Open Question: Colorado School of Mines vs. University of Kansas?

7 February 2012, 5:27 pm

Hey all. My name is Lauren and I am a senior this year. College has been a stressful thing and even now that i'm in places, it only seems to have gotten even worse. I have painfully managed to narrow my list, but unfortunately I am still stuck between two schools: Colorado School of Mines and the University of Kansas. My plan is to major in Chemical Engineering with a minor in Finance. So my question to you is, which school would you choose? I know that the engineering department at Mines is ranked higher than at KU, and while that is important, it's not everything. And before anyone comments saying, "you have to make the decision yourself," I know that. I don't want anyone here to think I'm going to pick one over the other simply based on random people's answers. This is only to see if there are pro's and con's to either school that I am missing. Here's what I have so far: KU Pro's: -At least 10 people from my high school will be going there, one being my best friend. -Big school (so sports are a big thing--I can go watch a football or basketball game on the weekend) -Just far enough away from home for me -45 minutes away from Kansas City KU Con's: -Big school (i'm more of a number here) -Engineering department is big so the classes will still be large -Ranked lower than the engineering department at Mines (but still ranked, nonetheless) -More opportunities to get mixed up in sketchy things -Because classes are so big, sometimes labs can be taught by T.A's CSM Pro's: -Small school -In the middle of Golden where you can hike and bike and go skiing (basically I can be active all year long) -After visiting the school and talking to one of the ChemE teachers, I found out that she knows all the names of the kids in her classes--so teachers know me as a person. -Only one other person from my high school that I know of is actually going to go here. That I know of. -Campus is small so you can walk to every class easily -Denver is 20 minutes away -Family in Denver -90% (or something like that) of CSM teachers have PhD's--no T.A.'s teaching classes CSM Con's: -Small school--everyone knows everyone (as you can see, size isn't really a huge factor for me, but I felt it should be included here anyways) -Even though the school is smaller than KU, there are still as many kids in each class. This is because Mines is mostly engineering students, so even though there are less kids, all of them are taking the same classes. BUT, the teachers still know who you are. Most of the time. -Since everyone at Mines is so focused, I don't know how many opportunities there would be to go out and party (don't think I'm a huge party animal or anything, but I do like to actually DO things on the weekend.) So anyways, that's all I can think of right now. Tuition for both for me is about the same since I have gotten scholarships to both. Ironically, the difference between the two scholarships is about $300... so that doesn't help too much. Anyways, like I said, I don't plan to decide based on the feedback here, but I would like a fresh, objective outlook on the situation. Everyone I have asked (family, friends, teachers, etc.) have been biased in some way or another, so getting an opinion from someone who doesn't know me would be great. Thanks for taking the time to read this! I forgot to mention, but these are not my only two options, but rather my top two. I am also considering Purdue and the University of Tulsa. So if you have any opinions about those schools as well, let me know! I haven't visited Purdue yet so I couldn't say with certainty it is somewhere that I would want to be. TU is about five minutes from my house, but that is the only real "con" to the school. Thanks again!... Read More »

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