May 10, 2016
Alexander Nedd
[email protected]
Your tour guide may have overlooked some information when you first visited UCCS.
After five years of attending college and working for the school paper, I’ve learned some pros and cons of UCCS they may have failed to mention.
While the school offers breathtaking views, you still took a leap of faith deciding to attend here.
As with any new move, there are things left out by higher management to keep you interested in their product.
And believe me, UCCS is just that, a well-kept, high-end product.
For many of you, college now offers the freedom you’ve been denied for over 18 years.
Choosing a school, whether you’re down the block or a thousand miles away from home, isn’t easy.
Did you make a bad purchase? From my experience, no.
For starters, the campus is growing. What does that mean for you as a new student? Expect a lot of orange cones in your future.
Development for new student housing is under construction across from campus and the Ent Center for the Arts is expected to finish in 2018.
These projects won’t affect you directly, but their presence is enough to make daily tasks such as driving and parking a hassle as you go on and off campus.
UCCS is in the middle of an identity crisis. Once commonly thought of as a commuter school, UCCS is attracting more students nationwide and internationally.
With more students on campus, you’d think making friends would be easy. That’s not always the case.
Having friends off campus is common, and while those in housing might have better luck hanging out, there is still the question of what do to.
My advice: join clubs. Meet with other students in your major and get to know them. Join intramurals and go out, help change the stigma of being a commuter school and make UCCS the place to be.
It won’t work without students who care, so make the best of it.
Parking sucks and you’ll have to get used to a 15-30 minute wait if you plan to use the shuttles, but these are inconveniences at every college, not just UCCS.
UCCS has a wide variety of places to hike, so don’t be afraid to use one of those 300 days of sunshine for a walk across campus.
Campus police, staff and faculty are always eager to help out if you have any questions.
UCCS has been one of the best experiences of my life, but I was also determined to make it work. The campus offers the tools to be successful, but it is up to you to use them to the best of your ability.
Welcome to UCCS and good luck.