<p>Thank you katliamom.</p>
<p>Did either of you check out U of Idaho? It is pretty close to the Montana Schools and is comparable in size and ranking. If you didn’t consider it, any particular reason why?</p>
<p>Thanks again for your insights.</p>
<p>We didn’t consider it, but for no particular reason. Montana/Montana State were the only schools we considered OOS because we have some distant relatives in the area - and because it has relatively low OOS tuition. Son would have stayed instate, but Montana was on his radar due to the narly nearby snowboarding.</p>
U of I isn’t a bad school, but if you’re into the outdoors, it’s not the best place to be. While The Palouse is pretty, there are pretty limited options for hiking/biking trails and skiing close to campus. Both Missoula and MSU are way better for that sort of thing. I’d say Missoula is a better town for hiking/biking (gets less snow than Bozeman), while Bozeman gets quite a bit of snow that limits trail usage in the Winter. However, if you’re into skiing, Bridger Bowl/Big Sky will certainly keep you stoked all winter long. FWIW, I applied to just MSU out of the three. I like skiing and trail running, which elimited U of I, and was impressed by MSU’s academic programs (science/research facilities were very extensive and nice) but wasn’t impressed by UM from an academic perspective. Academically, I’d say the order goes: MSU, U of I, then UM (this from a STEM perspective).