Best Colleges for Skiing?

All my best buds from high school took a year off between high school and college to ski bum at Steamboat. May parents were dead set against it and I continued on with my studies. I wish I had started skiing at 18 vs 38.

frk wrote

Pick the college for academic goals and then fit your skiing plans into that choice.

I would add one (maybe two) important factors:  financial goals (not what you will make, but what you will spend) and maybe long term life goals (which may not be fully understood just out of high school).


Real world experience dictates this:

1) You get out what you put in, names and reputations aside
2) Employers care less about your GPA than your extracurricular activities, projects and job experience
3) Going to school for the wrong thing is never a wrong choice as long as you didn't get deep in debt - you just learned what you DON'T like
4) Liberal arts degrees are generally as useless as HS educations



PS Don't listen to me because I'm a hypocritical left wing douchebag who has done drugs and thinks he is morally superior.

For a Western school I highly recommend University of Wyoming. My wife and I both went there for grad school and got fantastic scholarships through the school. At the time they were really encouraging out of state students to come to school there. Even without scholarship its 29K a year for out of state (room, board, books, etc). The engineering school and business school are both top notch. Its cheap to live there and snowy range ski area is less than 40 minutes away. The town of Laramie is a true authentic western college town. Sno might not like snowy cause its all old double chairs (or at least it was when I was there). There is lots and lots of back country terrain in the snowy's too.

http://www.snowyrangeski.com/

You are also less than two hours from Steamboat (assuming the pass is open).

Another great engineering school with an even better town is Colorado State and hour south Fort Collins, CO. Not sure how expensive it is, but its definitely cheaper than UC Boulder and less rich a-holes with dreadlocks acting homeless and begging for money.

Harvey wrote

All my best buds from high school took a year off between high school and college to ski bum at Steamboat. May parents were dead set against it and I continued on with my studies. I wish I had started skiing at 18 vs 38.

I had a momentary thought about taking a year off to ski bum - but I never would have gone to college.

sno I am in the Albany area. either union or rpi has a great ski club, should not be hard to figure out which. they do  bus trips each weekend to mountains all through vermont. plus we are in close proximity to gore, southern Vermont, berks and cats. you can chase storms to all these areas in under 2 hrs. have you ever considered a degree in computer science? it is a great field with lots of flexibility, meaning if you write code for a living some employers don't care when or where you do it. this opens up days for skiing and nights for working. if you lived in the right location you could ski in the morning and work out of your house in the afternoon. we can't seem to get enough kids into the field.

Coach Z wrote

All good advice

A ski bum semester or two sounds like it could do Sno good.  Get a job in a ski shop, ski good snow, maybe even take a class at a community college.

My best study advice is to always read the assigned material before the lectures.  Then you will listen to the lecture and be able to understand what the prof is saying.  So many kids don't do this and it keeps them behind and underperforming.  

I'd try to schedule really full days as few days of the week as possible then you could ski on the off week days.  Study on the weekend when the skiing is not as good.  Quality over pure volume should be your goal.  Even just skiing for a few hours at night often will mean way too much lost driving time.  You are not going to 10 mins to skiing like you are used to.

This is some solid advice right here. The reading the material before the lecture really helps but it's hard to stay ahead of the game like that! I'm taking biology and chemistry courses right now along with an easy on line Nutrition course. I try to do what you suggest but I would be lying if I said that I'm consistently pulling that off!

Can anyone comment on UNH as a ski school? There is so much to like about that school. Could it work for a dedicated skier?

MikeK wrote

frk wrote

Pick the college for academic goals and then fit your skiing plans into that choice.

 
2) Employers care less about your GPA than your extracurricular activities, projects and job experience

not necessarily true...all the engineering firm my kid applies to  have a minimum GPA requirement..

