Why CSU for Colorado Residents?

At CSU, my pronouns are he him in his, and I am a Colorado resident, and I kind of have an interesting journey into CSU, and I'll share a little bit about that. But before we get started, I want to make sure everyone can hear me and everyone can see me. So if you're tuning into the web and R, can you post a little message in the chat, just letting me know that they can see and hear me. And if you want it, include what city you're coming in front. So I'm originally from Colorado Springs, Co. My parents still live there. I grew up in car.

Colorado Springs Uhm, and now I live in Loveland, which if you're not familiar with just a little bit South of Fort Collins, someones from Longmont. Hello from long Mont. I'm guessing that means you can hear and see me from long Mont. Welcome welcome, so hello. Hello Emma from Aurora. So here's how today is going to get started. I'm going to talk a little bit about CSU and then we're going to talk a little bit more about some of the opportunities that we have. Really though, what I want to do is also share a little bit of my story of how I chose CSU and some of the things that went into that.

So I say hello from Colorado Springs. Hello, I see someone from Littleton from Arvada, another person from Littleton that's kind of cool alright. You also a couple of things. Just housekeeping wise I'm going to go through the whole presentation. I'm going to ask that you save your questions to the end just because I can't present an answer questions in real time. It can't do both. Also everyone is on the Internet right now. So if for some reason My Internet cuts out, just let me know and I'll go ahead and restart.

We also have some from Pueblo, another person from Littleton and Highlands Ranch. Alright, so let's start a little bit talking about Fort Collins. So for columns is the 4th largest city in the state of Colorado. We are frequently called a college town and we live up to it in certain aspects. So for example, we have over 600 restaurants here in Fort Collins. We also have a couple of traditions that I think are really cool. We have an annual tradition called the tour decor guy. It is really just a giant parade.

Of corny dogs in cute costumes it subjectively wonderful. We also still have a drive in movie theater here in Fort Collins, which I really like and like many cities in Colorado we enjoy 300 days of sunshine. It's one of my favorite things. You know. I originally came from Colorado Springs, and while I was expecting somewhat similar, I found Fort Collins to have more of a small town feel, but that makes sense. Coming from a biggercity and I found job opportunities, I really didn't think there was much.

In Fort Collins beyond CSU, that's an assumption that I made it wasn't until after graduating that I found many career opportunities, not just for me, but for my friends too. So you'll see that on this slide that OtterBox that we are have the auto box headquarters here in Fort Collins, Hewlett, Packer, HP, they have a campus here in Fort Collins in the Northern Colorado area, though the biggest employer is UC health. So if you're interested in a medical route, that's pretty important.

But let's talk about sees you as a whole, just to make sure we're on the same page. We have 8 academic colleges which houses are 74 academic majors. Now if you're not familiar with the terminology students and academic college is very similar to a Hogwarts house. In Harry Potter, I mean that literally, in that CC would be hog words in that the house is underneath. It would be our colleges are academic colleges and then we have 74 majors underneath that. Now we are.

Ranked number one best four year College in Colorado. We also received a stars platinum rating for sustainability. What's cool about that? As other institutions in the world have received that we're the only institution to receive it 3 times, so that's pretty unique. But I like talking about rankings when we're talking about the college search, because that was really a forefront thought in my mind. I'm pretty comfortable in sharing that. I thought CSU had this. It's a state school.

And therefore it won't be academically challenging for me. I think to me that was an assumption I made. And yes, we are Colorado State University. One of the things that I found is challenge in everywhere I looked in, not in a way that it was obstacles on obstacles, but I felt that CSU really believed in me an had opportunities for me to grow. I like to tell people that CSU does 360 degrees of development for a student.

Meaning that you're not just being developed from your faculty members in the classroom, but even the jobs you have on campus can work to provide you with professional development. For example, in our office, we hire student ambassadors to give 2 words right. One of the things that we do is we make sure that they're trained and we give them skills on public speaking customer service. That's what I mean when we start to think about how do we ingrain that now coming from Colorado Springs? To me it was just enough of a distance to get away.

