<p>I need people's opinions. I've narrowed my college decisions down to two schools: University of Colorado-Boulder and Arizona State University. If I go to Boulder, I will major in Environmental Studies, and if I go to ASU, I'll major in Sustainability. evn. studies and sustainability are virtually the same thing, but ASU has a whole school, the Global Institue of Sustainability, whereas boulder just has env. studies as a major in arts&sciences, which is still a pretty good program there</p>
<p>I know as a whole, boulder is a lot stronger academically, but ASU has an amazing, i mean uh-maz-ing program for sustainability.</p>
<p>ASU has a much much better dorm, but arizona also gets really hot, and being from chicago, i'm not use to that much dry heat. I love the city of boulder, but i hear that its kinda landlocked</p>
<p>From what i see, both schools have a lot of school spirit and a pretty active social life.
I'm from chicago, female, and really down to earth, very liberal, active and likes to have fun</p>
<p>The cost of the schools doesn't really matter to me, i know that it should, but when it comes to which school I like better, I don't want money to be the deciding factor. </p>
<p>So basically, i'm asking for people's opinions. Has anyone gone to either school for environmental studies/sustainability? Has anyone gone to either of these schools regardless of what you majored in? I basically looking for any facts or details that I wouldn't learn about the schools from just looking at the websites or going on guided tours. Any help is greatly appreciated!</p>
<p>i live in arizona… and i’m a university of arizona fan SO TAKE THIS TO HEART! ahahh</p>
<p>ASU has a fabulous sustainability program. my friend is in it and loves it. ASU may be full of stupid people, but honestly there are great programs throughout the whole school. if you are really worried about getting strong academics, apply for the honors college after a semester and you will be set. </p>
<p>arizona does get hot. i don’t know what to tell you. but it is beautiful outside from october-april (aka most of the time you are in school)</p>
<p>so that’s my opinion. maybe i’m bias.</p>
<p>Colorado has an excellent reputation for environmental studies, environmental science, and ecology. Academics should not be a deciding factor.</p>
<p>High school students are often overly impressed that a university has a separate department or school for something, which indicates little about its relative quality. Colorado “just” has a program in environmental science, but it has 150% as many majors as ASU’s school of sustainability. Of course, one could argue that the smaller program at ASU allows for greater interaction with faculty and researchers.</p>
<p>I’m from Colorado and am currently at CU Boulder, and am looking to transfer to ASU. For me, its about the weather, the school, the nightlife/town, and location.</p>
<p>CU isn’t bad. It’s a small/medium size college town. cold and snowy half of the school year. but great for trips into the mountains and skiing, also trips to denver for bigger nightlife. Boulder itself has good outdoors attractions with the mountains/flatirons/trails. marijuana dispensaries have sprouted like flowers around here recently due to legalization, it’s great. the school isn’t bad. many of the dorms, and new dorms being built now, are far from actual classrooms and campus, so you might be dissatisfied if you have to live out there freshman year. It’s hard to have a lot of spirit when it’s really cold/snowing outside, but it’s doable. there are good/decent neighborhoods for students to get houses, like ‘the hill’, in between campus and the mountains, and next to downtown.</p>
<p>ASU has warm weather the whole school year, very sunny/hot, warm nights, pools. the school is twice the size, more students, more diverse/developed programs, new programs being developed all the time. It sits in a much bigger city, so there is more going on around the area, more development, activity. A very large outdoor shopping center was just developed down the street. New ‘resort style’ dorms/apartments were just finished next to campus. New departments and degrees are added all the time, like the Sustainability College. I would be more excited about this new program at ASU than getting an ‘old school’ environmental studies degree at CU. I would be going ASU for business, and supposedly their business program is ranked better than CU. ASU is in 5 hours driving range of San Diego, LA, Las Vegas, Mexico. 5 hours from CU/denver will get you out into the plains or up in the mountains to some ski resorts. I visited ASU once in December and on a Monday night, several bars on ‘mill ave’ were full of people, where in Boulder, downtown would be empty.</p>
<p>So basically you could enjoy either place depending on who you are. I’m excited to try ASU.</p>
<p>Normally I would say CU, but in this case based on your intellectual interests ASU is a great choice. What is the cost differential? It should matter by the way.</p>
<p>“The cost of the schools doesn’t really matter to me, i know that it should, but when it comes to which school I like better, I don’t want money to be the deciding factor.”</p>
<p>Well, maybe the cost matters to whoever else is helping you pay for your education. Sit down with the numbers and consider just exactly where you will find the difference (if you elect the more expensive place) and what else you could do with that money/savings (if you elect the less expensive one).</p>