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I attended University of Colorado Boulder as a music student, and while I can recognize that certain programs — especially engineering — have a very strong reputation, my personal experience at the school was not particularly positive. The campus itself is beautiful, and there are definitely opportunities available for students who fit the culture and social environment there. However, I found the overall atmosphere to be difficult to connect with, and at times it felt more focused on lifestyle and... Read More image than on fostering a supportive or grounded academic community.

As someone studying music, I didn’t feel especially encouraged or fulfilled by the environment, and socially it just wasn’t the right fit for me. I think CU Boulder can work very well for certain personalities and career paths, particularly in engineering or outdoor-oriented student life, but it’s important for prospective students to understand that the school’s vibe is very specific and absolutely not for everyone.

Overall, I enjoyed my time at CU Boulder, but it had its flaws. The location could not be more beautiful with the flatirons visible from most areas and campus itself with its unique architecture. The professors are capable and the class selection is interesting. There is a rather limited selection of minors available compared to other schools, though. Regional bus passes and Bcycle access are included in tuition which further enhanced what is already an amazing public transportation experience. The... Read More food halls aren't amazing but they're more than edible. There are so many resources and events and opportunities for students to thrive. That being said, the campus is probably 90% white at least and diversity within the student body and faculty is severely lacking. Finding genuine people in Boulder can be very difficult because the town exists within its own idyllic little bubble of wealth and health and pridefully environmentally conscious people.

Graduated from University of Colorado Boulder in 2022. Overall, I had a good experience. The campus is genuinely beautiful, with stunning buildings and mountain views, and it always felt very safe walking around at any time of day.
That said, it is definitely a very liberal and socially driven environment, and in my opinion there is often more emphasis on social culture than academics. It’s also extremely expensive, which can be hard to justify depending on your priorities.
On the positive side, there... Read More are tons of clubs, events, and opportunities to get involved, and the dining halls are honestly some of the best I’ve seen at any college. The student body tends to be very wealthy, which can be a bit of a culture shock if you didn’t grow up that way, but overall it was still a valuable experience.

CU Boulder provided solid technical foundations through diverse, hands-on projects spanning data mining, mobile development, and web applications. The curriculum emphasized real-world problem-solving and collaborative teamwork. However, the academic journey appeared challenging. Despite this, the program successfully equipped students with practical CS skills, strong GitHub portfolio work, and experience tackling complex problems—from accessibility-focused apps to data analysis projects that translate... Read More well to industry careers within data analytics.

As a student at CU Boulder, I really appreciated the vibrant campus life and stunning location at the base of the Rockies. The professors are engaging and genuinely care about students’ success, and there’s a strong sense of community. I enjoyed the variety of clubs, outdoor activities, and cultural events that make balancing academics and personal growth easy. While some classes could be challenging, the supportive resources and collaborative environment helped me feel motivated and connected. Overall,... Read More CU Boulder offers a dynamic mix of rigorous academics and enriching experiences that made my time here rewarding.

CU Boulder while reputable for sciences and engineering falls short for business degree students. This school is largely pretentious, expensive, and inflexible. Their MBA program is trying too hard to be a top 10 level school when it's top 100 at best. The Leeds School of Business behind closed doors is struggling to determine what its curriculum should be to position students well. My class in 2019 had a near 100% fail rate for some exams in a class titled "Data and Decisions"--after a 4 day crash... Read More course on fundamental statistics that was supposed to prepare us for top level business management. Leeds doesn't equip students with resources to land jobs. They market their program as "the Green MBA" pushing jobs in sustainability. This is a complete joke. The only real value is the job boards that one can easily find on their one. The curriculum and the aim in finding a job in sustainability is very much a build-your-own-adventure with little direction provided by the faculty or staff. As for alumni? Don't count on great alumni engagement post graduation unless it involves asking you for donations for their already overpriced tuition. Their staff won't help you find jobs if you find yourself unemployed. In fact, they'll probably disable your colorado.edu email without giving you any forewarning (this happened to me recently). Their customer service is weak--a friend of mine in the program who lost his home in the Marshall Fire requested to have his diploma replaced. Instead of offering basic condolences, they said they would replace the diploma for a standard cost of $50. Most decent businesses would have waived this cost considering the tragedy of the Marshall Fire hit so close to home for CO residents. The Deming Center for entrepreneurship? Also a joke full of staff who gloat about "knowing every business owner in the area" and then proceed to never connect you with anyone. I landed a prestigious internship at Tesla--a place no Leeds student had ever been able land a job and had 8,000 applicants--that required me to take a leave of absence. Instead of being excited for opportunities for me as a student and for the future of their alumni network, they forced me to take a full year leave of absence, took away my scholarships and fellowship, and generally made the entire process for getting readmitted as difficult and expensive as they could make it. There was no room for flexibility. What's more? They were still sending students my way asking me to support referrals and letters of recommendation to help their network at Tesla. At best, CU Boulder's business school is an overpriced money pit that races through coursework and leaves students floundering to figure out their own path to success. They're at least 10 years behind in valuable curriculum that's applicable to real world business ventures. Save yourself a lot of wasted time and energy and avoid this business school.

