<p>SO I've been accepted to the School of Engineering and Applied Science up at CU, and I'm going to some event thing next Thursday to get a feel for it, but is there anyone out there that can tell me what it's like? Like boy to girl ratio, difficulty/demand of classes, does it interfere with social life... stuff like that.</p>
<p>I'm a girl, so I'm sure that plays some part (I've heard it's like a million percent male in the engineering school.)</p>
<p>Well for one, I’m looking to go to CU boulder for engineering and am a girl. I also think the girl to boy ration in engineering is a bit skewed for any school. </p>
<p>I think you should be looking more at the program too, theres no shortage of social life at Cu, or so I hear!</p>
<p>My son is an engineering student at CU this year as a freshman. He is definitely having a social life: plays intramural sports, goes snowboarding, attends concerts at the Fox Theater, has season tickets to football and basketball games, and also belongs to a coed engineering fraternity. And yes, there are women in the fraternity but they are definitely not in the majority. He studies hard, but so far is able to balance his work load with his social activities…Engineering is not easy, he studies way harder than his roomate who so far is undeclared, but he seems to have found a balance of studying and having fun too.</p>
<p>My D just graduated in physics, but there was alot of overlap with engineering physics, so her experience is relevant. Make no mistake about it, engineering is hard: difficult problem sets, lots of math, sometimes difficult communication with TAs and faculty (due to both social and language issues). It does not preclude having a life outside the classroom, and if you are going to bust your butt, you might as well live someplace where you can enjoy your free time. And females are a distinct minority. That turned out to not be a big deal for my D - she has lots of female friends who are in different majors (a good reason perhaps to not live in the engineering dorms), the women who are in the program bond, and in the end a woman in the field has a competitive advantage. My D is off to graduate school; her room-mate will move back home with Mom and Dad.</p>
<p>I graduated from CU back in 1986 and my daughter is heading there this Fall in Chem Bio Eng. I had a great time at CU, and there is one thing I can tell you GPA is inversely proportional to social life. I graduated with a 3.0 in EE, but unless you are an off the chart genius, and most of us aren’t, you will have to find a balance. I had some friends that had a really good time at CU and they didn’t graduate.</p>