Poets&Quants Top Business Schools

Colorado State University College of Business

Contact our general manager with any questions. Profile updated: December 4, 2017.

Contact Information

Location:
501 W Laurel Street
Fort Collins, CO 80523
Admissions Office:
970-491-6471

Tuition & Fees In-State: $111,402*

Tuition & Fees Out-of-State: $167,084*

Average Salary: $47,527

International: 6%

Minority: 24%

First generation college students: 20%

When do students declare their majors: Freshman Year

Acceptance Rate: 75%

Average SAT: 1,232

Average ACT: 26

HS Class Top Ten: 17%**

*The total cost of the degree over four years for the most recent graduating class inclusive of school fees, room, board, or living expenses.

** HS Class Top Ten is the percent of the student population that graduated high school in the top ten percent of their class.

*** Please note that these statistics are provided for the business school major only whenever possible. If a school does not track these statistics separately, then the university-wide statistics are provided.

If there’s one thing, Associate Dean for Academic Programs Sanjay Ramchander wants you to know about Colorado State University, it’s the school’s primo real-estate. Resting at the base of the Northern Colorado Rocky Mountains, Ft. Collins is a vibrant city—both for outdoor pursuits and an emerging tech hub. Located about an hour north of Denver, Ft. Collins is a true college town with about 160,000 residents, access to whitewater, fly fishing, climbing, and skiing, and offices for Hewlett Packard and Anheuser-Busch.

“We are in a beautiful campus town,” Ramchander says. “Nobody can take that from us, being in Colorado.”

The next thing you need to know is the students are hard-working, blue-collar types, mainly from Colorado.

“Our students are not afraid of rolling up their sleeves and working,” Ramchander says. “There is a blue-collar mentality among our students in terms of being able to take what they learn, apply it, and having a work ethic that companies appreciate.”

BLUE-COLLAR WORK ETHIC WITH THE WHITE-COLLAR JOBS

Still, the blue-collar work mentality doesn’t necessarily transfer into blue-collar career paths. The Class of 2017’s top employers went to Goldman Sachs, Charles Schwab, and Lockheed Martin, earning an average salary of more than $47,000. Some 51% of the same class had internships before their senior years.

At about $110,000 for Colorado residents, the school is one of the cheaper options on our list. Considering 91% of the entering Class of 2017 received more than $7,000 in annual salaries, the degree option is almost a steal.

ENTREPRENEURSHIP MINOR DUE OUT THIS JANUARY

The school, which turned 50 in 2016, has one bachelor’s degree and nine emphasis areas for students to pick from. There are also 11 focused certificate areas for students to even further specialize. The school boasts 23 business-specific clubs, highlighted by two student-run investment funds that total nearly $700,000 in assets that must be managed. The school also features an Advising Center and Career Management Center.

“Everything we do at the College of Business is focused around improved student learning and student success,” Ramchander says, noting the school’s concentration areas have rapidly expanded over the past two years.

This January the school will introduce another minor, this one in entrepreneurship.

“It positions themselves to start businesses on their own,” Ramchander notes.