College Skiing

[neensaur]

If you are thinking Colorado you would do just as well at Mines or UC Boulder in terms of academics and you will be way closer to both resorts and backcountry.

[dk_alaskan]

You'll want something in the deep south. I suggest Alabama - try http://www.nacc.cc.al.us/default.htm.


Skiing is at Cloudmont - it's awesome I've been there before and it rules.
Forget California
http://www.cloudmont.com/index_main.htm

WHOLY HELL BATMAN, $50 for a day tix???

[iggyskier]

Yeah, i'm considering UPS as a backup. It's close enough to Crystal so I didn't need to an opinion of the nearby skiing.

I graduated from UPS in 08. Pretty busy right now, but if you had any questions I would do my best to answer them. I skied a lot sophmore and junior year (freshman year = 04/05 aka downloading over dirt on Rex in Feb and senior year = thesis.....) and you already know how sick crystal is. If only it was 1.5 hrs closer to portland.

[Chalkdust]

Have you considered taking a year off before school, getting your ski bum on (it is your name, after all), and then hitting the academics?

I put academics first, then after school did the career thing, which led to the wife thing, and now I regret not taking the time when it would've cost me nothing.

[Chalkdust]

And I want to be completely like him....

Understood -- you shouldn't want to be the best in the world at something, a near-billionaire, and subject to a marginally embarrassing public divorce because you banged a truckload of hot chicks while hanging with Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley.

[LIP]

Applied math, math, engineering, psychology... not really sure

Right now I'm possibly considering Boulder or Denver as backups

If you're into the math/engineering thingy. Colorado School of Mines. Killer academics, 1 hour to about 8 different resorts.

[wcf3]

I'll toss in a couple of other names that might be of interest from an academic perspective based on what you've written:

-Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (Troy NY)
-Harvey Mudd College (Claremont CA)

Harvey Mudd would be pretty bad from a skiing perspective, but both of these are exceptional small schools with a Math/Science/Engineering emphasis.

[old goat]

Consider Berkeley--but hard to get into from out of state. A bit closer to the mountains. UC Davis--a lot closer, same education, not as competitive once you're in, also hard from out of state. Consider, though that if you go to a top academic school you could be living at the base of a ski lift and still not find much time to ski--my son probably skied less than 10 days in four years at Berkeley--and he's serious enough about skiing to be working as a patroller at Squaw now. (It wasn't just studying that kept him away; we don't need to get into the details).

[nickwm21]

I go to CSU Chico and love it. I can get to crappy bc skiing in 1 hr, donner summit (sugarbowl) is around 2hrs away on a good day. Drive 2.5 hours to get to alpine and squaw... from there you can go further and around the lake to get to SL or Kwood. Or you could go 2.5hrs north to shasta and lassen area for good bc and a little resort. Oh yea.... after today I start my 5 week winter break... aka 5 weeks in tahoe!!!

In my personal experience, location and culture is much more important than how "good" the school is. When I was deciding where to go i got into "better" schools than chico (Cal Poly, Davis). I just didn't like the culture at Poly or Davis. If you go to stanford and hate the culture there then you won't enjoy the place and transfer.

And how "good" a school is does not dictate how successful you will be. That is up to you, not your education.

Edit: saw u liked engineering... we have great CM, CE, EE, ME programs

I am a construction management major and most contractors and builders in CA recruit from chico and poly rather than standford, usc, and berkley because they want people that they can hold a conversation with, people that are similar to themselves and not people with their heads stuck in books concerned with their status in life.

if you like beer chico is it! we love beer here.. Sierra Nevada brewery is in town = $6 six packs! ganj is also cheap here if your into that... basically everything is cheap

[powski3]

Trying...hard....not to bag on Stanford here....it's undergrad workload is overrated and it breeds douchebags who love to drop the word Stanford every other sentence...dangit I failed.

[Bullet]

I'm applying next year.


Thanks everybody for your comments.

