Experience at CU Boulder

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Colorado
21

Liberal vs. Conservative:

@cate1121 you said you are a social liberal and I think a conservative with “government”…sometimes it’s hard to separate the two, but, I think if you are socially liberal you wouldn’t feel like an outsider, based on what everyone is saying. My family is pretty liberal and we are avoiding many schools in the South for this same reason (but more because we are worried he would not feel comfortable being a social liberal in the South), though, I have to admit. I do think it is something to consider. But we get the feeling that the Boulder crowd is very laid back and accepting so I think you would probably be fine in this regard. Having a good, civilized political debate every now and then should be part of the college scene, if you ask me, as long as everyone respects each other’s views.

Weather:

I put Boulder on my weather ap on my phone because weather is a huge factor for my son. He is only a junior so this is how much thought we are putting into it! I check the Boulder weather almost daily and it kind of seems like the best of all worlds to me…you get the four seasons but with a lot of sunshine, and not a lot of humidity or wind so you really can enjoy all of each of the seasons. I personally prefer this to So. California because I like the seasons. And the access to snowboarding would be such a bonus for my son as that is his favorite activity.

Housing:

When we toured this summer, we got the impression that there are no issues freshman year and after freshman year people just move off campus, but right by the school. No one made it sound like it is a problem getting good off campus housing close to school, but this thread is now making me concerned about this. I think feeling a part of campus is a huge part of college life and if my son has to live far and not near other people, that could be a deal breaker for us. I was hoping he could live in one of those apartment complexes on the perimeter of the campus if he goes to CU…so is this not realistic? Really hard to get? Any feedback from those of you that know the situation would be greatly appreciated.

@cate1121 thanks for starting this thread, it was a great idea.

22

As long as you’re willing to pay and your son starts early, housing near campus is not an issue. Students are surprised that leases are signed in October/November for the following AUGUST move in. The students who wait until the spring to look for housing for the following year are the ones who end up commuting from a neighboring city.

23

The first line of another poster’s comment in post #7 above is worth repeating as it does capture the dominant essence of Boulder in my opinion :

“…rather than defining Boulder as liberal, I would say that it is affluent.”

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Thanks @Darcy123. So you mean as a freshman he would need to start looking for sophomore year housing in October?

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An alternative is to purchase a condo or other type of home. The downfall of purchasing one of the upscale condos in Boulder is that students don’t want to leave after graduating.

Although not an overwhelming imbalance, Boulder has more male students than females and is not as diverse as some may desire.

P.S. Never noticed a problem with wind as another poster noted above, but I only stayed in Boulder for a week or 10 days at a time over a period of several years. I never experienced bone-chilling cold as Boulder gets a lot of sunshine year round & not much dampness.

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Yes @collegemomjam He needs to start looking in October of his freshman year for housing his sophomore year. There were still be options in the following months - but the options will skew to more expensive, further from school, more rundown etc as time goes by. If you go to Boulder’s craigslist and search for prelease, you’ll get a sense of what’s available now for next August. Most of the large property management companies who rent hundreds of properties were fully leased for next year before the fall term ended.

Boulder can be incredibly windy at times, but it’s not typically windy. More like a certain front is moving through.

There’s no question Boulder is more affluent than many areas, but it is absolutely vocally liberal. And if you are not SOCIALLY liberal you will absolutely find yourself uncomfortable and people will not be laid back about your viewpoints. You can have a healthy debate about tax policies, and I agree with a previous poster than there’s a strong libertarian streak in Colorado which can also lead to healthy discussion. If you’re anti-LGBQT, you are not going to find it a place where people welcome other viewpoints.

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@Darcy123: Just shows that folks can have different experiences in Boulder.

I don’t necessarily disagree with the comments in your last paragraph, but find them to be outside my experience & not in line with the graduate students & athletes whom I know well who were in Boulder for at least several consecutive years within the past decade.

To be blunt, seems as though you ran into a bunch of loud-mouthed jerks.

My experience was primarily with business students, law students & a few players on the football team. I only knew a small group of undergraduates all of whom were kind, decent normal students. Everyone seemed to be positive & happy.

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I hope my comments didn’t lead anyone to believe that I don’t find the vast majority of CU Boulder students to be “kind, decent normal students” I’ve spent a LOT of time in Boulder over the last 15 years. It’s a great school with many wonderful students. I have found particularly after the last presidential election, a bit of the “chill” vibe regarding conservative view points has dissipated. The number of “resist” bumper stickers and lawn signs will give you a flavor for the political climate. Now you’ll also find a huge portion of students who are utterly politically apathetic. But I’d still caution anyone who has strong, social conservative views to tread carefully. If you show up with a MAGA hat on it, if the other students don’t eviscerate you, some resident in a Subaru may just mow you down.

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Since we have such a great conversation going, :slight_smile: I am wondering if anyone has anything to say about the dynamic between CSU and CU. My entire family went to CSU lol. Why does either side dislike the other?

@Darcy123 Lol no MAGA hats for me hahaha. I definitely am no Trump fan?