And also I still could have my family nearby. I also love this state, so to me it was really important to me. I love I love it here. I really do, but I think it's important that we also talk about money. I applied to several out of state schools really just thinking that that would be an option for me. And then as soon as I heard back with my acceptance letter and then followed by the cost of attendance. That for me sort of sealed the decision. I got into 2 Colorado Schools, Colorado State University and University of Colorado Boulder.

Right, our rival. Both schools are great. I'm not going to sway you one way or the other. I think both schools in Colorado are really phenomenal for me is just about fit right? I went on a tour. I really love the scenery. I love the people I was meeting. I love the opportunities that I had an for me it was affordable and it's not just affordable. I want people to be able to hold both right. While CSU does have an affordable option, it's also a Premier institution and you're getting a really high quality education.

There are so many traditions here at CSU. My favorite though is Cam the Ram if you ever have an opportunity to check it out. It's really fun. He comes to all the football games, will run across the end zone when we score a touchdown, and when you graduate you can actually take a picture with him in his regalia, which is pretty unique now. CSU has a love of many animals. Many people do know about our veterinary program which is very very good. what I like telling folks is that anytime my mom, my dad or I take any of our numerous dogs.

Into a vet. They almost are always a CSU grad, which is something that's kind of cool. I like connecting with an alumni, even if it's for like a routine check up for my pup.

Now let's talk about the classroom experience. Because CSU is big, CC was a large institution. We have 28,000 undergraduate students and I don't like to hide this number from folks. But I do like to put that number in context. what I mean by that is, look at our student body 28,000 Undergrads and then look at our faculty ratio. So we still maintain a 19 to one student to faculty ratio. If you were going to be interested in any stem major.

So stem science technology engineering mathematics right. We have really small labs, so we actually have an average about 20 students an if you're interested in anything in the medical field, you should know that we do have a human cadaver lab on campus. What's really cool is, well, let's back up. I don't want to assume that everyone knows what I know, right? So what cadaver is a body that is donated for the purpose of scientific study? And we have an anatomy lab where you will actually get to work on human cadavers.

If you work in your in that major, my wife studied Biomedical Sciences and that was one of her favorite classes. She would come back always smelling like from aldehyde. For me. This is like the grossest thing I could ever talk about. I have no interest in ever visiting or touring. The one thing I think is so cool is our ratio. We have one of the best ratios in the country for this. We have four students to one cadaver, right? So you're going to have hands-on opportunities now. Are there large lecture halls here at CSU? Yes.

But what happens with students is that these usually happen in that first or second semester, and then as you work into your major, they get much smaller. So my major at CSU was political science and I also had a few opportunities to take some additional classes for a minor, and in those classes, never more than 20 to 30 people, I knew who my faculty were. They checked in on me if they ever notice, I was struggling, I could go to them. They nominated me for an internship, which is the really unique opportunity.

I love that part about CSU. Is that our faculty are not just invested in how you're doing in their classroom. They're also making sure that your future beyond this experience is set up for success.

So let's look at the overall student body. So 69% of our student body is from the state of Colorado, right? Again, being a land grant state in.

To Touchen 21% of our student body is 1st Gen, meaning that they are the first in their family to go and get a bachelors degree and all 50 states are represented here in our campus which is pretty cool. Now I see that show up the most in your residence Hall, which is why I really liked living in one because I got to meet and interact with people from all different walks of life, even different in regards to Colorado. Like I mentioned, I went to Colorado. I'm from Colorado Springs. I went to Rampart High School Which.

Who has like 1600 students? There were people from different parts of the state who graduated with the class SO4, right? So it's very different and I really like the opportunity to learn from peers who have different experiences in me. I think it's a really cool way to learn about the world.

But we also know that coming to college can be hard even if you're from Colorado, right? Maybe this is your first time sharing a room with someone. Or maybe this is your first time on your own, or you have to balance multiple priorities. We make sure that we support students in a variety of ways. The one that I use properly the most is tutoring programs, so I didn't start as a political science major. I actually came in as a veterinary student. I thought I was going to be a vet.

My first year chemistry had other plans and I realized quickly that I was not doing as well as I had hoped in that class tutoring programs for me provided the opportunity to really slow down an unpack the material, and even though my career plans changed, I'm really grateful that I had the opportunity to work with a tutor once a week to make sure I was doing well and it costs mean $0.00. I didn't have to pay for this tutor, it was all included in part of being a student.