I'm a parent who attended CU and made the mistake of sending one of my kids to the school (2021). Over the years it's become a very poorly managed, third-rate educational institution. Professors don't teach the courses; they instead use third rate hack $50K a year Teaching Assistants who often times don't even have their PhD's in the topic they're overseeing (teaching wouldn't be the appropriate term) - this is how they save money on your over-inflated tuition dime. Most of the courses are taught... Read More by Zoom call (essentially a poor man's online course), and their administration has no control over the functioning of the University - they're a completely unorganized train wreck. The Teaching Assistants don't have to have a spine and speak to the tuition paying students, after all, a Zoom call that is poorly executed or was recorded 4 years ago should be sufficient. They hide behind these ridiculous processes like pathetic cowards, not educators. They don't have any accountability to the students and rarely if ever respond when a student requests help - these types of processes remove all accountability from the make-believe educators and pave the way for the worst teaching skill sets available. Most of them don't even report to the University, they work from home full-time so they're not even at the University to teach an in-person course. So why would a parent pay $18K+ a semester to have their kid take poorly developed online classes from their dorm room? It's a fool's investment. I have two other kids who recently graduated from CSU and UNC, both schools provided a far superior educational experience, as well as the more traditional overall experience most of us parents remember during our college days. I had no choice but to transfer my kid to CSU where she is thriving and will be graduating in 2025. CU sells the school on what we as parents remember from our experiences 30+ years ago, but those days are in the history books. That school, and those experiences do not exist any longer; it's an embarrassment. The school has even contracted with an online sports book (PointsBet). They receive over $1M upfront plus $30 for each new referral...i.e., students. They are selling out the entire student body for profit, as if the highly over-inflated tuition and the tax exemptions which come from being an "educational institution" aren't enough. I'm sure every parent wants their student to learn how to gamble while attending college; pathetic. Send your kids to get a real education at one of the many other Universities in the State if in-state tuition is important, don't waste your time with CU. It's upsetting to see what has happened to a school where I had many good memories, but like so many things in our world today...buyer beware. The school has reduced itself to nothing more than lipstick on a pig.

I transferred to CU Boulder from several schools (my dad did not understand how college worked and I finally paid for college myself and moved to CO then transferred to CU). So my path is not traditional but it is filled with a lot of wisdom in the form of comparison! I loved loved loved CU. Yes it was hard, but with work and dedication I easily had some of the top grades even outside of business. You have to actually try at CU and sometimes try hard. And most of the teachers were great. Most of... Read More the students were also great - a few lazy idiots. But most of the business students were admirable and smart. Yes the campus is beautiful. I found things to do on campus to be lacking but I did not care because I was off campus and older than other students. I thought that it was wonderful to get a liberal perspective after being at conservative schools prior and the business school did a nice job of marrying both liberal and conservative. I had one finance 101 teacher who encouraged cheating, and that struck me as odd. I had one bad experience with a business ethics professor who was UNETHICAL. And i had several bad experiences with the career center. I even caught one recruiter lying about a job she had- I turned her into the director of the career center only for the director to be angry at me! I think they were in cahoots and I spoiled her little plan. It is not ok to have third party recruiters and I caught her having 3rd party recruiters!!! It took me a long time to figure out why she would be mad at me! So I did not trust their office and never went back. But everyone else was truly amazing. I highly recommend CU. Most people fail out because it is HARD to get an A because of grading with curves. Most of my classes were curved, making it super hard to get an A. That is why most people fail out of CU because they dont realize how much work it takes to get an A. Regarding the classes. They are all easy IF you take notes and study. It was the happiest time of my life. I am so glad I chose to go there. I recommend it over all the other schools I attended except Yale. I also found CU’s network to be strong and loyal but it did not help me when I moved to the south with my husband. In fact southerners were anti CU. I was not considered one of them until I earned a masters degree and graduated 2nd in my class from a southern university. Only then was i given the time of day here. So point being their name goes far but it was not useful in the south. So unless you are planning to move to AL (which I do not recommend for the tornadoes alone) then I say - go there, work your ass off, and graduate! Go Buffs! If you do not want to work hard, don’t go. If you need lots of help, get a tutor from day 1. This is a research university like any large state school. The teachers are not there to tutor you. If you don’t like studying and are just an average student, do not go to CU. It has a reputation of being s party school from days old, but the truth of that is long gone.