Haha! That’s funny about New Trier, although they send about 25-30 kids a year to Boulder these days. I would imagine that a lot of the NT kids who would have ended up in Madison 5 years ago are now migrating to CU (along with places like Clemson, Indiana and TCU) in light of Wisconsin’s rapidly increasing selectivity.
I suppose I’m skewed in my impressions by those I’ve known (or known of) attending both schools. That group has produced a lot of Boulder grads in financial services and engineering in California and Chicago, while the few Denver grads I know are in Colorado still, where they can better keep skiing and flyfishing as their hobbies. But it’s obviously a small sample size.
Certainly having a big football program makes a difference in how the broader world sees CU, as well, as you note.
My kid and I laugh and laugh about how horrible Amherst’s info session and tour was. It’s almost like – we get more way more applicants than we need so let’s make this as bad as possible.
Living in the frame houses at Wesleyan is living the dream. It’s so nice to have the autonomy and variety. I have a kid at Smith who will be in a dorm all 4 years. It’s an incredibly nice dorm with lots of charm and a kitchen and all that, but our 5 bedroom house on Brainerd with a giant kitchen and living room was the best.
We had two tour guides and both volunteered that they chose Amherst specifically because they hated math (one went so far as to use the word ‘frightened’) and never wanted to take another math class again. We found it quite off-putting. Like, do you really want to advertise that you’re scared of academics?
13% of CU students are in Greek life, and not all of those are party hard people. Most of the houses are on the west side of campus and engineering (and the planetarium) is on the east side, so easy to avoid running into a Greek party if he doesn’t want to join in.
What schools is he looking at that have no greek life but still have astrophysics? Every school is going to have something he doesn’t like so it may not make sense to eliminate CU when the greek life there may not be a problem.
I don’t think his feelings about it are so serious that he would write off Boulder. He’ll need to visit it for himself and I think it’s a good option for him. It’s more that the kids from his high school who go to Boulder tend to be the sporty party kids and my son is not really a part of that crowd (so he’s made some assumptions that he will need to correct in person)
This is entirely based on personal experience, but as someone who grew up in SoCal (and went to a high school that sent a fair number of students each year to Boulder) and now lives near Denver (where my kids go a school that sends hundreds of kids each year to Boulder), here’s my likely-very-distorted generalization. OOS kids who go to Boulder are often the sporty/partier types who are looking for a school where they can ski, go to big-time football games, party, and get a good education. But in-state kids who go to CU Boulder represent all kinds. They don’t need Boulder as a home base for skiing, because they’re already in Colorado (they could go to any number of other schools for that), and they don’t need Boulder for big time sports or a frat scene. Boulder provides those things for people who want it, but it attracts all kinds of students, and it should be fairly easy for your kid to find his people.
I think your generalization is accurate for our Northern CA high school, too. Boulder is the most popular OOS school (tied with Oregon) and it’s very much that group of kids who pick it. I think that has distorted his view of the culture at Boulder so it is worth seeing for himself what it’s like.
So funny to stumble on this. My freshman will be starting at Hamilton this fall. The lottery put her in the Covid built trailer dorms put on the far end of campus in a parking lot . Tiny double room. But at least they have a/c. She is hoping for one of many singles or a suite next year as a reward.
Just wondering if Boulder is generous with merit for OOS students? I thought I saw it on a list for colleges with highest OOS COA’s, so I was curious, since it seems a lot of kids from CA are choosing it. Does it come in at less than your in-states?
My dd is at Hamilton and her teammates that lived in that “dorm” their FY actually said they loved it, and they developed a pretty close-knit community among each other.
No they are not generous with OOS merit aid. I think common award amount is around 5k per year. I think of it as a “lifestyle choice” school which many OOS families are willing/able to pay for.
Nope, not at all. But people in our area are willing and able to pay for it. A good chunk of kids from our high school go to OOS publics, with Boulder, Oregon, Wisconsin, Washington, Michigan regularly making the list (with a couple Vermont and Indiana kids thrown in).
Though just as with COA sticker price, you have to be careful comparing merit aid by absolute numbers. You allude to this, but really, $20k merit aid from a college with a $35k sticker price is more generous in real terms than $50 merit aid from a college with a $70k sticker price.
That sounds right. In my parts, it’s on a list of possible schools for a lot families who might also be looking at a few other publics but are in the market at places like TCU, SMU, Miami or other private universities, too. For some with good but not incredible students and who earn too much for non-merit types of financial aid, full freight OOS at a place like Boulder is a better cost outcome than what they’d expected or would have seen if their kid ended up at Syracuse, so they’re not worried about lack of scholarship funds.
The most common merit award at Boulder is $25k, or $6,250 per year. It’s an expensive OOS school, but not as bad as OOS at a UCLA, Vermont, Michigan, Virginia.
Not that I want to argue the merits of rankings and programs, but UC@ Boulder is much closer to UVM academically than it is to the others listed…which are Top 5 public institutions.
. Tiny double room. But at least they have a/c. She is hoping for one of many singles or a suite next year as a reward.