Founded in 1870, Colorado State University was founded as Colorado’s first land-grant college, in Fort Collins, CO. The college has an excellent relationship with its hometown of about 150,000 residents, which is about an hour north of Denver. With 22,000 undergraduates and an additional 5,000 graduate students, you wouldn’t expect the student-to-faculty ratio to be as low as it is: 18-to-1. Some introductory courses to be large, up to 300 students in a lecture hall, but over 70% of the classes have fewer than 30 students.
CSU has a top 100-ranked business program, the number 3 pre-veterinary program in the nation and one of the top landscape architecture programs. There are core curriculum requirements, plus each college (there are 8 undergraduate colleges, including business, engineering, liberal arts and more – listed here) has its own requirements as well. The strongest programs are pre-vet, biomedical science, business, engineering, health & exercise science. Colorado State University also have very strong visual and performing arts programs.
In two separate tours, we’ve had tour guides who were a Business and History double major and a Chemical and Mechanical engineering double major. Colorado State offers co-op opportunities for students to obtain real work experience, making them more marketable when they graduate.
The sports teams are Division I and school spirit is high. Housing is required for the first year; there are 16 residence halls in a variety of dorm options—from traditional to suites to double with private bath, as well as 13 living/learning communities. Colorado State has an amazing student recreation center with an immense climbing/bouldering wall – this reflects Colorado’s strong influence as an outdoor sports state (there are also 315 + miles of bike routes/trails on campus).
Among the hundreds of options for study abroad is the Semester at Sea experience, in which 400 Colorado State University students and 100 faculty spend a semester at sea, going from port to port and learning about the locations they visit. CSU also provides many research opportunities for students to work with professors on campus, and has resources and programs for students with learning disabilities. Student mental health/wellness is important on this campus, and students are provided with free counseling as needed.
About a quarter of the students are non-Coloradans, and the WUE rate does apply with most majors, for California students. CSU also offers merit scholarships to out-of-state students.
The campus of Colorado State is beautiful—well laid out with clusters of dorms built around outdoor spaces for relaxation and congregating, plenty of green space, trees, etc. Most of the architecture (except for the original buildings) are either midcentury modern (e.g. Engineering) or contemporary. Many make use of local rock materials.
You can scroll through all of the photos from our 2012 and 2017 visits to Colorado State University below.