Fellow RAs, I had applied for RA position couple of weeks ago and I haven't heard from them yet even though it's been 2 weeks past the deadline. Do yall have any idea when they usually get back to you? I need to look for off-campus housing if they don't take me and it's getting too late.

Hi, I am currently planning to apply for this program but their website has a lack of information. Did anyone graduate from this program or know about it? There's no faculty directory either, so it's hard to find people who might match my research interests. Thanks!

I see a lot of people posting on this sub right now asking why others chose CSU. I just spent a while typing this up in response to one of these posts, and felt it deserved to be its own post.

#Background

Recent alum here (B.S. Mechanical Engineering, May 2024).

I grew up in the northwest Denver suburbs and spent most of my childhood weekends camping in the Rockies. I’ve been to a lot of places that I’ve fallen in love with, but the Rockies will always be home to me - looking west and seeing the horizon instead of the mountains always makes me slightly uneasy. I even used to think I’d enjoy living somewhere that stays warmer in the winter, but when I got the chance, I missed the snow way more than I expected.

#Other Colleges Considered

I toured all of the major Front Range universities, and came up with reasons to eliminate most of them:

• Boulder: love the city, but the culture was (and still is) a poor fit for me. University admissions in Boulder seems way too focused on making money for the university rather than curating a campus culture that people would want to be a part of. The whole university feels like one big clique, and if you’re not out free-soloing the third flatiron every morning before class and going to frat parties every evening, you’re not part of it.
• Denver: Achingly expensive without financial aid (more than 3x the cost of CSU, at least in 2019), and the campus felt kind of depressing in the late winter when I toured.
• Metro / CU Denver (grouping together since they share a campus): at the time, these were purely “commuter” schools, with no housing available for students. In effect, students would commute in for classes and commute home after. I was worried about the impact this would have on my college experience, limiting the connections that I could make. In addition, Metro’s program for my chosen major is pretty weak.
• UCCS: nice smaller campus feel that felt way more approachable than the larger universities as somebody fresh out of a 3A high school, but their graduation rate was concerningly low. This was my safety school and the first to accept my application , although in hindsight, I’m incredibly glad that I didn’t end up there given the city’s political leanings and hostility towards pedestrians - Colorado Springs is a very different place from Fort Collins.

In contrast, I found CSU to have many of the same things I liked about Boulder - access to nature, active culture, extreme pedestrian/cyclist friendliness (don’t tell Boulder, but FoCo’s cycle trail network easily beats theirs and has for at least a decade) - while being more affordable and much more grounded and welcoming of people from all backgrounds.

#My CSU Experience

CSU was an excellent place for me. While I was there, I:

• Lived in the Engineering Residential Learning Community for my first year. My entire building was engineering majors, with live-in faculty, a computer lab in the building, and tutoring in the building every night. I made connections with students and professors through this program that are still proving invaluable today.
• Worked my first ever job at the on-campus computer store. I started purely as a retail salesperson, and grew responsible for all of our marketing, website development, software licensing/deployment, and coordinating deliveries to faculty across three campuses (main, south, and foothills). I was in the process of training for Apple repair technician certification when I was nominated to a semester exchange program and left this job on great terms to pursue that opportunity.
• Moonlighted as a freelance photographer for the student newspaper, focusing on stock photos, arts/culture events, and major breaking events on campus. I got really close with a few of our A&C reporters and entrenched myself into FoCo’s thriving indie music scene - I covered 25 bands and five festivals for the newspaper, plus a few others independently, across Fort Collins and Denver. I’ve been back stage at the Aggie Theatre multiple times, I know the owners of The Coast on a first name basis and worked with their sound engineer to record a live album for a friend’s band, I was one of three people granted a press pass to photograph a major indie artist performing to 4000 people at CSU, and I was asked to be the official photographer for a psych rock festival and three years of a film/music festival by the event organizers.
• Became the treasurer and vice president of the CSU photo club, where I was part of five art installations in downtown Fort Collins
• Studied abroad in Swansea, Wales, three hours due west of London by bullet train. Lived in an apartment with students from England and Wales, three minutes from class and two minutes from the beach. Took an elective on the history of screen animation, which transferred as an art credit. Visited England nearly every weekend, spent Spring Break in Paris, and solo backpacked across five more countries (Scotland, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Belgium, and the Netherlands) as well as most major English cities in the three weeks between the end of my final exams and the expiration date of my visa. This is hands down one of the most influential experiences in my life to this point. If I remember correctly, around a third of CSU students will participate in study abroad programs - I have friends who did Semester at Sea, spent three weeks in Peru designing 3D printed prosthetics for those who could not afford traditional options, and spent Spring Break in Italy on an archaeological dig.
• Found another job as a drone pilot for CSU after my semester abroad, where I became part of the first ever drone mission to provide live aerial coverage of a division one college football game - and participated in this for 3-4 games per season (I’m actually going back to help out on the next home game), as well as getting involved in a handful of research projects and serving as the lead author on a research paper surrounding a novel application of aerial imaging (publication pending, so the details are unfortunately under tight wraps).
• Spent a summer at an internship designing and prototyping equipment for hydroelectric power generation. I honestly wasn’t happy in this position due to the company culture which I felt offered no room for learning and expected perfection from day one, and all four of that summer’s interns quit within fifteen minutes of each other (three of us have found jobs in other fields entirely post graduation - drone test pilot, security guard, and waitress - although in my case and presumably the others’, that’s more due to the current job market), but in hindsight it was an amazing learning experience that gave me newfound standards for quality which I brought forward into my capstone project.
• Spent my senior year working with a local nonprofit to develop an off-road wheelchair for multi-day guided mountain excursions. My role on the team was to completely reverse-engineer their previous commercial wheelchair, mock it up with a high-precision 3D model, tweak the model to alleviate pain points identified by the nonprofit and their beneficiaries, develop/test/tune a suspension system to alleviate the impact of rough terrain on spinal injuries, and run computer simulations to verify the safety of our design modifications prior to manufacturing a prototype.
• Earned certifications in multiple career-specific software programs, giving me a competitive advantage over other graduates from similar programs at other universities.
• Became a first generation college graduate and landed a position two and a half months after graduation making six figures and working fully remote.

