Sheila Wall

Review of CU Independent

All four of us siblings graduated from Boulder in ...

All four of us siblings graduated from Boulder in the seventies and eighties. One sister went to the law school and did very well as a patent attorney--but she is a scientist as well. Her major was Molecular, Cellular, Developmental Biology. She is looking at Boulder for her son, now, and we were discussing how lonely and impersonal that very large campus can be.

Probably because of that, I sent one of my children to Xavier University, a Jesuit University in Cincinnati, and he did very well there--it is small (about 6,000 students) personal and was set up to address his learning issues. Although he is dyslexic, he majored in Japanese and Asian Studies. He taught English in Japan for a year. He is now working in hotels hoping to be a GM of a large hotel someday.

My daughter went to Boston University though she looked at CU and DU. BU is a huge university, but unlike Boulder, Arts and Sciences admits about 6000 students. So she had the big school atmosphere in the exciting city of Boston, but her college was far more personal and accessible than CU. She did very well there. Her degree was in environmental policy and she got a job right away with the Army Corps of Engineers. She worked there for a year, but hated it so much, that she started experimenting with making liquor. Through some contacts she formed, she found a job in a "craft distillery" in NC, and now she makes whiskey all day. Loves it. Makes money.

I also graduated from Boulder from MCDB and went to medical school. It was an experience I would not repeat. The third sibling graduated from Electrical Engineering and worked for the FAA until he retired. The fourth would say nothing that I could write down about her Boulder experience-- she was a party animal, flunked out and was angry at all of the remedial work she had to do.

Boulder is a beautiful town but downtown Pearl Street looks exactly like it did in 1968 when as high school students we used to sneak up there to be cool.

So, if you're the kind of person who is a self-starter, doesn't mind loneliness, is able to join groups or sororities or fraternities in order to be less alone, you'll probably like the "wide open spaces" of Boulder. If you are self-disciplined you will use the excellent academics well. If you are not, you will be sucked into the party circuit and be lost to the world (not a joke).If you have any kind of learning issues--learning disabilities, Boulder is not for you. Try the University of Arizona at Tempe. If you'll need a lot of assistance at first, look at the College of Mt. St. Joe in Cincinnati, It sure isn't Boulder, but it will help you transition to college.