Colorado State Univ

[supermouse786]

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Hi

I was wondering if any of you currently attend CSU or are planning on attending CSU or even have visited CSU? lol I will be visiting in a couple of weeks and I was just wondering what to expect.. How is their large animal vs small animal programs.. how is the faculty, etc. What is the curriculum like? I have searched their website a bunch of times but its hard to get a really good idea. I just wanted to hear a first hand account.

Thank you so much!!

Suzanne

 

[Caninerepro]

I am a grad student here, I will be going elsewhere for vet school, but I have been here for a while, and have seen a few other schools to compare it to.
CSU is a big school, with more buildings and bigger ones than most schools I have seen. They are currently in the middle of adding on a few more as well, BIG new buildings at the VTH. The animal cancer center wing at the VTH is bigger than WSU's entire teaching building.

First two years are spent on the main campus with the rest of the university. Typical somewhat older classrooms, you spend your day in the same classroom, the profs come to you. You have the "cubes" across the hall as your individual study spaces. Third and fourth years you start going to the VTH about 2 miles south of campus for class and clinical rounds. The equine campus is about 3 miles west of the main campus, right beside the reproduction campus.

CSU is very strong in cancer, equine and research. SA program is big and up to date. I cannot speak for the LA program much, but few have any complaints that I know of. This is the #2 vet school in the country, they know it, and it has the facilities to be so.

Fort Collins the town is AWESOME, very accessible by bike or car, about 100,000 people 50 miles north of Denver. Home to New Belgium brewery (Fat Tire) and several other excellent microbreweries -- highest per capita in the country I have been told. Hope you like good beer -- it is excellent here! I love the town and only wish I could have stayed here for the rest of my life. Very outdoors orient community with hiking, rock climbing, mountain biking and skiing nearby. It has been 60-70 for the last week or so here, shorts are starting to come out. Still 35ish at night, blue skies 300 days a year. High desert ecosystem. Did this help at all?

Kai

 

[supermouse786]

WOW... Thank you soo much!!!!!!! It sounds incredible!! Where are you going to be attending vet school?? I applied to WSU as well but was rejected straight off... total bummer as I was really interested in some aspects of their program. Colorado really sounds great though.. I've never been out there.. the closest I've been is to Montana and I have a feeling its pretty different.
Thanks again!! I can't wait to visit in 10 days!!!!!

 

[Caninerepro]

I have a feeling you will love Fort Collins, most people do. It is in the flat plains, but the foothiils start but 5 miles west. People around here use the mountains as their geographic reference point ... go three miles toward the mountains, turn right go .5 miles, turn left away from the mountains ... you get the idea. Feel free to contact me privately and I will give you more pointers, even get you in touch with some of your classmates and professors. Fort Fun is awesome, no matter what your personal preferences are. A liberal ag community, a conservative blue state region. Skiing -- the real kind with powder snow, is 90 minutes away for the good stuff. Normal to hit the slopes most Saturdays Nov - March. not too much snow here, but cold at times. Be glad to be a tour guide and show you around if need be.

As for me, I am a loser for here, a "real world SA guy" not a researcher. Not smart enough to play with the big kids. However I do teach them anatomy. I have been accepted at WI and Cornell, waiting on MN, did interview there last weekend.

Kai

 

[soxbox]

hey supermouse.... I am from MA and came out to CSU for vet school. I will agree with caninerepro that Ft Collins is super fabulous. The weather, scenery, parks, people are all awesome.... Paying OOS tuition however sucks A LOT. My only other choice was Tufts which wasn't all that much different for IS $$ at the time (though now CSU is up to $44k/year and is expected to go up about 9-10% this year!!!!!!!!!!!!) If you have a choice to pay less money, I would seriously consider it. Granted CSU overall is pretty good, but you will likely be happy wherever you go... especially if you can save $50K+...

If you have any specific ?s, feel free to PM me. I will not sugarcoat anything 🙂

 

[supermouse786]

WOW Kai.. Cornell and Wisconsin??? Awesome! congratulations!!! I have a friend that is a third year at Cornell and she is seriously in love with the school... can never say enough about it.. wonders why everyone doesn't go there haha...

 

[pitbull lover]

Caninerepro, what made you choose Minnesota over Cornell? I liked Minnesota too and I feel great that I have been accepted there. But, unexpectedly, I got invited to do the Vet Prep program at Colorado and I don't know what to do. I want to visit the CSU campus soon to get a tour, talk to students, etc.

I don't have research experience either and feel like I'm an average student. Will I feel out of place at CSU?? Is there a lot of ego from students because they go to the #2 ranked school?

