Took a tour today and the guide said cu boulder had about the same amount of pot and alcohol as other campuses. What say you, boulder students?
CU is known somewhat as a party school, albeit less so than most of the Big 10.
As you probably know… there is going to be pot and alcohol on every college campus besides maybe BYU. Not a student there but I heard its more on the party side.
Boulder definitely is on the party side.
So happy you are on campus taking a tour! If you want to talk to another student, feel free to message me. In terms of pot and alcohol, I’d say his assessment is accurate. The students here are very committed to their studies. The vast majority of students here do not do pot but many drink socially. Most are too focused on their academics, landing an internship, doing research for NASA , working towards a career, or involved in a church or club to do pot. So yes, his assessment is accurate in my opinion.
Colorado State in Fort Collins has a bigger alcohol problem than CU Boulder. I think there is more to do
and skiing is closer to Boulder, so less need to drink for most students.
While pot and alcohol use is common on college campuses, what makes CU unique is the amount of overall diversions. Schools in the mid-west or other places may have equal access to the vices, at CU Boulder you can easily be diverted from studies by skiing, rock climbing, mountain climbing, buddhist meditation, spelunking, mountain biking, etc–there is much more to do in a place like Boulder than almost anywhere else in the US. And the sheer beauty of the place draws you in like no other. 300 days of sunshine a year, even when it snows. Both its charm and its curse. Pot and Alcohol are big in places like Columbus or College Station, for example, but you can’t scale a sheer flatiron wall, then mountain bike back to campus on mountain trails to eat a falafel pita and fresh wheatgrass juice in the same afternoon after a physics test like you can in Boulder.
And don’t forget drinking tea at an authentic Central Asian Tea house in Boulder. This tea house was sent from Tajikistan, in over 100 crates and rebuilt in Boulder. It contains authentic Soviet era acrylic paintings, a fountain, and tilework.
http://boulderteahouse.com/
There is a bus from campus to a ski resort, called Eldora, about 25 minutes up Boulder Canyon past Nederland:
https://www.eldora.com/
There are about five canyons to the west of the city of Boulder, including Left Hand Canyon, Boulder Canyon, Sunshine Canyon, Gregory Canyon, Anne U White Trail is in a roadless canyon, and a few I have forgotten.
the Nature Conservancy owns a roadless canyon that is open to visitors with permission.
A car is nice to have in Boulder, but one can get around via bus for at least two years, before bringing a car to campus. There are buses to the bigger ski resorts, which are up Highway 70, to the west of Denver.
Boulder is fun for children, teens, college students and adults. Its a place one never grows tired of, the scenic flatirons, the colorful musicians on Pearl, the Buddhist focused schools like Naropa, the over the top restaurants for the rich and famous, the running and biking events, and the football games too.
Boulder also has a fantastic rank in physics due to JILA and NIST, metorology due to NOAA/NCAR and the faculty in these departments are really top in their fields. Applied mathematics, aerospace engineering, and chemical engineering are all stand outs. The Department of Music is really strong for keyboards, and other instrumental study, the theatre department and dance are well ranked, Boulder Shakespeare Festival is world famous, and Department of History has a Pultzer Prize winner, Professor Elizabeth Fenn. Chemistry is well ranked as well, and some biology departments may be on the map, there are two programs.
Computer science is trying to grow, its hard to find faculty, but I expect the new Dean of Engineering from Georgia Tech will find new faculty in computer sciences soon.
Boulder may love itself a little too much and traffic is the big complaint along with housing prices, but for a student, its an ideal place to learn and grow up.
Easy to get here from Denver International Airport, too, public transportation from Boulder and Denver includes buses to the airport, Union Station and Civic center from Table Mesa and many Boulder locations. Train is about ten years out, but busses work well, and also take students to our fine medical school in Aurora for research projects.