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.