I got the feeling from Minnesota that everyone (students, faculty, etc) wanted me to feel welcomed and do well in their program. I felt community, no competition, and that if I did attend their program, that they would do anything to help me succeed. I felt no holier-than-thou personalities.

Since you go to CSU and experienced Minnesota's program during interviews, can you tell me if you feel what I just described above at CSU and if you experienced that at Minnesota too????

If I visit the campus, could I meet you caninerepro or soxbox?

 

[Caninerepro]

As I have said before, I love CSU, and would gladly have gone here for vet school. I love the town, I love the weather -- cold but sunny winters, warm and sunny but not humid summers, awesome scenery and the school is my home. I have many many friends, both students and faculty, whom I will miss. I would stay here in a heartbeat. Yes you have to be smart to be here, but no you do not need to wear a white lab coat all the time. 🙂 In fact, a piercing or two and some tattoos are just fine as well. Outdoorsy people will love it here, as will nature freaks.

I have chosen MN because: A: they took me B: they have an EXCELLENT professor there in my chosen field of endeavor C: I felt a great vibe from the people there when I visited, even though they had just gotten 8" of snow that night and D: I have honestly probably exhausted what CSU can do for me in terms of SA repro. They have an excellent repro program here, very well respected, but it is no longer geared to SA, and I am the odd man out here.

So, without doubt if you have an inkling to come to CSU, please do so, you will not regret it for one second. I could hapily live in Fort Collins for the rest of my life. Yes, you are welcome to PM me when you come out and I will show you around and introduce you.

Kai

 

[pitbull lover]

It sounds like Minnesota will be a great fit for you. I really liked their school and am so torn.

So just to get clear on this topic...

Since you go to CSU and experienced Minnesota's program during interviews, can you tell me if you feel what I described in my last post, do you feel that at CSU???

Did you interview 2/20 or 2/21? I interviewed on 2/20 and was the only girl wearing a skirt. It started snowing that night. I don't think we met though?

 

[Caninerepro]

It sounds like Minnesota will be a great fit for you. I really liked their school and am so torn.

So just to get clear on this topic...

Since you go to CSU and experienced Minnesota's program during interviews, can you tell me if you feel what I described in my last post, do you feel that at CSU???

Did you interview 2/20 or 2/21? I interviewed on 2/20 and was the only girl wearing a skirt. It started snowing that night. I don't think we met though?

I interviewed the last weekend they were doing them, I think it was the 27th. I am away from my Dayrunner right now. Had you been there the same weekend I was you would have remembered me even if you did not meet me. "30ish" guy, chin hair and real short head hair, pretty vocal and noticable. 😳 Or should I say "studly, outstandingly handsome and with a winning personality" -- not. 😉

As to the vibe of CSU, look: I love Fort Colllins, I love Colorado, and I love CSU. Colorado is my home, even if I may never be able to live here long term. I am from Seattle, and that is where I will return to practice. I have too good of a job waiting for me when I am done with my education to pass up, even though I hate the depressing "Pacific Northwet". I will retire to somewhere within this state, I have always planned to, if I am now allowed to ever retire. I have a lot of friends here. I also am not in the DVM program, but I am around a lot of them, I am a part of the college -- grad school -- and I see a lot of the people that make up the program.

Is CSU proud of its reputation -- you bet. Is this a higher than normal pressure program -- you bet. Do we all go and drink a GOOD beer on friday nights, sometimes with our professors -- you know it.

But I will have to say that the vibe I got while I was at MN was something I have not felt at CSU. Not to say CSU is bad, or that I simply have not been exposed to the nice people here. It was just a fair bit friendlier there than here, in my experience. Here, I have actually lost some friends since my acceptances started coming in -- it is competitive here, at least for that. Remember also, the people we met during our interviews at MN were picked for their good PR skills, and they are enthusiastic and love their school. Also, once you are INTO vet school, a lot of the competition is over between classmates.

I am sure that CSU has a lot more to offer outside of the campus as compared to the midwest, hello it is Colorado! But I felt the people at MN were more open, and more approachable. People at CSU from OOS know they are good at what they do, or they would not have been invited here. Heck, the professor who does the cadaver preps for the animal anatomy classes here TAUGHT at Harvard. CSU has A BAR downstairs in the student center! My fellow TA's and I have often gone and had a beer between classes. You were invited to be at CSU. I do not know what the Vet Prep program is here.

Both places give you a DVM in the end, and OOS tuition is comparable. Come tour here, and make up your own mind. I welcome you to come experience all that CO has to offer. 😎 Come on out and decide for yourself. That is why I went to the interview at MN. I had already recieved a few acceptance letters, but I wanted to experience MN for myself, and am ever so glad I did!

Kai