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les
Aug 1, 2003, 9:39 PM
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As I'm finishing up my high school career I have to start thinking about colleges. Are there any good engineering based colleges located around sweet climbing areas?
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calpolyclimber
Aug 1, 2003, 9:47 PM
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Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo is the way to go (if you get in). Best engineering school in the nation (and its fun). There is rock about a mile from campus (decent) and there are numerous great climbing spots within 3-5 hours drive. Yosemite (about 3.5 hours), Joshua Tree (about 4.5 hours +), Needles (about 4.5+), High Sierra's (about 5+ hours). All easily done as weekend trips, and all wonderful areas.
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les
Aug 1, 2003, 9:59 PM
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I'd love to go into NASA after college and was thinking the air force academy would be sweet since its located in colorado. Anybody know anyone whos gone there? I'm kind of a free spirit so I dunno if the air force would be for me.
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caughtinside
Aug 1, 2003, 10:00 PM
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If you're interested in CO you can go to CU in Boulder, a pretty good public school, or if you've got the grades, school of Mines in Golden is supposed to have a top engineering program.
Good luck!
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hasbeen
Aug 1, 2003, 10:03 PM
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Good suggestion. I spent a couple of years at Cal Poly myself. I will warn you that the local climbing (as in after school) is very limited. If you are a good climber you will run out of things to do in a semester. Is a good engineering school though, and generally a great town.
For climbing schools, the two best are Colorado and Utah. Near Boulder, you can also look into the Co School of Mines, in Golden. Colorado St, in Fort Collins, is also pretty darn good, as is Utah St (Logan).
Here is a list of schools (and I'm sure I'll miss some, esp in the east) that have out-the-door climbing that won't run out by the end of your freshman year.
Arizona, Tuscon
Northern Arizona, Flag
Fort Lewis, Durango
New Mexico
UTEP, El Paso
U of Texas, Austin
UCSB
Denver Univ
So Utah, St George
UNLV
Wyoming
So Oregon College, Ashland
Univ of Nevada, Reno
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killclimbz
Aug 1, 2003, 10:03 PM
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In reply to: If you're interested in CO you can go to CU in Boulder, a pretty good public school, or if you've got the grades, school of Mines in Golden is supposed to have a top engineering program. Good luck!
And more than a lifetime of climbing within 30 minutes or less...
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trenchdigger
Aug 1, 2003, 10:16 PM
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Don't forget UCSD! Plenty of great climbing in San Diego, not to mention that it's an awesome place to live. Very good engineering school too (especially for Bio) if you can get in. Nice little gym on campus. Santee - 15 min away. Mission Gorge - 15 min. Mt Woodson 45 min. Lots of other local spots within 1hr. Black Mtn & Suicide/Tahquitz - 2.5 hrs. Jtree - 3.5 hrs. Bishop 5.5 hrs.
Some of my UCSD engineer friends are working for NASA right now. During the school year they work for EarthKam (program through NASA that gets photos of the earth from the shuttle for schools) on campus, and over the summer one of them has an internship in Houston with NASA. I'm a senior mech engineer at UCSD and am currently working for NAVAIR with the group that maintains the F/A-18s. SPAWARS is another larger aerospace related company in SD. Definitely lots of opportunity here if you're interested in aerospace engineering. Look into it...
~Adam~
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sspssp
Aug 1, 2003, 10:17 PM
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Move to California, get residency, and then go to UC/Merced (should be opened by then). Less than an hour to the greatest climbing meca in North America (ok, I'm a little biased).
More seriously, it depends on the type of climbing you want to do.
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sspssp
Aug 1, 2003, 10:20 PM
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In reply to: I'm kind of a free spirit so I dunno if the air force would be for me.
Yep. In that case, I agree that the airforce wouldn't be for you.
Futhermore, you aren't going to have much say on where you get stationed (I wouldn't count on being close to climbing).
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crackaddict
Aug 1, 2003, 10:24 PM
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Northern Arizona University is sweet.
Lots of climbing with a degree.
Many rock types to pick from. Basalt, Dacite, Limestone, Sandstone, Granite, can be found from 5 min to an hour away from Flag.
Not to bad Eh!!
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kevin_ny
Aug 1, 2003, 10:28 PM
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Don't forget the Northeast...
RPI, is in the middle between the Gunks and the Adirondacks, or out to Boston for MIT, not far from the Whites... SUNY New Paltz in New Paltz may score you a dorm room with a view of the cliffs if your lucky!
