No. Only CU Boulder. And I think we are done looking. But thanks.
I was born in MA, went to graduate school at CU Boulder, and settled here in CO. I lived in the SF Bay area for several years too. If money wasnât an issue, I would take CU Boulder over UMass Amherst any day for many of the same reasons your daughter has. One thing to keep in mind is Amherst is in the middle of Mass. and not that close to Boston or NYC. Public transportation in the middle of Massachusetts is not stellar. Another thing is that the weather/snow in CO is VERY different than that in MA (I donât think I could make it through another winter in New England). Please feel free to message me if you need any information about Boulder and the surrounding area. Good luck to you.
I wish my daughter would go to Boulder, but campus is 15 minutes from where we live so itâs a bit too close for her!
Tough. Honestly itâs hard to beat Boulder as a place to live (unless you donât like outdoors/snow), and unless she really makes an effort, she probably wonât get to Boston (2 hours away) or NYC (3+ hours) often. (Of course that depends on what kind of girl she is; my daughter hasnât gone further than 15 minutes off campus so far her freshman year - and sheâs on a small campus 
Iâd say revisit the matter after sheâs visited UMass. Itâll be hard to come to any sort of conclusion before then. If she likes UMass (most likely for reasons other than the location), then great! If she hates it, well, in my view the extra $$ would be worth a happy college experience for her (I would maybe offer to split the difference with my daughter and she what she says). Of course the financial considerations are important - as a non-wealthy parent with two college-age kids I totally relate. But it is four year of their life so in the end you want somewhere they are happy being.
Best of luck to you and your daughter!
We visited U Mass this past summer - on a trip that included a number of very gorgeous campuses (Vassar, Bowdoin, Brown, Amherst). Canât say that my daughter thrilled to the campus and our student guide was very long-winded to boot. That said, as mentioned earlier the âcoreâ of the campus is smaller than youâd think, the food is outstanding, and the five colleges consortium is a bonus. The town of Amherst is a quintessential college town. It is a bit of a pain to access - getting out of Boston traffic can be challenging and then itâs in the middle of nowhere. But a very pretty nowhere.
I know nothing about Boulder so I canât compare. For my daughter the pluses at U Mass were Honors program, food, diversity of majors, location (she likes small NE towns), and that itâs green.
If you donât mind me asking, how did she get scholarship money as an OOS student? I thought it was all in state.
UMass gives merit money to OOS students more readily (it appears to me) than it does to instate students. My daughter received a a very nice scholarship. Caught us totally by surprise. But in reading the Mass threads, it appear very common.
One other thing - while schools that are not in cities will market that, for example, Boston and NYC are only 2 or 3 hours away, the reality (in my experience) is that college students who are an hour or more outside of a city very rarely visit these cities. Oh, it may happen once a semester (if that), but it is not a regular occurrence. UMass is in the middle of nowhere - albeit a very nice middle of nowhere. And that is just fine. The town of Amherst with the 5 colleges generates enough of its own college life.
OP we are facing a similar decision with Boulder. My daughter was admitted and received the out of state scholarship but even with that, the cost differential between Boulder and the other places she was accepted to or is expecting acceptances is not small. (UIUC, U of Minn, U of Wis-Mad). It is indeed a beautiful campus and the near constant sunshine is a huge attraction. However all of her other schools are more academically selective than Boulder and honestly seem to have less of a nickel and dime the student to death vibe to them. We were particularly impressed with Minn.
We definitely had sticker shock when they flashed up the OOS cost of attendance during the information session at CU (especially after visiting CSU a few days previously). My D ended up not even wanting to apply to CU - I was surprised since she loves Boulder (we visit from VA every couple of years), but she really fell in love with the Ft. Collins campus. I donât know much about UMass, but I think the $16K price difference would be hard to swallow unless she just canât see herself at Amherst after visitng. However, if CU really felt like âthe one,â it might be hard for her to look at UMass objectively. I
Is there a part of her that might only want to go halfway across the country instead of to the opposite coast? At one point, my D was gung ho on applying to several schools in the Pacific Northwest, but that ended up not happening (although she didnât apply to any schools that are near us)
My D is also choosing between OOS publics (Colorado State, Indiana and UofMinn along with some Cal State schools). Indiana, like CU, is so expensive that I donât see it happening (we can afford a max of $45K). My D has never set foot in Indiana or Minnesota and we canât visit both most likely, so I think a trip to the Twin Cities is in order.
