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Area Colleges


The Waldonian

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I know somebody that is thinking about area colleges to attend. Some of the schools that he was thinking about are KU,MU, Missouri State, CMSU, Northwest Missouri State, and UMKC. I Already know quite a bit about KU and MU, but I was wondering if anybody could add any insite on these other colleges, like tuition, rooming, surrounding community, etc.

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Much depends on the degree they want to get (of course).

CMSU in warrensburg is a decent university. i mean i am an alum...it has a decent range of majors (except for a few like environmental science and planning). the campus is nice and compact. tuition is among the cheapest in the state. it has a definite traditional campus feel, with a lot of dorms and cheap housing near by. it isnt as intense as missouri or kansas though.

warrensburg is a decent town with its charms...most things are within walking distance, except for grocery (in most cases). there is a somewhat active downtown, though it is overwhelmingly supported by watering holes and a dance club. it has a nice venue thesetlist.com which brings in a lot of local kc as well as nationwide (and worldwide) talent, indie, metal, etc. It is less of a commuter school than UMKC (which i'll get to) but a lot of people go home on the weekend (of course this depends on your age, i was 23 when i graduated and had settled into the town). it also has amtrak service, which makes it a GREAT portal to kc, stl, and chicago.

on the downside, i found myself driving to kansas city A LOT for entertainment and culture. the small town atmosphere gets a bit old as well.

UMKC (my current school) is comprable to cmsu, perhaps a bit more demanding academically. it does have environmental and planning programs :thumbsup: (hint hint ) the campus is nice and compact as well. the campus life is improving for those who live on campus. my recommendation though is to move to midtown like myself and ride your bike to class... :thumbsup: the neighborhood around KCAI is decent, full of pedestrians and people on bikes

culturally, the city it is far and above warrensburg of course. its not really a fair comparison.

on the downside, tuition is higher than cmsu (used to be anyway), housing can seem like its hard to find at first (but its not really, just go north) and its a big commuter school...most of the people in my classes are from the burbs...the campus is deserted on the weekend...

then again, why be on campus when you have an entire city to explore...

those are the two schools on your list that i have intense personal experience with.

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I graduated with my bachelors in December of 03 from CMSU, and I must echo everything you just said warwickland. Indeed I was even one of those students who drove home (in my case to Kansas City) almost every solitary weekend.

Currently I live in midtown KCMO and am enrolled at KU for grad school, driving down there to Lawrence three times a week for classes. KU makes me appreciate the compactness of CMSU's campus. At CMSU, literally everything on the campus is pretty much accessible in less than a ten minute walk. Not so at KU, that place is frickin' huge. But KU has great atmosphere and culture too, and downtown Lawrence rocks.

I've taken a class or two at UMKC also, had good times there, it's just a shame that it's the beotch child of the University of Missouri system, seeing as how the main Columbia campus garners all the funding and attention. There is a push in the Kansas City community to transform UMKC into a true research university, an urban university to anchor the city of Kansas City. So far it's been problematic as the most recent Chancellor of UMKC resigned, after spending a couple of years committed to transforming the school, but unfortunately she encountered too many barriers, that as rumor would have it, came from the established culture of the university, the tenured professors and what-not. There has even been some talk of UMKC separating itself from the University of Missouri system so as to flourish on it's own.

CMSU is, or at least was, a bargain in terms of tuition, but every semester I was there as an undergrad, there were tuition hikes due to state budget cuts (thank you former governor Holden!). On campus living at CMSU is expensive, in fact it is cheaper to rent a place off campus than to pay room and board expenses to the university.

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  • 1 month later...

In my personal opinion Missouri State is an awesome institution. We are the second largest university in the state. We have a planning school along with all public affairs. After all the school's mission is "Public Affairs". Costs are not bad at all, and the dorms have won awards for best in the country. Plus there is always something to do in Springfield.

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  • 10 months later...

Waldonian-What type of education is your friend planning to get? I am a KU alumni, so I can answer some questions about the Architecture and Engineering programs. Both are great programs at KU.

I thought the University was great and I loved the town. It is small, but I was studying all the time, so there was enough to do when I needed to do something. I lived a couple blocks from "downtown" and walked there all the time to go to coffee houses or bars.

Any specific quesitons?

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  • 4 weeks later...

I am from Kansas City and live in Detriot, but am attending The University of Missouri-Rolla. If you are from Missouri and want an Engineering/Science/Math degree I would highly recommend looking into UMR. UMR has a stron reputation for being one of the top Engineering univeristies in the midwest, and after working for General Motors in Detroit for the past 5 months I can only attest to it's accuracy.

I am on a co-op setup through the UMR Career Opprotunities Center, which is a 6 month (2 semester) work term that is related to your major. This is a very unique opprotunity in many ways, other than the large salary.

Many people have a bad idea about Rolla, like the guy/girl ratio, and the nightlife, most is true, but I must say I was taken by suprise after my first year. The town of Rolla is small, and there isn't much to do in the city itself, but St. Louis is 100 miles away on I-44, and Springfield/Branson/MSU is 100 miles the other direction on I-44. The Ozarks is an hour north, Jeff City is an hour north, and MU is 90 miles away.

There are currently 5,600 students at UMR, and with the current plan there is supposed to be over 9,000 by 2010.

If you have any questions let me know.

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  • 2 months later...

If you are thinking Liberal Arts university, check out Truman State. It's one of the toughest public universities to get in for those who are familiar. Glad I got in and graduated in the mid 90s before it got harder. Tuition for in-states and out-of-states are fairly reasonable.

The campus is fairly compact and everything is within walking distance. However, the drawback is that there's not much to do in the city (Kirksville) itself. St Louis and Kansas City are both 3 1/2 hours away. At the U of Missouri is only 90 miles away.

At one point, I was very happy to leave, but on the flip side, do miss it every now and again. Would never trade the experience.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Im surprised no one mentioned Drury University here in Springfield. A very very good institution to say the least. Tuition is about $14,000 on avg. and their housing is unmatched. One of the best Architecture programs in the country, just won the World SIFE tournament (Students In Free Enterprise), very good International Affairs program, over the top business school, and they were just given 10 million to build an Entrepenural School! If thats not enough they have climed up the rankings in U.S. magazines polls every year for best universities in the Midwest and are now in the Top 10.

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Im surprised no one mentioned Drury University here in Springfield. A very very good institution to say the least. Tuition is about $14,000 on avg. and their housing is unmatched. One of the best Architecture programs in the country, just won the World SIFE tournament (Students In Free Enterprise), very good International Affairs program, over the top business school, and they were just given 10 million to build an Entrepenural School! If thats not enough they have climed up the rankings in U.S. magazines polls every year for best universities in the Midwest and are now in the Top 10. There has also been talk about becoming an IV League Institution within the next 5 years! Its worth a consideration.
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