Best Colleges for Skiing?

Noooo!!!!

Brownski wrote

Following junior around our first college fair- and attended 2 back-to-school nights in the last six days. Feels like I’m back in school myself...

Save the Colby/Bates/Bowdoin tour for March. Ski Sugarloaf & Sunday River with an IKON pass.

MC2 5678F589 wrote

Brownski wrote

Following junior around our first college fair- and attended 2 back-to-school nights in the last six days. Feels like I’m back in school myself...

Save the Colby/Bates/Bowdoin tour for March. Ski Sugarloaf & Sunday River with an IKON pass.

I’m all in for Platty/Freedom pass this year

Why nooo?

We are fully in the thick of the college quest at our house. Tours this weekend and last. Second round of SATs the next weekend. Presentation on the FAFSA and CSS profile last night.

Hoser wrote

Why nooo?

Doesn’t Sno go there? I thought it might smoke ‘im out.

witch hobble wrote

We are fully in the thick of the college quest at our house. Tours this weekend and last. Second round of SATs the next weekend. Presentation on the FAFSA and CSS profile last night.

We’re at the start of the process

I wouldn’t mind a little more feedback from sno on this thread. Hear about how Clarkson really is. How much skiing he actually does. What did he wind up studying? Mech Eng?

My daughter graduated Honors program from Clarkson in May 2018 w/ a Chemical Engineering degree and minor in Math.  Although injured freshman year, was on the race team first three years but just too much work to stay competitive, due to workload and other academic commitments, including a semester studying in Asia one fall.

The team drives to WF a couple times a week, and has about three week long camps there early in the season.  The team has fun, and is competitive, the guys won the GS in Nationals and are the D3 champs.  Such a better atmosphere than D1; I continue to hear horror stories and the lack of fun from D1.  Including the inability to focus on academics; ski racing comes first in D1, and yeah that will get you far in life (not).  

Overall CU experience for her and parents was fantastic.  Can't beat the $$ support especially if a female.  Students there work together, not against each others, and the professors and staff and president know you by name.

Exxon/Mobil in Houston grabbed her and although she had offers on the East coast, they could not compete w/ the salary offered in Texas (and the lack of state taxes).  

Sold yet?  Yes there are two other good engineering schools in NYS (U of R and RPI),  no funding ski programs nor the attention and support (before and during) that CU offers.  

What is social life like for a female student there?  If she wasn’t in the Honors program, how much would the work load be cut down?  What part of NY or the northeast are you from? How much recreational skiing did she get in? Any?

I’ll think of others.

I would say 10-15% less work if not in Honors.  We live in the SW Adirondacks.  Gore/WF home hills.  Recreational probably 5-7 days each season, not including if we went out west.  Was a challenge to join the team each training day however.  The business majors did, the engineers did not always go train.  

Hard to accurately comment on the social life, other than not a lot of time for that, especially after freshman year.  But that would be true at any good engineering school.  The opportunities are there, including the outing club which offers ski trip recreationally, but time does not cooperate.

So, like us, the location probably didn’t deter you, because the Bos-Wash crowd already considers where you live to be Podunk. They consider Potsdam to be Siberia.

It doesn’t seem like the male/female ratio is evening out quite as significantly there as it is at RPI and WPI.  Probably due to perception of the location.  We visited on an April day where it had been beautiful the day before, but was 38 degrees and mix of rain and snow.  There was a lot of fortnite playing and snowmobile wrenching going on.....not much frisbee and hacky sack on the quad. (Side question: Does anybody hacky sack anymore? Anywhere? Or does nobody leave their wifi long enough to engage that way?)

So did her female friendships form in the dorms or from ski team or her major? Or some combination? Or sorority?  Or are all her school friends dudes?

Hoser wrote

My daughter graduated Honors program from Clarkson in May 2018 w/ a Chemical Engineering degree and minor in Math.  Although injured freshman year, was on the race team first three years but just too much work to stay competitive, due to workload and other academic commitments, including a semester studying in Asia one fall.

The team drives to WF a couple times a week, and has about three week long camps there early in the season.  The team has fun, and is competitive, the guys won the GS in Nationals and are the D3 champs.  Such a better atmosphere than D1; I continue to hear horror stories and the lack of fun from D1.  Including the inability to focus on academics; ski racing comes first in D1, and yeah that will get you far in life (not).  

Overall CU experience for her and parents was fantastic.  Can't beat the $$ support especially if a female.  Students there work together, not against each others, and the professors and staff and president know you by name.

Exxon/Mobil in Houston grabbed her and although she had offers on the East coast, they could not compete w/ the salary offered in Texas (and the lack of state taxes).  

Sold yet?  Yes there are two other good engineering schools in NYS (U of R and RPI),  no funding ski programs nor the attention and support (before and during) that CU offers.

My daughter got her engineering degree from Cornell..she had a seasons pass at Greek. Cornell ran a bus there every Saturday..
That said, we laid out 200k, I could give a rats ass if she skied or not..

JasonWx wrote

 


My daughter got her engineering degree from Cornell..she had a seasons pass at Greek. Cornell ran a bus there every Saturday..
That said, we laid out 200k, I could give a rats ass if she skied or not..

Let me know when you go on tour. I'll buy a ticket.

Siberia yes, but close to Montreal and Ottawa for weekend social trips (and cheap with the Canadian $$ currently!).   Ratio is 70/30 approx.  Weather is a challenge.   Although April in Boston pretty wet too.   Friends mostly female but also male as a split b/t dorm (apts) (female) and major (dudes).  Much of academics is in a group setting and projects.  Greek life exists, but not in a positive sense there.  Small,  and more issues than it should have based on the greek population.....am sure that's the case anywhere.

I was sort of surprised at first with the focus on “Greek life” at these tech schools (the student who led our tour at RPI just wouldn’t shut up about it) but I think the engineer mind lends itself to some sort of organizational process in social setting as well as academics.

But yeah. We’re in a college town here. It’s an issue. The combination of group entitlement and tribalism, along with the groupthink and abdication of personal responsibility, throw in some excessive drinking and youthful indiscretion.  it’s a problem.  Seems to be an increase in greek life amongst this generation as far as I can tell.

I tell my kids: I like to make my own friends and enemies, thanks.

Thanks for the info on Clarkson

That seems to me to be a good sounding fit for my son who wants to race but also be a student.

From the opposite perspective it has a high male to female ratio but SUNY Potsdam is there as well which has the opposite ratio and a bigger population as it’s primarly a teachers college so it’s ok to be a guy in that town.

Z many of the top NYS racers go to CU,  the team has a strong WF/Gore/Okemo base.  Very friendly and supportive parent group as well, travelling to all the races, providing FOOD to the team, coordination of what everyone will bring etc.  

Parents also will supply housing for students to cut down on personal expense while allowing the University funding to go towards other items (training etc).

When standing outside at Proctor for two days in Feb, its all about the food and the grills and bonfire and being comfortable!  Great parental support culture with the team and each other.

I’ve heard many good things about the Clarkson ski program and it’s good to hear more from you.  

Between my house and my father in laws we could sleep the whole team locally here for races at WF.

It would be great that my son would keep WF as his home Mt.  Do they also train SL somewhere at night that is closer to campus?

I like the sound of the engineering management program CU has.  In my job I see that project and program managers tend to rise up the Corp and pay ranks well and are in high demand.

Good program he is looking at Z.  Agree on your comments on program and project leads.  SL training generally same lanes as NYSEF and St L due to the NYSEF partnership, although there have been evening trips to Pisgah, which make total sense and cuts off many miles of driving when the vertical is not needed.