Running at Colorado

Can you afford it?

If your from out of state it will cost $50000 a year. Quite the steep price for a degree from Colorado.

If you're posting on letsrun, he probably doesn't want you..

just curious, what were the standards you spoke of?

Hi Stangli,

If you are walk on range and living at altitude I am assuming you are probably around a 9:45 2 miler,and sub 4:30 miler.

Are you already running 80+ miles/week to get these times or are you around 40 miles/week to get these times.

If you are getting those times on low miles then hell yes walk on to CU.You could be a varsity runner on a nationally rated team by your Junior or Senior year and maybe even an all-american. If you are already at high miles to get those times maybe you should try a D2 of D3 school. Like say Metro or Western State.

Ask yourself, do you want to be a little fish in a big pond or a big fish in a little pond.

Galactica wrote:

Can you afford it?

If your from out of state it will cost $50000 a year. Quite the steep price for a degree from Colorado.

Out-of-state tuition at CU does not cost that much. The tuition by itself is about $28,000 a year.

I know someone in CA with a kid just admitted to CU. Tuition, room and board is $45K per year.

Mark Wetmore and CO have a great reputation with developing high calibur athletes, however if you're prone to injury and cant handle high mileage and intensity I would suggest elsewhere. Mark has developed alot of great athletes from the ones that have been able to survive and thrive in a really tough program. On an academic standpoint I would suggest elsewhere, education is a joke at CU, if you have the walkon standards I would suggest taking a look at other places that have a great alumni connection, internship program, NCAA athletic etc....

DRT wrote:

Hi Stangli,

If you are walk on range and living at altitude I am assuming you are probably around a 9:45 2 miler,and sub 4:30 miler.

Are you already running 80+ miles/week to get these times or are you around 40 miles/week to get these times.

If you are getting those times on low miles then hell yes walk on to CU.You could be a varsity runner on a nationally rated team by your Junior or Senior year and maybe even an all-american. If you are already at high miles to get those times maybe you should try a D2 of D3 school. Like say Metro or Western State.

Ask yourself, do you want to be a little fish in a big pond or a big fish in a little pond.

or go Cam MF Levins and start banging out 190 mile weeks and demolish everyone

As you may have experienced from your visits, you cannot go wrong with training in Boulder. It is a world-class mecca for distance runners and triathletes, so that is unquestionable. Flagstaff may have attracted some attention of late, but NAU is no CU for educational purposes. The Winters are milder than other CO running schools like Adams State, and the area is more accessible to major transportation hub if you are out-of-state.

The only issue I would warn about is the walk on standpoint. As others have alluded to with Wetmore, it's a survival of the fittest program, with nationally-recruited athletes at the top of the food chain, and in-state preferred and hopeful walk ons who have been living and training at altitude in the foundation. So you will have to seriously weigh your options before committing to possible situation where you work your butt off, achieve significant progress developmentally, but just don't break into the roster for major cross invites, conference, and nats. I would take your search very seriously, and seek out all the information possible, including coaching philosophies and achievements, for those coaches at schools where you may have a better chance to contribute from the outset. Good luck.

Hi.

I ran at CU back in the day during the Wetmore era. Best years of my life. I was surrounded by amazing people in an awesome place, all pursuing the same goal day in and day out. I applaud your ambition and enthusiasm for CU's program. Some before me said its survival of the fittest or whatever, but Wetmore loves kids that can walk on who he can improve. He did this in NJ, and built his reputation around it at CU. People usually only see him take great athletes and make them better but few care to acknowledge the unknown athletes he makes competitive D1 kids, I can remember 3 or 4 from my time there. It is doable if you have talent, discipline, and you stay injury free.

The training is intense, although they have lightened it up from when I was there. It wasnt 100+ mpw and whoever doesn't get injured makes the team kind of thing which some people love to think, but the workouts were no joke. The good thing is they were almost always doable and you always have your teammates with you, hopefully not f'ing up the pace. The camaraderie was outstanding and my old teammates are still my closest friends. I know a few people on the team now, all great individuals i'm very happy to know.

CU is a great school. Like many big state universities, it is as easy or as hard as you want it to be, and you can learn as much or as little as you want. Although there is something to be said for pursuing what you love, I recommend engineering if you like it. The workforce right now rewards good engineers, no more english majors I'm sad to say. CU is excellent in engineering and the hard sciences, especially physics, chemistry, and RNA oriented biochemistry. It also has a great advertising school should you be lucky enough to be accepted there.

Boulder is my favorite place in the world. endless trails, great weather, easy going people, and later when you finish you can stay and train and potentially get a job there and enjoy the beer and lifestyle, like many before you. Good luck, keep training, and Fck the haters kid.

proudbuffalo,

Im not an alum of CU but Im a big buffs fan. Ive heard pretty much what you hv said about the camaraderie and so forth from team members.You should see those guys and gals inter react with each other . They are like a family. The closeness they develop helps them deal with the physical pain and emotional strain of hard training.

It seems like the CU runners have a much higher than normal marriage rate amongst themselves than other schools which is also a testament to their close knit team.

volume wrote:

I know someone in CA with a kid just admitted to CU. Tuition, room and board is $45K per year.

That is significantly higher than it was when I was at CU.