whats the deal with UCCS (Fort Collins, Boulder: dorms, transfer, neighborhoods)

[Reed9874]

thinkin bout goin to UCCS. hows their teacher program? how do they compare with the notorious CU Boulder/CSU Fort Collins?
Im gonna be living off campus, but I dont wanna feel like the only person there whos not living in the dorms.
How generous are they with financial aid?

[Postal]

I'll piggy-back on his question. How good is UCCS with working people (night classes, online, etc.)? I've heard some stories about their absence policies screwing people over and it almost sounds like they have a hatred for anyone other than the traditional student. If I go, it will probably be for a master's in computer engineer or science.

Just would like some real experience to compare with CTU.

[FungiGuy]

I attended UCCS for the first three years of my undergrad. (I transferred because they didn't have the major I wanted.) Now first off I should say that this was from 1999-2002 so it was a while ago, but I still have connections to the area. UCCS was a pretty good experience. When I was there it was definitely a commuter campus, with most the students being originally from the area. I think the year I started there was the second year that they had dorms on campus. Since then they've built more dorms but I don't think you will feel like the only person not living in dorms; I know many students live off campus. However, when I was there the problem with UCCS kind of lied in the fact that no one lived on campus. Given that many people lived off campus, and since the campus is kind of out by itself on the north side of town there wasn't a whole lot going on on campus. Basically, there are residential neighborhoods to the south of campus and wilderness to the north. However, in the past couple of years the university has grown and students have got more active as far as campus activities. I know bands play on campus, there is an art gallery that frequently gets some pretty good exhibits and so on. If sports is your thing, well...you should probably go to Boulder.

And that's the thing- Boulder (Ft. Collins) this is not, not even close, but it's still a pretty good school. In fact, I was surprised at the quality of the faculty. I don't know about the teaching program personally but overall I had very good professors and a very good and well-rounded academic experience. Also, C Springs is a good town, if you're a fundy you can go to New Life or Focus, but if not there are a lot of other things going on, which kind of counteract that extreme conservatism.

In response to Postal: I remember there being a good number of non-traditional students, but as I was 19 at the time I really didn't have much to do with them so I'm not sure of their experience. It looks like you are in C Springs so maybe you know more than me, but as I said before, back in the day it seemed that the university was mainly focused on people living in the area, so I would think they have some ok non-traditional programs, but maybe this has changed. I'm not sure.

[Reed9874]

hows the biology program?