University of Washington vs CU Boulder

Im really struggling between deciding to go to The University of Washington or University of Colorado Boulder. I have visited both schools and I can easily see myself at either of the two. I have been saying for the past 3 years UW is my number 1 choice and dream school bc love seattle, i love the campus and almost everything about it. But boulder also offers a lot that I want and now considering I want to have fun at college Boulder seems like it would have more of a party scene. To add onto my delemma I found a really good roomate at Boulder and that is just making the decsion a lot harder for me.

I want to go into public health or something like that and UW had the better program and hopefully go to vet school after college. Also, i really want to live in Seattle

I have already been accpeted to Boulder but dont hear back from UW until march although im pretty confident about getting in bc Ive done everything to appeal to the admissions councelor and worked my butt off.

What are your thoughts and experiences with the two schools?

Isn’t cost an issue?
Which one would be cheaper for you?

All colleges will have parties.
What’s your budget? Can your parents afford either one “out of pocket”?

Public Health? Pre-Vet?
There is no question there - UW.

Doing pre-health at UW as an OOS student from CO will be very costly. I don’t know the vet policies in that state, but if they’re similar to their med school policies then you won’t get into their vet program.

What are your parents saying about cost? You won’t get aid…you’d be full pay.

This Coloradan agrees that UW is probably the better choice. Boulder is small, lots of students, and competition for health/vet-related internships (or jobs) will be fierce. Seattle will offer far more opportunities to gain hands-on experience. Which you will definitely need if vet school may be in your future.

If his parents will happily pay for UW, then super. If they won’t, then it would be a bad idea.

Vets do not earn the money that physicians do, so any debt would need to be minimized even for vet school.

The OP is an Illinois resident and OOS at both universities, so tuition and room/board would be about the same (~$45K per year). Both are great for ecology and organismal biology. The strong zoology, wildlife science, and pre-vet offerings in those states, however, are at the land grant universities (Colorado State and Washington State).

If you can afford both universities, either would prepare you adequately for vet school. As m2ck said, keep costs down for undergrad, particularly loans…vet school is very expensive.

Be aware that competition can be fierce in intro biology and chemistry classes, particularly among pre-health students, and large science classes can be extremely sink-or-swim at flagship public universities.

From another thread by the OP:

So all is good.

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My family CAN afford OOS tuition
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As long as the parents have said that they will PAY the OOS tuition. The fact that the OP knows his parents can afford the OOS tuition may be meaningless if they have no intention of paying OOS costs for a public univ that is cheaper in their own state. IL has some very good schools.

thanks everyone for the input! Id love to hear peoples thoughts on me actually getting into the university of washington. Plz look at my past threads they never get many comments

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