are at Mines?
Iām not really sure if you can answer anything about this, I just got accepted today and it seems like the perfect school for meā¦ besides the cost. Iām out of state and after four years Iād be paying close to $200,000, and I do not come from a rich family. My household income may be $70,000 a year or so, iām not exactly sure. Is it worth it to pay that much for a degree from CSM? It really hits all my marks for what I want in a school, besides the price 
Iād love to get anyoneās opinion on this
Congratulations 2018hurryxx! You donāt have to answer these, but ask these questions
with your parents: What are your other options and how much do they cost?
Do you have any other sources of income, like grandparents, you can tap into? Have you had a conversation about money yet with your parents, and what can they contribute per year? Are you likely to get good summer jobs
and how much will that earn? What major are you considering? Do you want an education loan? What are your career goals, so go right to work
or go to graduate school? Has the financial aid letter come out yet, although I am pretty sure Mines is not that generous for out of state students, still, call them and see if they can give you any financial aid.
The question, @2018hurryxx may be is Mines worth it compared to your other choices? Itās a very good school. Youāll have a lot of opportunities to earn money through internships and co-ops. There are department scholarships available, but you need to work with the FA department.
Congratulations 2018hurryxx! I believe FA office at CSM uses FAFSA. My S17 is an OOS Freshman this year and was able to receive Merit; a grant and was offered Work Study. Itās a little higher than our State Flagship for him. Coloradomama lists some very good questions and I agree with both she and twoinanddone - you need to compare it to your other choices to determine the best fit for you academically and financially.
Well depending on your scores you can probably count on 12 to 14k a year on merit aid in addition to some financial aid. For that income bracket Colorado School of Mines is not the most generous, although it is a wonderful school. You will know soon though- got an email letter saying letters would be out by end of month on financial aid and merit aid.
we just received a letter that they would be sending FA amounts out by end of December. Mines is a great school but it is pricey for OOS. We are in the same boat, depends on scholarships and FA as it is currently second choice behind US Naval Academy for DD18.
Does anyone know how students are notified if they can apply for the Harvey Scholarship?
I just got a conditional admissions decision in which Iāll have to take Intro to Calc and Chemistry 1 in the summer before actually starting at Mines, can anyone give me any details about it? Itās part of the Challenge Program but I canāt find that much information about that on the site.
Also, I noticed someone asked this question before about whether you may be smart but not brilliant, Iām not the best at math but I have been described as hard-working by many of my teachers. And granted, I only took Honors Algebra 2 in junior year but my overall high school math GPA would be a 4.0. So I guess Iām asking although yes, I do work hard and use whatever resources I can when I need help (my dadās an engineer and does tough math within seconds and my brother is also studying engineering rn), would I be like an outsider at the school since it takes me longer than others to understand mathematical concepts?
Thanks
Confused6789 my son received an email inviting him to apply to Harvey Scholarship on the 8th and again on 18th. Looks like thereās only around a dozen a year so thinking itās a long shot.