And undergrad gpa matters when applying to grad school

An MBA is an excellent combo with an eng degree.  I would not have my current job with out my MBA

Sno when it comes down to it would the difference really matter to you if you ended up with 65 days vs your goal of 75.  That is like one day every other week difference.  Remember up here in the North the season is 4 to 6 weeks longer than you are used as well.  

Have you looked at McGill in Montreal.  With a weak Loonie you get a Big Bang for the buck.  It's one of Canadas top schools and there is plenty of skiing nearby.  Plus the women in Montreal are smoking hot and it's a fun city.

I skied 83 days last year and I'm going for 100 this year.  Assuming a different scenario in college, I dropped my goal to 75 to keep things realistic and the extra quality I am hoping to get out of each day makes up for it.

I told my dad what you said about the benefits of joining a fraternity.  He told me that you were correct in that it automatically gives you a social group that you're part of.  I originally had no interest in being in one, but assuming I could avoid any that had lots drugs and alcohol and avoid having to go through hazing to join, it might have a benefit on my social life.  Maybe there's even one where all the members are really into skiing.  There's always a chance.

When trying to make a decision on frats, be sure to speak to a variety of seniors and juniors to get their opinions.  Freshman have no idea and Sophomores may not have perspective.

That's what the Rush is for

You go to each house to see which one fits you.  Talk to the brothers and tell them you are into skiing and your other interests.  They want good students as it helps thier avg gpa and smart people are always an asset.  I was a good student so I was the academic chair of my frat and organized study groups and counseled brothers that we're getting bad grades on study habits.  If you find the right fit you will really enjoy it.  It's not all about drinking and girls but sometimes that happens too .

Was your dad in a frat?  If so you are a legacy there.  

Hazing is now almost non existent.  It more on the order of ball busting that friends do in good fun to each other.  

Colby didn't have any frats and I'm glad.

JasonWx wrote

MikeK wrote

2) Employers care less about your GPA than your extracurricular activities, projects and job experience

not necessarily true...all the engineering firm my kid applies to  have a minimum GPA requirement..

Well I didn't mean that you should be a slump, but in my personal experience, they generally care about those other things more than a perfect GPA.

If you plan to go to grad school, then that's a different story.  Highest GPA wins in most cases.

Don't ask me how I know this, but some places actually will blacklist you if you have too high a GPA.  I recall some thing I read when I was job hunting that the optimal GPA is 3.5 with the range of 3.0 to 3.7 being preferable.

I didn't read this entire thread, but is this person looking to go to school for engineering?  If so, what type of engineering?

I'm an engineer, and I think an MBA is a terrible idea unless you want to be a middle manager or a project manager (shoot me).  If you are serious about engineering, you need no more than a Bachelors degree - a Masters will generally start you at a higher pay but in the end you'll end up the same - it's sometimes said to be equivalent to 2-3 years work, but it's no way even close.  Some R&D jobs won't consider you unless you have a masters or doctorate.  

It's really best to have some kind of real world experience - a job in such is good but hobbies work too.  If you are a mechy: work on cars, get in a machine shop, build things, take things apart, etc.  If you are a sparky:  get a solder iron, build things, take things apart, etc...  If you are a computer guy:  do what computer guys do? haha no, same but with computers.

Depending on where you work you may never touch a tool or you may be very active.  Some elitist douchebags think engineers should only coordinate and never get their hands dirty... but they generally have less of a grasp on how things actually work in reality.  The science and theory is ABSOLUTELY essential, but you'll have zero respect from any tradesman/woman or technician if you can't relate to them.  The thing is engineering school generally assumes you can figure the technical stuff out and focuses on making you a theoretician.  Unless you get into this thing called a technologist, which is a bit of weird degree.  It's more hands on and less theoretical, but a lot companies don't hire unless you have a full engineering degree, so I'd stay away from the technologist thing.  Honestly a really good engineer is a really good theoretician with a lot of practical experience and a pretty good technician as well.  If you are just a good technician without the theoretical knowledge, then you'll only ever just be a good technician.  If you just have the theoretical knowledge, then you may have trouble converting it to reality... some people call those teachers.  It's really a special art to be able to take something from need, to idea, to paper, to reality and quantify it.