And then on the other side of this slide we have enrichment. How do you get the most out of this experience? One of the things that I like talking about the most to students is education abroad. An semester at sea. So education abroad is a really unique opportunity. I love our education abroad office because rather than searching for one country, you actually search by major. So you go on our education abroad site and you say, OK, I'm studying engineering, mechanical engineering or.

Anthropology and it will list the 10:00 or so different countries in universities across the world where you could do that into me. That gives you a lot more of an option, an understanding of how far you can really travel an still work towards your degree. Now semester at sea is a little different. If you've ever seen the show. The suite life on deck with Zack and Cody. It's just like that where you get to travel on board a decommissioned cruise ship while you're taking classes. I think the voyages that they typically go on our I think 100 days.

10 countries in five continents, so it's pretty immersive, so it's opportunities like that that are available to you all as students, and this is again another example of what I was talking about. 360 degrees of development for your student, right? You're going to have these opportunities to study in another country. And what does that look like, and what does that other culture mean? And what if it's a different language? Those are going to be providing you significant development in that I think that's so beneficial not just for you as a person, but also to employers.

Right, we're thinking about those things. What does it mean to be a graduate of Colorado State University? And that's something that we've looked at more. Some hard figures. 85% of our grads are employed in a field related to their career plans and over the last three years we've looked at the starting salary for CSU grads and on average, it's been 51,000. We have 1700 unique employers. One of my favorite things that I like talking about is in Colorado. We have a humongous

Alumni base which is really exciting, so a lot of employers will work with our Career Center to hold what we call job fairs and opportunities to find internships. And 88% of our grads said that if they could choose CSU all over again, they would. So as I wrap up this presentation really, what I want you all to take into consideration is that going to Colorado State University as a Colorado resident can bring so much benefit to you.

Right, it's not just that it's an in state school, it's more affordable. That was definitely my story, right? But it's an option for you to get a really quality education with a variety of majors supported by many staff and faculty who want the best for you. I don't say this just as an admissions counselor because they pay me, right? I have not just one degree but two from Colorado State. My wife is also an alumni in. She is also from Cala Rado. She is from Lakewood, originally.

So we were both a family of ram grad, so we love this University. But you've heard enough of my story. I want to give some opportunity now for you to ask any questions that you have. So if you have questions just about anything that we covered or not, you know I'm an admissions counselor. I can also handle some questions about everything else. Post those in the chat and I'll get to them as soon as they come in. So again, just start writing your questions in the chat, and as soon as they pop up, I'll try and get them.

Responding in the meantime, I'm also going to post my contact information in the chat so again. My name is David for re and you can reach me at david.foreacolostate.edu in case you want to reach out OK first question.

Do CSU undergrads go to highly competitive graduate schools and what are the rates that's a good question. But it's really specific to the major an grad school that you're wanting to go to. I think sometimes, this question is asked in the context of medical school placement? what I would actually encourage you to do is reach out to our pre health advising office. They actually work with students to get into certain medical schools. The one thing that I think about a lot for Aurilia Medical School or a law school placement.

Right, it doesn't matter just where you went to school. It's all see what you did there. what I mean by that is what internships did you do? If it's medical, how many hours did you shadow? If it's a law of your pre law, how did you do on your else at? How did you do an involvement right? There are so many things that go into a graduate student being accepted beyond just the name on top of their degree, so that's a good question.

What other questions can I help folks answer today? If there's no more, that's OK and we can wrap up. You can also always send me an email if you do have any other questions that you want to ask, but in the mean time, feel free to put them in the chat. You all I do. Thank you so much for for coming in and tuning into my presentation and I hope it was valuable for you and got a little time to share and hear my story again. If there is no more questions, I want to give one last chance.

So maybe if you're typing out a question, but it's not ready yet. Oh oh, this one is a great question. What are your favorite places to go off campus in Fort Collins? OK, so this is tricky because it depends on what I'm doing. If I'm eating the best place that for me is cafe Mexicali. Cafe Mexicali is really good. Is this burrito spot and it's so good. So for food cafe Max, if I'm hiking or wanting to just go outdoors, Horsetooth Reservoir has.