At first my D wanted to leave CA and âexperience the world.â Plus she wanted snow. So she applied to only 7 schools, with only 1 being in CA because I made her in case she changed her mind. As I mentioned, we went to CU for her safety school to make sure she liked it. We just got back from Michigan State a few days ago, and she started to get really, really nervous because we were so far from home. And letâs be honest - you canât compare the weather in MI to CO - it wonât happen. And I am from MI so I know. Of course, going to college is not all about the weather, but I do think it counts for a personâs âhappy factorâ and how well they will do. Itâs just sooooo much money. She âsaidâ she is willing to make up the difference, but I donât even know if she should do this or not.
She may change her mind once she sees it. But since it IS in the middle of nowhere, that makes both her and my husband not too happy. We knew about the town itself, but didnât really think how realistic/unrealistic it would be to get over to Boston. Ugh. I donât think there is any easy answer.
If she loves Boulderâs location and campus, but not the price, have her look at U Montana and Montana State (depending on major). They have rolling admission and itâs not too late to apply for next fall. Much lower sticker price AND lower bar for merit money. Smaller footprint campuses, too, and both in great college towns.
@Hanna , I brought up earlier the idea of continuing to look at less expensive and different options . Neither school sounds ideal- Boulder for financial reasons, the other school is across the country and has not been visited yet (and the D was nervous about even MSU being so far from home). The OP said she thinks they are done looking though. What about a gap year?
I think it will come down to these two schools )but still waiting on one reach school). They are both good. One is closer, but more expensive so she will pick up the cost differential if she is willing and able to do that. They will visit UMass next month and then the final decision will be made. Who knows, she may LOVE that school and then this whole conversation may be mute. But I am the one who is nervous as well!!
It is very normal to be nervous about this whole process. The cost differential between these two schools seems to be $16,000 a year. That is a lot of difference for a young adult to make up, even if they say they are willing to do that. She will not be able to take on that level of debt on her own with loans. How would she make up that kind of difference in cost?
CSUâs application deadline for full scholarship consideration is Feb 1st. A lot of kids in Colorado like the CSU campus better than CU. I know you said you were done looking but maybe it would be a good compromise. Being a WUE school would make it affordable. Fort Collins is a lovely town and much cheaper to live in than Boulder.
CSU, Montana State and University of Montana all sound like good ideas to consider putting in applications into while thereâs still time. Good schools in cool towns and probably more affordable than UC Boulder and closer than UMass Amherst. Good luck.
My youngest is a freshman at CU Boulder. We live in IL and yes, it is a bit of sticker shock when I pay each semester
But she is so incredibly happy and loves CU Boulder. I canât explain itâŠbut there is the vibe among camous likeâŠâholy cowâŠcanât believe believe how gorgeous this campus isâŠso incredibly lucky to go hereâ Our eldest is at UW Madison â only 3 hours away and easier to get home. Visiting Boulder is incredibly $$ for us with airfare, rental car, hotel, etc. And of course her airfare. She knows she will only be able to come home on the big holidays and not in between. She is fine with that. We did go out for Parents Weekend last October and the school did an amazing job with sessions for parents on various topics. Much better job than UW did at their Parent Weekend.
If your daughter is really leaning toward CU Boulder â Iâd talk to Admission people about what kinds of things you can do to defray cost?
@leoniehill Thank you. That was extremely helpful. I am glad someone understands about the âvibeâ because there is no other way to describe it. She loves, loves, loves it there. She is stressing out beyond anything that she wonât be able to go to CU Boulder. Ironically, the last school she was waiting to hear from was from UW Madison, and got denied a couple of days ago. We live in CA, and the airfare to Denver is cheap from San Francisco, so that is the positive going in our direction. I will take her to UMass because maybe she will fall in love with it as she did Boulder, but I hate to even spend that money if she is going to shut down and not even give it a chance. I have a fare-lock right now while we are making the decision.
I went on the CU website last night, and did see a ton of scholarship opportunities. Those are pretty small though, but they all add up. They wonât match scholarships, but I guess it wouldnât hurt to askâŠ
@leoniehill - haha - I went back to the UW Madison site I was following for so long, and YOUR particular comments stood out to me at the time. Who would have know you were talking about UW Madison vs. CU Boulder. Small world.
haha! It is a small world. I tend to lurk in the background and not post â but my daughterâs experience at UW and being postponed, then waitlisted thenâŠyes, weâd love to have you after all! I felt the need to share that. In the end CU Boulder was her first choice and she loves, loves it there. And my junior daughter loves UW. Good luck with all this!
what was your impression of UMass Amherst?