Female Neuroscience Major C/O 2019

Can you describe the weekly coursework for your major?
Since I’m on the Block Plan, we go through the material really fast. It’s pretty much a chapter or two every day, or a week’s load of work in a day. For homework, I will have to read the textbook, complete a lab, write a lab report, or do a presentation, but usually it’s reading the text and going over class notes. We have midterms and finals each block. Those are a pretty large portion of our grade.

How would you describe the learning environment? Do you think it’s particularly competitive or collaborative?
It’s pretty rigorous for my major. There are a lot of required courses that you need to take. It’s one of the harder majors at the school. Due to the nature of having less funding for research, it can get more competitive than other majors at the school. But, in general, it’s not an extremely competitive environment. They strive to have it not be competitive, and I think that is something they accomplish well. Overall, it’s not competitive but my major can get more competitive than others.

Male Philosophy Major C/O 2021

Can you describe your weekly coursework for your major?
I took three blocks of Philosophy this year. CC has a bunch of requirements, and in my first block I took Modal Logic to fulfill my quantitative requirement. I wrote one essay, but I mostly had logic problems. The next two blocks were really writing heavy. I’d say for Philosophy you’ll have three or four papers a block, maybe some additional homework, and a lot of reading.

How do you feel the Block System affects your workload?
It’s great for me because since I’m only focusing on one class at a time, I really know when I have to budget my time to do my homework. I know when to set aside my time because there’s only one thing I have to set aside my time for. As far as people assigning work, they condense a semester of work into a three-and-a-half-week block. That’s somewhat true for some classes, but it’s definitely true in foreign language classes. You go through stuff pretty fast, especially when there’s reading involved. They teach the material well and test you well in regards to what they taught you, so I feel like it’s manageable even though it’s pretty quick.

Female American Studies Major C/O 2020

How accessible are your professors?
Very accessible. There are office hours that I can always go to and talk to them. You can even get a meal with them. I feel very comfortable talking to all of my professors.

How has the Block Plan affected your workload?
Everybody has class from 9AM-12PM, so everyone is on the same schedule and you sort of know what each day looks like. There’s a big sense of routine on campus. It depends from block to block, but if you’re in a hard block and you get a lot of work, it’s sort of like you’re not going to see anyone that month. I wouldn’t recommend taking two hard blocks in a row because you burn out. You have to balance doing a hard block and doing an easier block where you can have a break. Some blocks have a ton of work and some blocks are incredibly lax.

Have you liked or disliked the Block Plan?
I really like it because in high school I had an issue with procrastinating and on the Block Plan you can’t procrastinate because you’ll fail. You have more work every day and you’re expected to keep up with your work all the time. I think it’s really helpful with people who have an issue with procrastinating but feel like they can get on top of it. If you’re really bad with it, then you shouldn’t go to CC because work piles up very quickly.

Female Neuroscience Major C/O 2019

What kind of weekend activities or nightlife do you like to participate in?
I tend to go out Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays. Some people go out on Sundays too. There aren’t regular places that I go to. It’s kind of whatever’s happening. It’s mostly house parties and whatever’s happening usually spreads by word of mouth. All the parties are off-campus in neighborhoods. In general, there’s a lot of party bouncing and walking around. One really great thing about CC is that parties are really not exclusive at all. So pretty much anybody can get in, but it can get pretty crowded too. Parties getting super crowded is one thing that isn’t ideal.

What have been your favorite times at Colorado College?
For sure the block breaks. They’re a four-and-a-half-day break between blocks. I have been able to go on camping trips with my friends or go skiing for a whole block break. I think those have been absolutely my favorite times because you can get off campus. People try to explore Colorado and neighboring states. It’s super unique to CC.

Female American Studies Major C/O 2020

What kind of weekend activities or nightlife do you like to participate in?
I usually go out on the weekends or like once during the week, but not every night. Typically, people go out on Wednesdays and on the weekend. Otherwise, there’s usually not that much going on every night unless it’s the first block or the last block just because the weather is better and people tend to take easier courses then.

What have been some of your favorite times at CC?
I really like Block 8 because everyone tends to take easier classes and then you can go out quite a lot and it’s really beautiful. There’s an on-campus music festival at the end of school, and everything is sort of wrapping up, so that’s probably my favorite time.

How happy are you with the weekend options? Is there anything you would change if you could?
I’m happy with it. Sometimes parties are just sort of people dancing, and I wish people would talk to each other more. It’s definitely tamer than I thought it would be.