Millions and millions of hiking trails and it's really really pretty. If you ever get a chance to go to Horsetooth Rock and the drive in movie theater, that's really cool.

What do you do for as far as SAT scores? Good question. So we don't actually have a minimum SAT score. We have an average on average. A CSU student is coming in between 1100 to a 1300, but remember that is just one part of your application, right? We're also looking at your letter of rec. We're looking at your personal statement. All of that matters, and we super score. Super scoring means that we take the highest subjects core of an exam anri recombine, and you average.

What do emissions cancers look for when offering scholarships to in state students? That's a good question. So there are two types of scholarships in terms of categories. There's Merit Merit is based off of GPA and Test score. So in terms of scholarships for those, it's just those two things. But the other thing is the CSU scholarship application. That is where you can apply for scholarships directly related to your major. Now you should be applying for that every single year as a ram.

Not all Rams do that. I think you should. I think it's an opportunity. Any application for a scholarship. what I tell students is don't just write that you want the money, but really tell us why CSU, what about your goals and how to CSU relate to those right connected to a bigger Y. That is my best advice for scholarships.

What is the best dining Hall?

OK, I I love Durell but I also lived in Durwood so this is another interesting part of my story. I lived in Durward which is one of the towers and I actually lived in there all four years because I was a resident assistant my three years. So my first year I lived there as a resident and then years 2, three and four. I was in RA&RA helps new students transition to the University and it pays free room and board. That's absolutely why applied. I stayed because I loved it and love that I did but that's why I applied.

So to me Derell.

Find the best dining center. But again, I'm bias.

What does dorm life look like? Water residence halls known for you know it. It's interesting. I think to me residence really shape the community of those halls it it changes every year. My biggest piece of advice for students living in the residence halls is ask yourself what do I want to do I want to meet folks because if you get a bucket of like candy and you go around knocking on every door, you will meet 30 friends. But another really easy way is just to keep your door open.

I think a lot of students want to meet other people in an open door. For me when I was a first year student metarea, I want to talk with that person. So to me the communities are really shaped by the opportunity for you to meet other people.

What GPA do you look for? Another good question. On average we had between a 3.3 and a 4.0 we take weighted GPA's into account as well. One of the things that I would look at is we don't just look at the number. We're also looking at what you've done in terms of what classes you've taken. So have you done any honors or AP or IB or dual enrollment? Dual enrollment is a great opportunity for you all to earn some college credit and Colorado has a really unique program where if you take college classes.

At an accredited University during high school, those are going to come over, so take advantage of that.

What percentage of the University participates in Greek life? 13%. Actually, I believe is the exact number. I actually joined a fraternity in when I was a junior at CSU. I loved it. We didn't have a house. It is nothing like the movies. It's really actually a lot of meetings in a lot of philanthropy and a lot of event planning, which I left. I love hanging out. My brothers. We actually during this quarantine time have about every two week trivia night just so we can connect with each other.

After every chapter meeting a handful of us would then go to the library and do homework together. So to me I love that shared sense of community.

How is the religious community? I'm Jewish and I wanna make sure I can meet other Jews. Great question to me this is a great opportunity to plug the amount of student orgs that we have so we have a lot of students who are spiritual an faith seeking here at CSU, I would encourage you to look into those organizations during your first week or two of each semester, fall and spring. There's actually going to be an involvement fair where many organizations will show and say, Hey, here's how you get involved so.

That's definitely what I would say.

How will admissions be considering grades from second semester? Do too many schools being passed fail because of COVID-19? Another good question we are going to navigate that as best as we can on case by case we know that some senior so if you're done emitted student who is getting a pass fail, we will take your grades. I think it's going to be a little tricky once we get into GPS, but that is not in yet decided so if you are getting a pass fail, do not worry, it is not going to hurt your chances.

Because we all know, because every single student who is applying is going to have a little bit of a different circumstance around the spring of 2020, right? We know that. So it's all going to depend on those things.