It seems like I didn't explain this correctly, but I'm not looking for skiing schools. I've already picked out several schools based on other factors (mostly academics) and am now am looking at the quality of skiing there. I care about the skiing, but the academics are more important.
Just to clarify.

But thanks for all of the comments about other schools. I'm currently considering some of them (Gonzaga, Seattle U, Boulder) as safety schools.

The quality of skiing you can access from Stanford is better than Whitman. Tahoe is better than what you'll get at Mission Ridge, White Pass, Mt. Spokane, 49* North. You can join the Stanford Ski team and get rides to Tahoe as much as you want.

Good luck. A 7% acceptance rate puts you in a pretty elite category of student.

[stash searcher]

thought about dartmouth or middlebury at all? while most of the people here say that the skiing sucks when compared to out west, i'd just say that it's a different breed. it's only not fun if you don't allow it to be fun.

plus i'd say the fis crew has shown that you can find some really good stuff around northern vermont if you're willing to work for it.

haven't finished reading other thoughts, but this is the same thought i had.

both schools have their own ski areas (within 15 minutes) and middlebury is surrounded by ski areas... at least 10 within a 2 hour drive, 3-5 within an hour. and the student pass pricees are killer. mad river, sugarbush, jay peak, magic mountain.. and those others ones, too.. granted, it's not west coast, but you will become a better skier if you ski out east. nothing i've seen out west beats the soul of mad river or magic...

[skibum93]

Have you considered taking a year off before school, getting your ski bum on (it is your name, after all), and then hitting the academics?

My plan is to ski 100+ days the winter after college.

Consider Berkeley--but hard to get into from out of state. A bit closer to the mountains. UC Davis--a lot closer, same education, not as competitive once you're in, also hard from out of state. Consider, though that if you go to a top academic school you could be living at the base of a ski lift and still not find much time to ski--my son probably skied less than 10 days in four years at Berkeley--and he's serious enough about skiing to be working as a patroller at Squaw now. (It wasn't just studying that kept him away; we don't need to get into the details).

Berkeley looks like a good school, but I'm not going to any public California school. With how screwed the budget is they keep cutting school funding, which leads to less academic programs, and a much higher cost.

The quality of skiing you can access from Stanford is better than Whitman. Tahoe is better than what you'll get at Mission Ridge, White Pass, Mt. Spokane, 49* North. You can join the Stanford Ski team and get rides to Tahoe as much as you want.

Good luck. A 7% acceptance rate puts you in a pretty elite category of student.

Applying early action bumps the odds up to 16%!
Honestly its a complete shot in the dark. I'd really like to get in, but I haven't found a cure for cancer, or opened up a homeless shelter, so I don't know if I can.

[Sirshredalot]

If you have the academic chops to stand a chance for Stanford, then you should also think about Pomona, Harvey Mudd, or Cal Tech. Mt. Baldy is much closer to those schools than any skiing is to Stanford. And if you're talking about joining the ski club and driving a long way for weekend trips, you can do that from the LA basin just about as well as you can from silicon valley. I think I got a great education as a sagehen, and I probably got about 30-40 days in my senior year. I had a pass to Baldy and Mt. High (for night jibbing) and did a few trips to Mammoth. It was a pretty good balance.

[mday]

Kinda, but its academics 1st skiing next

Then shouldn't you be looking at Cal instead of Stanford

[powski3]

Good luck. A 7% acceptance rate puts you in a pretty elite category of student.

Getting into Stanford doesn't make you an elite anything, despite what Stanford graduates might tell you.

Honestly its a complete shot in the dark. I'd really like to get in, but I haven't found a cure for cancer, or opened up a homeless shelter, so I don't know if I can.

Do you play an obscure sport that you can quit after one season? Are you a minority?

In seriousness though, I went to school in basically the exact same location and dwelled on the same issues you did both in choosing where to go and deciding to stay. For me the non-skiing factors won out, and I still got a ton of turns in at some awesome ski hills (Kirkwood, Squaw, Alpine are awesome) despite the traffic, distance, and lack of skiers at my school. If I had to do it again I'm not sure what I would do. Looking back sometimes I'd gone somewhere like MSU or UU and skied a lot more and met more skiers, but at the same time I got a great education and made some lifelong, despite non-skiing, friends. Kinda a tough call. Like someone said, you can always ski a bunch after you are done (130 days the year after I graduated) and that education will never go away.

