Colorado School of Mines Top Questions

My first semester at Colorado School of Mines was fall ’13. I did not know anyone else on campus. I avoided the orientations and welcome groups as I thought I would have no problem finding my way around. This was a mistake. I had never attended a career fair and had no idea that CSM students were so sought after in industry. My advice, take the career fair very seriously. You may only have that one chance each year to make an impression on these companies. Internships are very competitive and if you want one you better show up prepared.

How awesome the professors are. From freshman year all the way up to graduate school, the professors do an excellent job of mentoring the students as well as teaching them necessary skills to be high performing engineers in the workforce. If you are new student, take advantage of these resources, as it is becomes harder to utilize them after you graduate.

I wish I had known to seek help from other students. You can't get through Mines by going it alone.

There are quite a few things I wish I knew before I went to the Colorado School of Mines. My first year in school I didn't know what to expect with books, homework load, or what there is to do in the area. I assumed that teachers would assign homework the first day of class and that we needed our books right away. This was not the case. Instead some books that were suggested were not required and the text books sold in the book store were more expensive than buying online.

I wish I had known exactly how cold it was going to be here! But I really wish that I had known better that no one is here to push you to success. You have to earn everything on your own, and there is definitely no more turning to your parents for help. College is the prelude to your life, and what you make of that will be what you make of what happens after college.

About how many friends I would make while living on campus, and how many interesting people there are. Also how much time it takes to study for courses in this school.

The exact intensity of the workload and how many credits one should take in order to keep their sanity would have been nice to know. Overall, I knew what I was getting into and it has stayed very consitent with that.

I wish I had known more about the field I would be pursuing. I also wish I had known how much desk work and how little hands on work we would be doing.

I wish that I had known that my school did not properly prepair me for the mathematics courses required at the Colorado School of Mines. Though Mines has excelent help for students who may be behind slightly.

I wish that I had known more about the outdoor activities available surrounding the campus because it would have motivated me more to attend this school.

Transfers don't get scholarships.

I wish I had known how much work was involved and how organized you had to be. I wish I had known how much studying would be needed and how much sleep I would lose.

I wish I had had a bit more of an earth science background from high school, and perhaps a harder corse load to get me ready for life at this school.

Just the actual academic demans and how dead it is on weekends.

I wish I had known a little bit more about the campus before i began school.