Currently a student at CU. With a 35 ACT (depending on her GPA) she could have a great chance of being admitted into the honors program there as well. I’m not in the honors program myself, but I’ve only heard great things. I do believe it’s also one of the top honors programs in the nation. Since she is planning on going the STEM route, CU is definitely a great place to be. Classes are challenging and in depth, and I guarantee she would get a quality education at CU. I would honestly say the same with CSU. Both amazing schools with even better honors colleges. Hope she finds her place!
Thank you all for your very helpful replies. Since I was last here, my daughter, although she’d prefer Colorado, has developed an interest in some schools in the Midwest (Washington University in St. Louis, Northwestern, U of Chicago, Michigan, Notre Dame, and Case Western, with WashU leading the field in her mind). She loves the “Midwest nice” vibe and the academics at all of them are outstanding, but I don’t know if we will be able to afford a private university. She is still super-excited about CSU and believes the CSU honors program is on a par with the Midwestern schools she’s looking at. She plans to apply to several schools and we will just see what happens and how financial/merit aid works out. Thank you again for the great advice and information!
Good luck to you! Just seeing this thread. My daughter was deciding (OOS) between CU & CSU. The OOS merit $ (and lower initial cost) made a big difference. She’s been at CSU and absolutely loves it. Fort Collins is such a wonderful town. Academics have been challenging (important) - she’s taken some upper level classes (and she didn’t go in with a ton of APs) that have stretched her.
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We are currently trying to make the same decision with our daughter and the price difference for OOS is significant. We are going to go visit in a few weeks and I really hope my daughter leans towards CSU. One thing I am not a fan of is how far away the airport is. Are there good airport shuttles for college students to get to Fort Collins?
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Yes - there is a very good shuttle (Groome) and airport is a very easy 1 hour and about 10-15 minute ride away. My daughter has a car and has driven many times. Not that much different from Boulder to airport, really.
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Great, thank you so much for the information!
Hi - also just wanted to jump in with a (belated) reply to the idea that CU is better known than CSU and may mean more to OOS employers or grad school down the road.
I spoke to several people in college counseling and other fields about this and the sense I got was that people OOS aren’t really going to see the delineation between two CO state schools. It’s not like Penn State v. U Penn. That made sense to me since I didn’t know the difference (I’m on east coast) either. Just a thought. I don’t think there is a way to predict the perception difference entirely accurately (if at all) but it seemed logical.