Colorado School of Mines

Colorado School of Mines is truly a great place to go to college. As an undergraduate and graduate student at the school, I’ve experienced the works.
For starters, if you are looking for a good education in engineering (or sciences) look no further. The opportunity that is available at the school is astounding. I’ve had four internships, traveled to 5 continents, and had over $ 100K in scholarships all because of the opportunities that I took advantage of while at CSM.
The atmosphere is something that I loved, but it isn’t for everyone. The school is small, although it is growing in size, so that can be both good and bad. I loved that when I was on campus I knew (or at least had seen) most of the people around me. Since everyone is in a challenging program there is a camaraderie that comes along with every Mines student.
Golden is a great place to live. There is a ton of outdoors activities to do and plenty of breweries and restaurants. It’s close enough to Denver and Boulder to go out on the weekends, but I love coming home to Golden.

I was apart of movie Premier held at the theater on campus. It was a great event and the space was wonderful for the event. The seating was for 1,100 on the main floor which was wonderful. We had such a great time.

One of the best colleges campuses I’ve been on. Went here for graduate school and had a great time. It’s clean and safe! I could walk home at midnight and never had to look over my shoulder. Golden is my favorite city in all of Colorado.

My husband and all of his friends went here and they are all the most successful, well rounded people I know. From what they have all told me, the petroleum engineering (PE) major here is really tough (physics 2 will get you), but they all graduated and their salaries doubled 5 years after they graduated and keeps going up. Great benefits if you want to start a family. Must be willing to live in the epicenter in America of PE jobs, TX/​and places with smaller amounts of PE jobs like Denver or California, etc. PE is a very high stress job but you will never feel like you don’t have enough money and you will be able to pay your loans back within 2 – 3 years if you have that as a goal. Good luck!

Colorado School of Mines is a fantastic school! I’ve received exemplary education and have a fabulous department head for geophysics. This is one of three school that has an undergraduate department in this major and it’s world renown. This department is also great at getting students out in the field for REUs and internships.
One thing that makes this school special is the attitude of the students. I’m a CA native. Everyone revolves around their own personal world there. Here, students go out of their way to help you. This is one of only a few places where I could misplace a wallet with cash in it an have it returned to me so quickly with everything in tact.
In some of the previous reviews I’ve seen, Mines is a place where what you put into it you get out of it. If you want to have the full college experience and get good grades. It’s possible here. You just have to apply a little time management.

CSM is a special place. I applaud their efforts to make it a more welcoming and positive environment for the pursuit of higher education. Currently, they are:
1) Building a new residence hall and dining hall — They are working to make CSM a more close-​knit campus and lessen the number of commuters
2) They are increasing the number of after hours activites
3) Attempting to resolve parking, or lack thereof
Coming in as a grad student who did my undergrad at Colorado College, the undergraduate life here seems strained. I probably wouldn’t have been able to do it, and kudos to the kids who can. The vibe here is very focused and straightforward, which leaves little room for creativity and growth. While this may sound appealing to prospective parents, remember that college is a time for growth, academically, intellectually, mentally, and socially. I believe all are equally important for happiness and a positive transition into adult life.
While there are a lot of improvements that can be made, CSM does a fantastic job of preparing its students for careers in the real world. That being said, if you’re interested in pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, aerospace, or the like, you’re better off going to CU-​Boulder. CSM is a very energy-​centric school, whether it is traditional hydrocarbon extraction, biofuels, or renewables. This is evident in the kinds of companies that come to recruit at career fair. The entire first floor of the gym are energy companies. All other industries are relegated to the less spacious second floor.
All that being said, your college experience is what you make of it. You will go through ups and downs, but as long as you have a good support network of friends, teachers, and parents, you’ll do just fine.

This review is from a corporate perspective and recruiting. I really like the campus! It’s easy to navigate, the buildings are relatively new and the rec center is beautiful! The students are of a very high caliber and my company defintiely always works with the career center and recruiting students/​alumni.

This school is definitely a pain to get through, to deal with, and to do something more like a college kid would while attending here.
The teachers are generally pretty good. Your department is awesome once you’re actually into it. Trying to visit the admins is basically a waste of time though because you’ll find out more else where, and the lines are usually outrageous when you’re trying to get things done.
A degree from here is the best value in the nation though. It ranks equally as high as the return on educational investment over a career as Harvard does and higher than many other schools. The fact that this is a state school, which makes the tuition lower, pushes it to the top of the national rankings.
Stick with it, and it’s worthwhile if you’re heading here.

Never have I been so insulted by the registar in my life! And this is not my first college experience so I thought I knew how to handle myself to get things done… ya right!
Mines has no intention of letting you out of there like a normal college! Want your transcript? Good luck. Want to get some classes transfered in? In another life time.
I understand that this school is one of the best in the industry and I am not knocking the teachers… but the staff that runs the school, you guys are the worse to deal with! Who still hand evaluates graduation audits???

This school was extremely difficult to deal with. I went there for 3 semesters. Tests are held after classes… either during the nights at about 6 or 7 to 8 or 9, or saturday mornings from 8 to 10… and the 2 hours still wasn’t enough time for these grueling exercises on which calculators are not allowed (imagine doing calculus, chemistry, and physics without a calculator) It was, and is a huge hassle, to obtain things like a transcript from this university. Doing something like dropping a course required multiple signatures from offices at separate ends of campus and had to be done in person. I worked on the housing staff and was treated with illegal workplace practices such as forced overtime without overtime pay, etc. The people I worked under (Becky) denied us on the housing staff pay for hours we logged for no reason!
90% of the students here are rude and self-​centered… girls are treated horribly as they are the minority of the population. Herpes is rampant. Cops rode around the campus on ATVs harassing students, asking us if we were drunk, but ignoring rapes at frat parties… and if you have any type of disciplinary action you have to get this CALL YOUR PARENTS even if they have nothing to do with you or your financial aid.
My teachers were often condescending and failed students on a whim. They were almost all just kind of along for the ride and research $ that comes along with working here. Teachers had no interest in helping students who got behind. RAs were probably the only thing I liked about actually living on campus for my 3 semesters. They were fair and just attempted to keep the peace between this diverse group of students. The girls I lived with were psyco crazy and hated me when I was their on campus roommate, but as soon as I had a house off campus they attended all my parties and hit on my boyfriend! It was hilarious. The town itself has several prisons, the school is actually on the campus of an old prison and math classes are in the «hall of justice». The town itself is creepy with a ton of sex offenders living there.
There is ONE exception: the EPICS program lead by Dr. Kinect. Go here and take this program alone… Kinect cared about his students, and the program taught me an immense amount about teamwork, business communication, and professionalism.