Male Music and Physics Double Major C/O 2017

What kind of weekend activities or nightlife did you like to participate in?
I would go out Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, or Sunday, or out whatever night we had off for my sport. It was mostly just house parties, except for on Tuesdays some upperclassmen went to a bar. The house parties are usually a dance party or a themed party. There’s also a big college band scene where a lot of student bands play at house parties. In general, nights are mostly spent jumping around from house to house.

How happy are you with the weekend options at Colorado College? Is there anything you would change if you could?
I’m pretty happy. I would want more going out and doing stuff other than house parties. The house parties are really fun and cheap. People spend all their money buying ski equipment and ski passes so that gets expensive and probably deters people from wanting to go out more.

Female Neuroscience Major C/O 2019

How would you describe the social scene?
It can be a little bit fragmented. I think the biggest divide you see is between athletes and non-athletes. Sports culture is not something that my school revolves around or is glorified, so I think a lot of times sports players tends to hang out with other sports players so there’s a separation there. That doesn’t mean that’s a hard and fast rule, but it’s definitely something that’s felt on campus. I don’t think that there is a social hierarchy at my school, which is super cool. The fact that sports culture isn’t glorified and that Greek culture life isn’t super prominent on campus allows there to not have the same level of social hierarchy that you see at other schools.

To what extent do people of different races and sexual orientations mix socially?
Not that much. I think more so people of different sexual orientations mix. In terms of race, our campus is predominantly White and I think that can absolutely be difficult for students of color on campus. So no, there’s not as much mixing of races as there ideally would be. [In Fall 2017, 66% of students were White.]

Male Philosophy Major C/O 2021

How did you meet your closest friends?
I had a group of friends from my dorm that was all men, and then also a group from another dorm that was mostly women, and sometimes those groups would overlap. The group of girls was way more progressive and activist-minded, and the guys were stereotypical dudes, so that was a nice balance too. I think it’s good to get a balance like that because there are people who are fairly different to some extent, but everybody still likes hanging out together at CC because they understand each other in a certain way.

How would you describe the overall social scene at Colorado College?
People use the same adjectives all the time, they say it’s laid back and people are respectful. People are willing to try a bunch of different things and everyone’s really smart, which for me makes it a lot better. People are really intelligent and able to express themselves and what they care about. They also will budget time to study and focus on work, and there are also people who do that that go out many times a week.

Female American Studies Major C/O 2020

How would you describe the social scene?
Overall, I would say it’s pretty lowkey. There are house parties, but that’s for dancing. People will hang out in dorms or have smaller parties in apartments or something. I wouldn’t say it’s particularly wild, it’s more lowkey.

To what extent do you think people of different races and sexual orientations mix socially?
I think they do mix socially at CC, but CC is very White. It feels very White on campus, but I do think people mix quite a bit. [About 65% of the student body is White.]

How would you describe the student body?
I would say they’re sort of outdoorsy and a lot of people are pretty smart and serious. There is a drug culture. In general, I think most people are pretty calm and like to go hiking or do things outside.

Female Neuroscience Major C/O 2019

What is something you wish you knew before entering Colorado College?
I think I wish I knew more about how students who go to CC and like CC feel about the Block Plan. It’s interesting going there as a Neuroscience major because you learn that, in terms of retaining information, the Block Plan isn’t the best way to learn. For most students at CC, it may work for them better if they’re bad at time management or juggling classes than it would work for other students. I also would have liked to have a better sense of the demographics on campus. [In Fall 2017, 66% of students were White. About 24% of students come from the socioeconomic top 1%.]

What is something a prospective student may miss on a visit that’s worth checking out?
Either go check out Pike’s Peak or Garden of the Gods because those are places off campus that are very cool. It’s cool to check out nightlife when you come too or go to a slam poetry event or some type of coffee house thing.

Male Philosophy Major C/O 2021

What is something you wish you knew about Colorado College before entering as a freshman?
Allocate your time better for writing, which is something I learned but more gradually. There was one class where I was slammed with work and learned it. The main thing to know is that workload over the course of a semester is going to be asymmetrical.

What is something that a student may miss on a visit that’s worth checking out?
There are so many beautiful things. One of the things that I don’t think is mentioned enough is the Seven Falls. It’s a super cool series of seven waterfalls that you can walk over or around.

Male Music and Physics Double Major C/O 2017

What is something you wish you knew about Colorado College before you entered as a freshman?
I took a semester off in the fall and I was worried that it would make me feel like a weirdo, but taking time off is so much better than going straight to school. I would have gotten burned out. I wish I was more confident in taking time off.

What is something a prospective student may miss on a visit that’s worth checking out?
If they’re an athlete go to the varsity weight room. You’ll spend more time there than at practice. Then also go check out the random off-campus houses. That’s where the parties are and where seniors live.