CU Boulder or The Cooper Union -- Engineering

College Search & Selection
1

Hello! I really need help choosing a college… I’m currently stuck between The Cooper Union and CU Boulder. At CU Boulder, I would be studying aerospace engineering (with maybe a minor in physics) and would be part of the Engineering Honors Program. At Cooper, I would be studying mechanical engineering with an aero “concentration.”

I’m currently interested in space propulsion systems, which CU Boulder has a very strong program for. My biggest worries with the school are that I wouldn’t really fit in (I’m in many ways a sort of stereotypical nerd) and its distance from home. I’m not sure what the people in the Engineering Honors Program are like, and the program has its own dorm, so it’s possible I would fit in better with the other kids in my program. Nonetheless, I don’t really love some parts of the culture of the school, but I love Colorado (despite being worried about moving to the other side of the country) and the aero program is really strong.

The Cooper Union, generally speaking, is definitely the “better” of the two, though it’s less well known which I am worried about because I don’t plan on staying in the northeast for my career. I feel like I’d overall fit in better at Cooper, but I am a bit worried about the difficulty of the program. While in many ways Cooper feels almost too small I like the small classes and the professor’s dedication to teaching. It’s the perfect distance from home (about two hours) and I have family and friends in the area so I’m not worried about the transition to living in New York. I am worried that my opportunities in aerospace engineering would be limited going from Cooper vs. CU Boulder.

The Cooper Union is less money but both are affordable, so money is not a deciding issue. I do plan on going to grad school, but I would like to either join the military as an engineer first or work for a few years.

Thanks, everyone! Sorry for any grammatical errors.

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There are plenty of nerds at CU, and they tend to find each other. I think their biggest complaint might be that the 6-8 football Saturdays restrict their access to the engineering building because the engineering parking structure is used for football (although the new building is on the east campus and it is fantastic).

CU might be better for military opportunities. I know a lot of ROTC members who are/were happy at CU. It really isn’t the wild place people make it out to be unless that’s what you want it to be. Fraternities and sororities are off campus (although kind of grouped together on the Hill area) and fraternities are not recognized student groups, so you don’t have to deal with them if you don’t want to.

CU definitely is more of a stereotypical college experience with sports, marching band, theater and dance productions, many options for electives, a newspaper that covers the campus and city, guest speakers, TED talks, etc. You can find all that in NYC but you have to look for it. My nephew was a mechanical engineering student at CU but got a job in aerospace without any problems. He wasn’t in engineering honors but did a living/learning community thing and thought that was okay. He did join a fraternity and did live on the Hill for several years because he enjoyed it, but for grad school he lived right across the street from engineering school and he liked that too (much cheaper and there was parking).