What kind of activities are around campus clubs activities, volunteer groups, tons? I mean we have over 600 student clubs and organizations. To me, big traditions is going to all the athletic events. As a student, your student ID that you get that gets you into all of the sporting events. But also there is lots of traditions here. So every year before we play see you in our football game. We do this thing called Grill. The Buffs you could join a fraternity or sorority.

There's also clubs just for things that are fun like CSU are not see like there's my favorite one which is fans of North Dakota just people from North Dakota or not who are just big fans of that state so tons and tons of activities.

How likely do you think that CSU will go online in the fall? Who knows. I wish I had an answer only because I think every admissions counselor is getting this question. I'll I know is that to refer back to our admissions page as soon as we hear what the University is deciding, it's going to be released in many, many media. Whether that's email, letters, etc. So just keep checking our website. I wish I had a better answer for you, but unfortunately that's the best I can provide right now.

What set students apart when admitting them to the school? This is a good question. Your personal statement, that is your chance to tell us who you are. I can see what your transcript is. I can see your test scores. I can't see you and I need you to be able to tell us who are you and what is important in in why I think to me that makes the biggest difference. I think some students underestimate just how impactful that personal statement can be. I mean it when I say I've seen students be admitted who were previously going to be denied.

Um?

Based on that personal statement, so absolutely what does diversity look like at CSU? I want to be able to meet people from other cultures. You know, it depends on how we're defining diversity. I think that's important if we're talking about racial diversity, I think Colorado State University mirrors Colorado right where a majority of our students do identify as white, and I think in the past couple slides. So yeah, right here. So 22% of our student body identifies as students of color. I think it depends on what you're looking for, but if you're wanting to learn.

About other cultures, one educational broad but also we have Seven student diversity in programs and services that do tons of programs on campus. A couple of the offices that I just mentioned. So the black and African-American Cultural Center El Centro, the Asian Pacific American Cultural Center. Now those are great things that you can be a part of and learn and join. So tons. I think there's tons of opportunities.

Do I think CS will be hosting any on campus tours in the fall? what I can say Emma is that if the University is open for the follow residentially, we will also be open for tours. I know we have a couple of things on our website where you can meet with a counselor just like me. Or you can chat with one of our students, one on one and you don't have to be an admitted student to do that. You can be anywhere in the process, even if you're just looking, but hopefully hopefully we will be able to have tours again, 'cause That's one of my favorite.

Uh, spots in being a counselor.

Do you prefer the applications from the common app or the specific one on the University website? No preference if the common app is what you want to do, do it. what I do tell students using the common app is that remember because you're sending that to all universities. Take your time and really a lot some time to do it because there's a lot of info, just background info that you need to fill out. So just take your time and get started early. If you're doing the common app, but also remember if you're a junior this year, we had Colorado free app day.

And we're going to be having Colorado free update again that will be happening in October where you can submit an application to CSU for free. So keep your eyes out for that.

Who you are have been asking great questions. If there's anymore again, put them in the chat. If not again, please reach out to me my email and I'll put it in the chat once more, just because I obviously am so great. I'm just kidding. I'm just trying to be helpful so david.forrealpolostate.edu is a great way to get in touch with me. I'm pretty quick with email so if you want to chat more just let me know. Or if you're from Colorado Springs just because I love connecting with people from the Springs, you all are wonderful. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Another question, do you look at senior year grades and classes? Haley? Good question. Yes we do. We look at all of the grades that are on the transcript, but also there's a part of the application where you're going to actually have to list what classes you're taking and this can be a big difference, right? Because if you're taking AP, those are going to show up.

And it makes a difference too. So yes, we do look at grades from your senior year. Awesome, alright, I'm going to wait. Maybe just one or two more minutes to see if there are any other questions.

Other than that again shoot me an email learn about my favorite things about CSU or Fort Collins the best pizza place in Fort Collins is crazy carls they're not paying me to say that just a fan Oh someone said thank you thank you thanks for tuning in I really appreciate you all being willing to do that I hope this was helpful just because you know we're trying to make sure we try and get information to you all that's going to be relevant so I appreciate that thank you very much alright thank you again.

Man, you are so kind. Thank you. Um, I'm gonna head off but thank you so much for tuning in your most welcome and again reach out email me. I would love to connect alright stay safe everyone an most importantly go Rams alright bye for now. Be well.