I was accepted and was wondering what student life is like at CU. My parents are afraid I will get overwhelmed and are afraid that I will fall into the party scene. I’m more of an outdoorsy person and I want to focus on my academics, so how big is the party scene? And Is the campus overwhelming for a somewhat social freshman?
I am the parent of a CU senior. As Colorado residents we were well aware of the school’s reputation as a party school, but knew that our son chose to go there for the excellent engineering program and limitless outdoor recreation opportunities.
Since CU attracts a lot of outdoorsy kids, he had no trouble meeting like minded friends through the weekly activities sponsored by his dorm (including inter mural sports teams), classes at the Rec center, and the CU Hiking Club (where he is a trip leader).
From what I hear, the on-campus party scene is more evident in the larger dorms around quad (Farrand, Libby, Cheyenne-Arapahoe) than in the smaller dorms of the Engineering Quad, Kittridge West, or Willard Hall.
Off- campus, the place to find a party is “The Hill”. Adjacent to campus on the NW, the neighborhood is home to a commercial area, most of the Greek houses, and hundreds of homes converted to student rentals. Luckily, still convenient and much quieter student housing can be found elsewhere in Boulder.
Physically, the campus is beautiful. Building style and scale harmonizes well with the surroundings. My son, not a big city boy, has been very comfortable and successful there.
Alright thank you! I was going into engineering as well, so that helped out a lot.