CU-Boulder

We may have a new direction for Delaney. Saturday was the Top Scholars day, where a bit over 1,000 kids from Colorado high schools, the top 10%, were invited up to Boulder to visit the University of Colorado. We headed up late Friday afternoon, with a hotel reserved in Westminster.

We relaxed for a bit, playing some spades and laughed and had fun. We then called it night early, needing to be up at 7 and heading to Boulder. We had an easy drive, checked in, and started on an all day tour/promotion event. I think this is the chance for CU to try and keep CO kids in state and attract them to the university. It's a good school, and we concentrated on the engineering side of things.

 The day started with some lectures about CU and the benefits of going there. The presentation was a bit about the school, with some kids talking about the great things that they've experienced. We then broke off for individual presentations about departments. Tia and Delaney went to the engineering school, and I took Kendall to see about the media/communications school where the journalism major is.

We had an interesting talk and it seems CU is doing a lot with media. They've got a school that might rival the Syracuse broadcasting school at some point.

We then heard about the honors program, with smaller classes for some of the core work, and separated, smaller dorms full of other honors kids. It's a way to try and promote the people that are high achievers, and Delaney was interested. I think that might be a stretch for him to get in, but we'll see.

Lunch was in the cafeteria, which was huge with lots of different stations and different kinds of food. Kyle met us then and we all had something different. I think the idea of a cafeteria like that is certainly appealing for Delaney. He wasn't thrilled with my taking pictures, though.

 

 The afternoon had a tour of the engineering center. It's huge with lots of disciplines. This is really the only school in Co that teacher aeronautical engineering as a major, so that's an attraction for Delaney. It's a really nice facility, and despite the building being old, they have a lot of interesting, hands on equipment, with labs for most of the classes. I think this really interested Delaney.

The day closed out with a bit of silliness, and a presentation on financials. It's about $26k/yr for the school, though about half of that is board and goes down if you leave the dorms after the first year. There are scholarships, some of which are guaranteed if you meet certain GPA/ACT levels. Delaney doesn't, but that's a nice motivational item for some kids.

It's pricey, but on par with many full time colleges, and Delaney was certainly excited by the trip. I think this might be his top choice, though we may try to get some other tours in across the next few months and try to keep him excited about college.