Also, the mountain biking, road biking, and surfing is really good and really close to the Penninsula, and SF is always good time.

[Gripen]

Getting into Stanford doesn't make you an elite anything, despite what Stanford graduates might tell you.

.

More to the point, if you are smart enough to get into Stanford, you are smart enough to go on for masters/doctorate after undergrad.

No one gives a flying fuck where you get your undergrad degree if you onto masters/phd anyway.

[Scott~]

If youre going to go to a good school and try hard then you wont be skiing anyways.

[garwhal]

Access from Stanford is pretty easy if you leave at the right times. i.e. get out early on a Friday or late on a Friday night. There will be tons of options once there to crash with people who know people who have places to stay in Tahoe. Ski club might even have a cabin. There is a lot of cool shit to do near the bay too, especially if you pick up surfing, so if the drive is getting on your nerves you are still good to go.

You can now go to Stanford for free if your parents make $100,000 a year or less. Doctor that tax return and get the best of both worlds.

Finally, you will not be disappointed with the peeps at Stanford. Grade A cool student body and always someone inspiring around. Moreover, they keep inspiring for the rest of your life. Good luck with your decision.

[skibum93]

Access from Stanford is pretty easy if you leave at the right times. i.e. get out early on a Friday or late on a Friday night. There will be tons of options once there to crash with people who know people who have places to stay in Tahoe. Ski club might even have a cabin. There is a lot of cool shit to do near the bay too, especially if you pick up surfing, so if the drive is getting on your nerves you are still good to go.

You can now go to Stanford for free if your parents make $100,000 a year or less. Doctor that tax return and get the best of both worlds.

Finally, you will not be disappointed with the peeps at Stanford. Grade A cool student body and always someone inspiring around. Moreover, they keep inspiring for the rest of your life. Good luck with your decision.

You a current student or grad?

[pollard]

I didn't read anything above so if this is a repeat my apologies.

If the skiing isn't that good/easy to get to from your school, there is an easy solution:
Study abroad more then once and take a winter quarter off at another school. Planned correctly you can pull this off in 4 yrs.
Study abroad grades don't count towards your gpa and *MOST* grad programs won't ask for them.(More likely if they are in your last 90 credits) So your free focus on whats important. Come back with your game face on and end with a banger gpa.

I managed to log a season in nz, a summer in central america surfing, and a season at baker in 4 short years.

[Sirshredalot]

No one gives a flying fuck where you get your undergrad degree if you onto masters/phd anyway.

This is true.

[bouguer]

I was a math major for my first 2 years at Whitman, and although the course-load is definitely rough, you could still log a decent amount of time on the slopes. Of course in the 4 years i was there, there wasn't snow for 2 of them, but last year was epic. Its a great school, but you gotta put in a lot of work academically to succeed.

[KungPowder]

Honestly how heavy is the workload? (Especially for math, psych classes if you've taken those)
I've heard everything from its demanding to you could work all night and not be prepared for the next day.

Im a hard science major and have defintely learned that time management is key for the block plan. Especially if you want to ski. If you're taking some upper level courses there is essentially no time to ski on weekdays. But squeezing in a day or two on the weekends is perfectly reasonable.

Math not too sure. Basic math is a breeze. But i would imagine the majors are taking pretty time intensive courses.

All that being said, block breaks are the focal point of most everybody's skiing and combined with renting some shitty condo in summit county with 30 other people can lead to some pretty memorable times.

[LightRanger]

I went to Santa Clara like powski3 (and have similar feelings about Stanfurd).

I also skied 30-50 days/season every year I was there, and only sat in traffic on occasion because I left at the right times.

Our undergraduate engineering program is good. Doesn't have Stanford or Cal's rep, but still good.