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My son asked our tour guide at CSU who was a native Coloradan (from the Denver area) why she chose CSU over CU. She applied to both and was accepted to both. She said she picked CSU because it felt more like a place that she could make a home. Boulder has a bit of a touristy vibe (license plates from all over the country), and many people who work here do not live due to the high housing costs. Ft Collins feels more like an every day American city. Boulder is a special place for sure, but I think most college students have their 4-6 years here, move on, and then look back with nostalgia. I think those that stay are rare.

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There were plenty of MAGA hats in Boulder…no wait they were MCGA hats…Make CU Great Again.

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I have lived ten years in Fort Collins from 1989-99, and now twenty years, about 15 minutes east of Boulder.
Colorado State has enrolled more and more international students from Asia and the Middle East , compared to the 90s.

@WinterisComing21. The vast majority of CU Boulder graduates get jobs in Colorado, or California. Its quite easy to find a high tech job in the Boulder area, so yes, most everyone stays. They may live in Superior or Longmont, but
thats still staying in most CU Boulder grads minds, and they are at the football games, huge huge alumni fan base in Boulder. Some grads head to Colorado Springs for jobs or Fort Collins, which have large high tech workforces for years. Colorado Springs is almost as big as Denver now. Denver offers work for most of the accounting, business and law graduates from CU Boulder.

Boulder as a place to live, and go to college, is more fun and a better location than Fort Collins in that its more compact, much better public transportation in Boulder more to do, closer to skiing, and more variety of hiking, and just prettier overall, and closer to the international airport in Denver and also only 30 minutes from Denver with is fun for a night out. There is a direct bus from Boulder to Union Station Denver.

Fort Collins students need cars, or they will be stuck on campus. Boulder students can bus anywhere they might want, including Eldora ski resort, very close by. Rock climbing is better in Boulder too. Music options and nightlife better in Boulder.

On housing in Boulder, there are more and more undergraduate upper classmen students living over at Williams Village, in suites with kitchens and nine month leases, and I also know upper classmen that stay at Global Engineering or other Residential Academic programs for two or even three of their undergrad years.

So moving off is becoming a little less common, but still does happen for sophomores. Its fine, though, and does not impede social life to move off campus, as they are living in student ‘ghettos’ with other students. Its not like having an apartment all to one’s self. The campus life is still there for off campus students.

33

We have warm Chinook winds in March, up to 80 miles an hour is totally normal, (yes we repair our roof shingles a LOT in Colorado) and snow in May is now rain in the last three years, but we can get a big storm the first week of May some years. Snow absorbs down around trees into our clay soil and sublimes or vaporizes into the air though even in January very quickly.

Also south facing driveways almost never need to shovel and the south side of a road melts before the north facing side. We have much less plowing in side streets than the east coast or midwest. I have never lived in all 30 years on a street that was plowed, so most people drive high clearance vehicles. First year, we had to get a guy in a truck to pick us up for work, it was NOT a snow day but we had no way of backing out over the snowy unplowed road in Fort Collins with a Camry. We got rid of that car for a truck soon.

One can sweep the smaller snow flurries , even four inches with a broom, its so light and powdery. I have never seen a puddle in Colorado. I have never used a rain umbrella in 30 years. Yes it rains,
but its a cloud burst every day in the summer at 4 pm for 15 minutes. April can be rainy and COLD though. April is the month I like to leave town as its not like a spring on the east coast at all. Its much colder in April in Boulder than say NJ or MA. Or it could be almost 85 in April so it varies a lot in the spring.

Fall is the most reliable and dry season with wonderful long warm days. Early November is warm most years. But Halloween will have snow most years, so the weather goes up and down a lot, warm to cold, hot to cold, with huge temperature drops, but always warm by after lunch even in January. December is when winter can have nighttime sub zero temps for only about three days in a row, some years that was in January, but its not that bad. It will warm up within the week.

We can get some Arctic cold some years, but never as bad as Michigan or Wisconsin or upstate NY.
But it snows a lot in Boulder, in fact, often huge dumps of snow, that sparkle in the sun! You have to like snow to move to Boulder.

Fort Collins has a little less snow than Boulder, most years. We have microclimates

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@Coloradomama… I never said most CU grads left Colorado. I was referring to them leaving Boulder. Boulder is a very unique place to live and not synonymous with Colorado. New grads that actually live here in Boulder are in the minority. Housing costs are too prohibitive, and we don’t have many affordable shopping options for those starting out. For example, we don’t have a Walmart. Boulder is not a huge city (around 110,000, including the university students) so it is more likely the majority of new grads are finding their job opportunities across the Front Range. I live here in Boulder, and I don’t anticipate my son will be living here when he graduates from CU. It wouldn’t be a smart move to waste all his money on rent.

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We visited Boulder and CU over the summer (loved them both!) and were blown away by how expensive the housing is. Those little houses near Pearl Street and in those adorable (Mork and Mindy) neighborhoods were in the millions!! Of course, that made us want to live there even more!! It’s such a beautiful place. I’m glad the rest of Colorado isn’t that bad, although I heard Denver is also getting expensive.

