I live in Southern California & just recently enrolled in CU Boulder. I visited the campus a few years ago & from what I remember, I loooved the town & campus & everything about Colorado. I enrolled just to secure a spot in housing because I felt as if I’d end up there anyways… CU is a very popular school amongst my high school, & I found it very troubling that many of my close friends decided to enroll in CU as well, because I want to escape high school & meet / experience as many NEW people as possible without feeling held back or constricted from the people I already know.
A few days ago, I was admitted into Cal Poly SLO as a nutrition major. I was extremely shocked & excited when I saw my acceptance bc I had considered slo my “number one” school until I had fallen in love with Boulder. The more I research slo, however, the more I feel like I need to leave the state of California to get the true college experience. I am visiting both cal poly slo & Boulder within the next month but the thought of having to choose between the two is seriously keeping me up at night.
I definitely want to change my admitted major, & I THINK I want to study something in the marketing / public relations field. I’m also interested in taking electives on want to religion, art history, & sociology out of cutiousity. Is Cal Poly SLO flexible with classes / could I take many courses that interest me & dont pertain to my major? I get the vibe that SLO is more if a businessy / engineering / science based school but I feel like I would truly thrive receiving a liberal arts education.
I also fear that I would get bored living in SLO for four years, but again I’ve never visited!! I’m a little turned off by the intense social life at Boulder & also feel that I would be better off being a big fish in a small pond & being more driven academically at SLO.
Keep in mind that I am a first generation college attendant & have three younger sisters who are planning to go to college as well. If I were to choose Cal Poly SLO over Boulder I would be saving my parents $40,000/year.
You need to visit the schools, obviously. But if you’re not even sure what you want to major in, and if you have 3 more kids in your family who are going to college, I think it would be nuts to go to CU, for the cost factor alone. You will be able to take general education electives at any college, regardless of what you major in. What you need to do is study the catalog and major requirements for three potential majors at Cal Poly, e.g. marketing, nutrition, business. Carefully read how AP credits are handled, look at what courses are required for the major and what are required for breadth. This will give you an idea of how much freedom you’ll have to explore. Also, worst case scenario, you might not end up graduating in four years, but you’ll still save a lot of money over what CU would cost, and would likely get a similar education.
Both Boulder and SLO have a lot going for them as cities. You will find a lot of southern Californians in both locales. Boulder is going to feel more worldly and more “different” from your current environment, but if you go to Poly and make a bit of an effort, you will have opportunities to meet people from all over the world.
One more thing: are these your only acceptances? If you are really looking for the “liberal arts” experience, there might be better choices even among the other UC and Cal State schools.
Both excellent schools in cool college towns. With that said, it is hard to believe that CU could be worth $40k more per year.