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wc
Aug 1, 2003, 10:43 PM
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In reply to: UTEP, El Paso U of Texas, Austin UCSB Denver Univ So Utah, St George UNLV Wyoming So Oregon College, Ashland Univ of Nevada, Reno
El Paso is pretty getto, but you could stay at the Hueco Rock ranch and save tons of money.
I hear Austin sucks ass. Sure the rock is good, but the routes are short and the weather sucks balls. The only people who spray about Austin are the wankers who haven't seen enough of the climbing world to know what they are talking about.
So Utah isn't much of a school and if you go there from anywhere other than Rural Utah it will be a definite let down as far as night life and cultural happenings.
Wyoming, see above...
University of Utah is supposed to have a pretty good engineering program, but it is full of mormons. I would probably head to SoCal, Arizona (Tucson or Flag), possibly Colorado, but it all depends on the type of climbing you want. If you want bouldering or steep sport climbing don't move to Tucson...
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maculated
Aug 1, 2003, 10:51 PM
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The Airforce school in Colorado is pretty good. One of my good buddies/climbing partners went there and in addition to learning to climb there, he developed a taste for fire ants. :)
That said, I went to Poly and I think whoever said you'd get bored is lying. I'm going back for another two years next year and between the climbing wall (an nice little community there) and the routes available, you'll find enough to keep you busy in between road trips. YOu've got a plethora of stuff (albeit some of the access is limited) within an hour's drive. When you get bored, you can head up to Pinnacles or down to SB . . . I've climbed on world class stuff and I'm not dreading sticking myself back in SLO, at least not as much as I dread being stuck in the Bay Area for its lack of good climbing.
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trbrts
Aug 1, 2003, 11:00 PM
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What ever you do don't move to Salt Lake City and go to the University of Utah. There isn't any climbing near town and all the ski resorts suck! :wink:
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veggieclimber
Aug 2, 2003, 12:01 AM
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So far there have been some good suggestions, but may I make another and maybe one retort? First of all I go to the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology for Computer Engineering, and we we have an awesome program here, for well any kind of engineering you want, one of the most underated engineering colleges out there. THere certainly isn't a mecca of climbing here but its pretty good, Rushmore, Spearfish Canyon, Custer State Park, and Hanging Rock are just a couple, plus good bouldering spots scattered around the Black Hills, and all of it is within an hour!
Also University of Wyoming has a great engineering program, and Laramie is an awesome town. Plus you have Veedavoo close and all the CO spots as well. Anyone who thinks Wyoming is just a widespot in the west is only partially right, and completely wrong about UW. I grew up in Casper, WY and there is some great climbing there too, not to mention the good times that can definetly be had. Check out Tech and UW.
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les
Aug 2, 2003, 1:23 AM
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In reply to: Don't forget UCSD! Plenty of great climbing in San Diego, not to mention that it's an awesome place to live. Very good engineering school too (especially for Bio) if you can get in. Nice little gym on campus. Santee - 15 min away. Mission Gorge - 15 min. Mt Woodson 45 min. Lots of other local spots within 1hr. Black Mtn & Suicide/Tahquitz - 2.5 hrs. Jtree - 3.5 hrs. Bishop 5.5 hrs. Some of my UCSD engineer friends are working for NASA right now. During the school year they work for EarthKam (program through NASA that gets photos of the earth from the shuttle for schools) on campus, and over the summer one of them has an internship in Houston with NASA. I'm a senior mech engineer at UCSD and am currently working for NAVAIR with the group that maintains the F/A-18s. SPAWARS is another larger aerospace related company in SD. Definitely lots of opportunity here if you're interested in aerospace engineering. Look into it... ~Adam~
Just curious, in working for NASA you almost have to have some kind of aviation experience to be an astronaught , right? I mean you hear of teachers going up every once and a while, but mostly its air force or naval guys. I really don't want to go into the service, but would love to be an astronaught someday. I know this is wishful thinking, but I'm one to work hard as long as there is a good end result. What I'm trying to get at here is education is my first priority, but climbing is a really nice extra bonus. If I ended up with an aerospace engineering degree, would it be enough to be able to score as an astronaught someday?
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scuclimber
Aug 2, 2003, 7:37 AM
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Colorado College in Colorado Springs is an awesome school for climbing. The Garden of the Gods (sandstone) is like 5-10 minutes from campus. They have an awesome climbing gym on campus and their outdoor rec and climbing groups are very active. I was very close to going there myself, especially after visiting.
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trenchdigger
Aug 4, 2003, 7:04 PM
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Definitely high aspirations, but if you're really smart and have the drive, then do it.
