<p>Golden isn’t such a bad town if you like the outdoors. They’re working on a light rail line into Denver that will make it even better.</p>
<p>Exactly right noimagination. There are people that adore the quiet, rugged opportunities afforded by that kind of location. Illustrates precisely why people should just describe areas and opportunities rather than rate them or make unequivocal statements about them being good or bad. What is perfect for one student is anathema to another.</p>
<p>so now that I got great insights to the different locations…what are the pros and cons of going to a private school vs. a public school like UMich?</p>
<p>If you’re a guy…sometimes it’s girls… ;)</p>
<p>Some of the privates on your list are seriously lacking in girls. lol</p>
<p>At UMich (perhaps not so much GT), about half the campus is female.</p>
<p>Big differences in campus and class sizes (pro private); cost, for an in-stater especially (pro public); potentially the public is more subject to changes based on the problems of a state (budget cuts and the like) although hard for me to believe they will let Michigan “slide”, besides which UM has a huge endowment (slightly pro private); big time sports scene (pro public usually); otherwise not much else that I can think of.</p>
<p>Girls aside…</p>
<p>Big publics schools often offer more extracurriculars, big sports, and recreation facilities, more on-campus food venue choices, more dorm choices, etc.</p>
<p>One thing my kids noticed is that at big publics, a student can more easily avoid a prof that they don’t like. Often, big publics have more than one prof teaching the same course. So, you can avoid a prof that you don’t like or that you don’t think is very good.</p>