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@WinterisComing21. Boulder refers to an area that comprises Boulder, Louisville, Lafayette, Superior and Longmont now. And yes, there are thousands of CU grads here working. Some do commute in, but its really very easy to find housing in the surrounding areas of Boulder, much less than major metropolitan areas on the east and west coast.

There are many jobs for CU grads right in Boulder and many stay. That includes business, law, nonprofits, government jobs, and high tech. We know a lot of graduates at Netapp, NCAR, NOAA, NIST, Oracle, Ball Aerospace, Xilinx, Entrado, Seagate, IBM, Spectra Logic, Medtronics, Micron, Marvell Semi, pharmaceutical firms, and many start ups. About half of my neighborhood in Longmont is CU grads, and its 15 minutes from Boulder. I don’t think its that hard to live in Boulder, either, given the large variety of medium range neighborhoods, look at the prices in the Heatherwood neighborhood, Gunbarrel neighborhood, and Martin Acres are much lower end than Pearl Street!!

We know many younger professionals, in their late forties, double income couples, that live in Table Mesa, and other areas of Boulder that are higher end than Heatherwood. Boulder offers a Target, and plenty of shopping, in fact, most Longmont families drive to Boulder for well priced clothes at Nostrum Rack, TJ Maxx , sales at Macy’s etc.

Boulder is not as expensive for rent or housing as Denver, Seattle, Redmond Washington, anything near NYC, including Connecticut, Long Island and NE part of NJ.

Any major city with jobs in California (Bay Area, San Diego, LA and even Santa Rosa, is astronomical in price compared to Boulder and CU grads live in those cities too as there are so many jobs in CA.

Boston and ALL the suburbs north, and west, and some south, its much much more expensive than the Boulder area rents and housing prices , and CU grads go there too, find jobs and make it work.

Students live in all these cities and do fine. There is always a place to live in cities for new grads.

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@Coloradomama thanks for that info! I just read it to my husband. That’s really great to know and quite encouraging.

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Maybe things have changed in the past year or two, but Boulder is much more expensive than Longmont, for example.

Agree that Boulder is not as expensive as several East Coast & West Coast cities noted above.

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We have our own city council in Boulder, and affordable housing is such a big issue that taxpayers fund an extensive affordable housing program. Resident tax dollars tax are subsidizing some of these more affordable homes, and there are long wait lists. If you were to ask the city council what the biggest issue here in Boulder, I am sure they would tell you lack of affordable housing. It is not a secret. I read a poll recently that said 1/3 of students live 5 miles or more from campus. If housing availability and price was not an issue, 1/3 of the student body would not be living off campus. I drive back and forth to Longmont, and I live north of CU. It is 20-30 minutes in no traffic and during rush hour, much longer. Traffic can be heavy between 7-9am and 3-7pm, especially since many workers commute into and out of Boulder. I would encourage any student wanting to live in the surrounding areas to check the Google map the route without and in peak traffic times to check. We do have a Target close to the CU campus, but we avoid it because it is generally very busy and often out of items we need, being one of the only budget shopping places in Boulder. We make the drive up to Longmont for cheaper groceries at least once week.

As much as I love Boulder, I think students and parents should know potential pros and pitfalls and not have an idealized view. If they come from affluent families from big cities, maybe it is not a big issue, but most families are somewhere in the middle. Boulder is an amazingly beautiful place, an outdoor mecca with 4 seasons. The campus is immaculate and safe. We love living here and feel like our kids are getting a great education. However, it is expensive, housing can be a challenge, and we do have a big and polarizing homeless problem. Boulder has been coined, “The People’s Republic of Boulder.” It is a very unique place and the surrounding areas have their own vibe and governing bodies. I feel like I am in a different world when I visit the surrounding communities. Regarding jobs, CU publishes data on geographic regions where graduates end up taking jobs (about 65% Colorado and about 10% California) which makes sense since about 9% of the student body comes from California. They do not publish what percentage of graduates take jobs in the Boulder and immediate surrounding area. That would be conjecture without hard data. CU does publish job placement data, and the numbers are very encouraging.

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There is the City of Boulder and the County of Boulder. Much of Longmont isn’t even in Boulder County.

For many years Boulder restricted growth by limiting the number of sewer permits. Some of the communities SE of Boulder were put into the new Broomfield county (maybe 10 years ago) so much of the growth that could have been in Boulder/Boulder county headed out of town. The city itself is very small and they university has almost doubled in size in the last 30 years, but most of it is build on the same footprint at the old campus. That means the areas around the campus has had to absorb that much extra usage - the restaurants, the shopping, the housing.

Yep housing is expensive. I reviewed my nephew’s lease of a 5 room basement apartment 5 years ago - $46k for 11.5 months! The landlord allowed them to pay monthly, for a fee. There were fees for everything. I think the security deposit was $7000 and at least half of the was non-refundable (keys, cleaning, trash, snow removal…) Parents had to sign as guarantors. This was for the basement, and there were two other rental units on the upper floors, so this landlord was getting about $150k per year in rents for this house. Big house, but still…