Colorado State University - Fort Collins

We are out of state and started our journey with a virtual tour, followed by an in-person tour last spring. Those admissions tours ? they really do a great sales job. We were left with the impression of a school which has the tools to meet every student where they are, with a world class health center, easy access to academic assistance and excellent disability services. This seemed like the perfect place to send our daughter. She wanted to be out of state but the other schools she had been accepted to were on the east coast, which was just too far from us.

Our daughter is a musician, an actor and was student body president of her school last year. She marches to her own drum, having eclectic tastes in clothing and music. She's also neurodiverse. She's well-spoken and confident when comfortable in her environment. She's been a consultant with Spotify and they implemented one of her ideas. She trained for and had a radio show on KCSU in the fall semester.

Her experience for fall semester ended up being awful. She tried and failed to find her people. She approached people in her classes and tried to strike up friendships and make connections but no one wanted to be friends. She was the one kid in her Japanese class who was the last to be picked when they had to pair up. She told me she felt like she repelled the kids there. She checked out clubs and communities but didn't find friends. The only person she felt a connection to was a person at the radio station, but that person was graduating at the end of the semester. RA was absent. It was very isolating.

As a neurodiverse person, she asked for accommodations for some classes (working with disability services), and one professor refused to give her the accommodations requested. ?You don't need it,? she was told.

The medical center was lacking in services. She developed a food allergy a week before coming to CSU. The allergists at the center only have hours a couple of days a month, so she had to find an allergist across town and figure out how to get there. Other services were lacking such as mental health (?You'll be okay?) after a traumatic event. Hours are limited for all services, resulting in the need to find help off campus for the two separate weeks she was sick during the semester (neither were Covid).

She's home now and I think plan B will be a winner. However, especially for incoming students, I want to caution that if your child is different and needs special services, they might not fit in.