MikeK wrote

MikeK wrote

2) Employers care less about your GPA than your extracurricular activities, projects and job experience

Don't ask me how I know this, but some places actually will blacklist you if you have too high a GPA.  I recall some thing I read when I was job hunting that the optimal GPA is 3.5 with the range of 3.0 to 3.7 being preferable.

Now why would that be the case?

raisingarizona wrote

MikeK wrote

Don't ask me how I know this, but some places actually will blacklist you if you have too high a GPA.  I recall some thing I read when I was job hunting that the optimal GPA is 3.5 with the range of 3.0 to 3.7 being preferable.

Now why would that be the case?

As strange as this may sound, in this crazy country we call America, some people get a little offended if you do too well.  I've heard multiple reasons...

They think...

- you are a know-it-all
- you have no life
- you are anti-social
- you are autistic
- you are trying to hard
- you are smarter than the person interviewing you
- you are a kiss ass

Now not all places are like that, some will see it as an asset... but it's not what I found.  I did some scouting around to find out and that's what I came up with.

Really my whole point was don't force yourself to perfection in college.  If you happen to be really smart and good at what you are studying and you get top grades, then you'll be fine, but I took very close note of this and talked with career planners at the college I attended and this is what I found.  Some people don't interview well, but some of this data comes from response just from resumes.  The ones with those GPAs received the most responses.  Those with >3.7 didn't even receive response from some companies.  I applied multiple times to Honda America and Toyota with a similar resume to others with lower GPAs and never once received a response.  I've even had reps scoff at that in career fairs when they browsed my resume and bully me in interviews.  I shit you not.

MikeK wrote

- you are a know-it-all
- you have no life
- you are anti-social
- you are autistic
- you are trying to hard
- you are smarter than the person interviewing you
- you are a kiss ass

I am all of these things, but at least I had a crappy 3.2 GPA. Too many electives outside my major.

The only positive to my story is that no one, ever, has seen my GPA or transcript. Ever.

No one ever asked for it.  

And look where I am today. I have a website that produces enough revenue to pay for one full month of my adderall.

3.2 is fine.  No one cares after you've got your first real job anyway.  And after you've got your first real job no one cares about that, including yourself... you just want to retire!

I think some people put too much emphasis on test scores and grades.  It isn't everything.  I have met some really smart cavemen.  They couldn't read or write very well but they could build or fix anything.  There some really useless book smart people out there too.  People's talents come in all sorts of forms... it's a shame we only grade them one way.

I'm probably going to study engineering although I'm not sure what type yet.  I believe RPI has a program where you can get an engineering degree and an MBA in 5 years.  However, their skiing options are relatively mediocre compared to some of the other places I've looked at.  Closest thing is Jiminy Peak which is 44min away and you can't have a car 1st year.  I found no private parking areas in Troy where one could pay by the month long term, so no workaround.  That basically restricts you to only ski club trips which may get you 20 days, if that and certainly not 75.

Colby and Skidmore don't have engineering programs themselves, but you can take an engineering program through Dartmouth in which case I think you would have a double major in 5 years.  Both of them also allow one to have a car all 4 years simplifying skiing near there greatly.  Skidmore had no ski club when I visited it about a year ago and I don't think that has changed.  I'm not sure about Colby.  It's too far away for me to visit easily.

Mattchuck got 50 days at Sugarloaf while attending Colby, but he says that he didn't force it.  I would be forcing it which would make 75 easy and quality days at that.  One thing I would say is that if I got 60 days at Sugarloaf, it would beat 75 days at Jiminy Peak.

Harvey wrote

And look where I am today. I have a website that produces enough revenue to pay for one full month of my adderall.

Sounds like a success story.