Moving to CO in a month, but what city... (Denver: apartment, foreclosure)

[digitalcyn]

Hi, I have been reading the CO forums for some time and have gotten some great info. I am still in need of some advice, though!

My husband is in the Air force, going into the Reserves May 1. He has a BS in Mathematics and a Top Secret Security Clearance. I have a BS in Computer Science. Where should we go? Colorado Springs seems like our best bet for employment, but dh has hopes of going to school for physics in the near future so a good Uni offering that needs to be near by.

His Reserve duty will be at Buckley so we need to live within 200 miles of there. We both are partial to Fort Collins, but we haven't been anywhere else in CO. We want to live in a charming, artsy area. We are each 28 and have no children. We will be renting for at least a year and have 3 pets. Thanks in advance!

[aushco]

Fort Collins or Loveland even Berthoud CO. Check out Lyons . Stay away from Greeley Co. It has UNC but the neighborhoods there are awful. Weld County has #1 foreclosure rate. People rather leave their homes than stay! It a dump!!!! Stay west of the I25

[Katarina Witt]

If he wants a PhD in physics, he might as well go for the big one, CU. You could like anywhere in the north metro area.

[Bradburn1]

Fort Collins is nice, but is a bit small, and jobs are a lot more limited than what you will find in the Denver metro area (this seems to be the #1 complaint of people, and it's why my family moved to Denver from Fort Collins). Colorado State does have a good phyisics department, and it's a lovely university (I went for my Master's and worked there after). If you are looking for a more "arty" area, look around downtown Fort Collins, that area is great.

Since you are IT, you may have more luck jobwise looking between Boulder and Denver (University of Colorado in Boulder also has excellent physics program), look in Broomfield, Westminster, Lafayette and check Louisville that has a fun little downtown area. As far as "arty" Boulder is a very good choice but it is very, very expensive. There are actually quite a lot of jobs in Denver for those with your husband's background, perhaps even more than you might find in The Springs. I would check out jobs first for both of you and let that guide where you live, because there are a lot of choices in Colorado for you.

[onthamove]

yooo u cant go wrong in colorful colorado, do you like skiin or boardin? if so u may wanna live close to i70, also i am grateful to ppl such as your husband for serving our country, good luck in colorado

[SheridanL]

HMM..artsy and a physics degree?.....

I'd have to vote for Golden....they have the Colorado School Of Mines.

[tfox]

If you're going to go to grad school, I say you have to pick the school first, then choose where to live.

School of Mines would be an excellent choice, but it's probably also the most selective of Colorado's public higher education. Definitely apply there, though -- as their program is nationally recognized. It's also a very small school compared to the other state universities, which I think has some advantages, though it may not have some of the research opportunities of CU-Boulder. While somewhat secluded behind the Table Mountains, it's actually just a few miles from the metro area and so very commutable to jobs in either Denver or Boulder.

CU-Boulder is probably next in order of both selectivity and reputation. The big advantage there would be the school's world class research, plus a good number of technical jobs locally in government labs and in industry. Boulder is expensive, however, so you'd probably have to live the "poor student" life and live in an apartment there. You can commute to Boulder from surrounding towns like Longmont, Louisville, Superior, Lafayette, Broomfield, however -- but there's thousands of others making that same commute so beware of traffic.

CSU is probably your next bet. It's well-thought-of in technical subjects but not at the level of Mines or CU-Boulder, but still is respectable. Fort Collins area does have some technica/reasearch jobs but options are somewhat limited compared to the Denver/Boulder area.

Next option would be CU-Denver and UCCS (in Colorado Springs). Both are part of the CU system, but I can't speak to their physics programs. I think both would be reasonably good choices as well, but probably heavier on nontraditional students.