#Conclusion CSU isn’t a perfect school - I certainly have some gripes with my college and my degree program, but what school is perfect? CSU offered me just about everything I could have hoped for - a chance to connect with the outdoors, pursue my hobbies to the greatest extent possible, learn more than I ever thought possible about my chosen major, experience full cultural immersion in another country through an extended exchange program, participate in groundbreaking research as an undergrad, and graduate into a position that I love that also happens to pay pretty damn well. If this sounds like the college experience that you’re looking for, then CSU is a great fit.

Hi everyone, I'm a senior in HS right now and I got accepted into CSU about a week ago. From what I've seen, it looks like fundamentally the perfect school for what I'm going for (Wildlife & Conservation Biology), but would like to hear some student perspectives on it. So please! Why should I consider CSU from a student standpoint?

My son and I are visiting campus next weekend. He is a vet from USAF and is 21. I’m really hoping he chooses CSU as it looks like a great school. Any vets want to weigh in on their experience coming in as an older person? Also, where should we visit while in Fort Collins besides the campus? Any good restaurant recommendations?

I'm from the coastal southeast and just got my acceptance for CSU (yay!) Would anyone be willing to share some pros and cons about the college? In terms of the social scene, dorms, opportunities, etc. Thanks! **Also i plan to major in media communications and minor in like sports management or film idk

Folks...how are we feeling after yesterday's exam and a mail from Hilary Freeman about our progress.

I am kind of in-between but still in good spirit about the progress so far.

I'm at a loss for what to do. I'm doing 100% of the readings and practice (that doesn't count towards your grade but take a ton of time) and putting so much time into the course, but I'm barely pulling out a B. I'm not new to computers or computer science, but something about this course is absolutely kicking my ass. IDK if its that Zybooks is ineffective for learning or if the tests are just that hard, but it's getting hard not to get wicked discouraged about the rest of this program if this is how the intro class is going. Anyone have any advice or experience with this class? I have never made under a B on a college test and I BOMBED the very first exam of this half-semester.

Just wanted to get sense of the computer science program at CSU online.

just want to hear the experience of those of you who have gone through the program and what the job prospects are like.

Hi, I'm an undergrad online student who graduates this Spring. I'm looking for people's top recommendations for SUPER easy 3 credit hour courses. What class did you think was super easy that you're eager to share?

Basically the title

winter grad, where are the best places for grad pics (taking them next week) that aren’t just the oval

I am a neuroscience major and my major required getting an advising code from an in person meeting before being able to register for classes. I was not aware of this as I am a second bachelors student that just started my new degree, and the email alerting me to this went to my junk folder. My advisor cannot meet until November 4th, which is a full week after course registration opens. How screwed am I in terms of being able to register for a full load of courses before the end of the semester if I am unable to get the code until next week?

On Friday and today (Monday) there is a strong smell on the south side of campus. It smells chemical-y, almost like paint thinner or some kind of chemical solvent. Does anyone know what this is? It’s strong outside and it’s now made its way into the building where I work. Not sure if it’s safe to breath

I am a international student from CBSE(INDIA) 9th - 95% 10th- 65% ( COVID and health issues) 11th - 90.09% 12th- 89% ( predicted)

IELTS-6.5

I have a gap between my grade 11 and 12 due to some financial difficulties in family

Ec's 2 internships as a machine learning engineer 1 volunteering experience at ngo Part time tutoring in grade 11 and a drop time and half of grade 12

Essay

I believe my essay is really strong revolving around how my prospective about life changed and asked many students they feel that it is unique.

Should I go test optional? And also wanted to get my total Tution fees under 15k ( like UTD will give AES will I get that ?)

Colorado office seekers routinely make their stances known on issues like the economy, taxes, energy development and gun control. But as more people struggle with mental health challenges, state candidates should let voters know how they stand on mental health policy, too.

https://coloradocommunitymedia.com/2024/10/24/voters-guide-on-where-candidates-stand-on-mental-health-issues-is-now-available/

Shout out to the athletic department for the darkest show of my life. Glad cheerleaders were stunting near darkness! That’s super safe.

I can’t find any book clubs on the schools list, I would be interested in joining a romance or fantasy book club if there is one. If not, is it hard to start one? would anyone want to join it?

In title. It belongs to a Grace. I have a photo of it but I'm not going to post it here to preserve the privacy of the person

Edit: I left it where I found it, on the wall/fence in between chemistry and microbiology

Can’t make the game so trying to sell 2 end zone ga tickets $55 each (face value)

My son is looking at food science and transferring from out-of-state. Has anyone had experience with the food science program and are able to speak about it? Do you think it’s worth it?? my son plans to go to postgrad, so looking at the bachelors degree in food science

It breaks my heart that someone has died. Any updates?

Anyone have any info on the police activity?

I was wondering if joining the Honors program is worth it. My gpa is higher than the required gpa for Honors but I’m not sure if this will benefit me. I’m trying to transfer and I’m thinking about my grades and outside of class work. I just want to have the highest chance of getting in to another university

So I am transferring to CSU in January and I applied for student housing in August as it opened. I still have not heard anything back though. Is this normal or is it time to start asking for my deposit back?

Edit: I called and spring semester isn't notified of housing till thanks giving break :/