These days astronauts are scientists, not pilots. The shuttle practically flies itself - astronauts are really just scientists that go along for the ride and perform experiments while they're up in space. But they still need to be smart enough to fix things if there are any problems. I would bet they all have an extensive engineering background (mechanical/electrical/aerospace/computer) and/or earth sciences. For some reason they've made themselves stand out from the rest of the crowd, usually something relating to the type of work they do. That, and a lot of luck is what got them into space.
Plan on getting at least a Masters degree if not a PhD with either the air force academy or an ivy leage school somewhere in your college career. If you're a smart cookie (I mean genius level) look into CalTech for grad school (or even undergrad if you have a near 5.0 GPA and perfect SAT score). MIT would be another excellent option. At schools like that, engineering students don't even have time to sleep, let alone climb :shock:. Shoot, I'm an undergrad engineer at UCSD pulling just above a 3.0 and I hardly have time to climb during the school year. Whatever you do, just make sure you keep your priorities straight :wink: (ie, make sure you have time to climb!)
http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/more.html has some Bios of the astronauts. You can see where they went to school and how they got to where they are now.
good luck,
~Adam~
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eltusko
Aug 4, 2003, 7:12 PM
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If you're lookin to be a huge brainiac, check out Rensselaer Polytechnic in Albany, NY, it's full of engineering geeks and it's close to the Adirondacks and Gunks.
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ire510
Aug 4, 2003, 7:48 PM
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I find it intriguing that you mentioned Southern Oregon University. I went there for three years and thats where I got my start into climbing. There is quite a bit of climbing there but I don't know if you'd put it into a top twenty climbing colleges list.
I'm going to Oregon State now and ironically there are 50x more climbers and yet there isn't a fraction of the outside opportunities.
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plund
Aug 4, 2003, 8:01 PM
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In regards to USAFA, I attended for 3 yrs in the mid 80's (84-87) - left for reasons irrelevant to this post! The campus is beautiful, the curriculum top-notch, but don't count on having much time for climbing (very little 1st year, maybe a bit more as an upperclassman) other than on weekends. That being said, Garden o' Gods is close, Boulder's about 1.5 hours (my favorite weekend hang oh so long ago, but wasn't climbing then - just partying), it's damn near dead center in CO so not much is out of range. Plus, John Gill in Pueblo... After graduating, look forward to pilot training in US (guaranteed for USAFA grads if physically qualified, at least was in 80's) or duty assignment anywhere in the world based on "needs of the service".
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givemeshorebreak
Aug 4, 2003, 8:08 PM
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Some of the places listed as 3+ hour drives from Cal Poly are cool, but don't forget about the local stuff. I don't know about the rock around SLO, but I go to school in Santa Barbara (about an hour+ drive from Cal Poly) and there are many many climbing spots with 15 min. from me. Lots of good rock, and enough routes to keep you busy for at LEAST your four years of standard education. Check out the Ventura County Climbing Guide put out by Falcon to get an idea of the amount of rock in your area. There are areas listed in that guide in the San Luis Obispo area where Cal Poly is located.
Peace and good luck on the college selection.
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allarounder
Aug 4, 2003, 8:37 PM
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CU Boulder and Colo. School of Mines both have plenty of climbing opportunities, good engineering program, and a good climbing scene. i went to Mines -- the social life sucked (engineering school = school full of nerds) but i climbed 5 days a week my last year there, skipped lots of classes, and had no problem getting good grades. There's a lot of damn good climbers around to hook up with, so partners are pretty easy to find.
Personally, I'd do anything to get my fuzzy butt back to colorado. The place rules.
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mattm
Aug 4, 2003, 8:54 PM
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East Coast - Boston schools get you within 1.5 hours or so from rumney and the white mountains are within 3 - TONS of stuff there
Dartmouth College (alum) has a kick ass, small engineering program and puts you closer to the rocks as well ( and skiing is close as well, ice climbing in VT in winter )
SUNY NEw Paltz is pretty much in the backyard of the Gunks. Check out Marist College in poughkeepsie too - no idea on their enigns programs
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hasbeen
Aug 4, 2003, 9:52 PM
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The reason I had SOC on the list was that there is some climbing very close. So close that you don't even need a car (granted not so much). But with places like Rattlesnake close enough for a day and weekend proximity to the Northern Sierras and Smith, it's pretty darn good. Plus, it's a great place to live.
If you don't care about after school options then places like UCLA, or UC Riverside, are fantastic. But you live in a sprawling city with no hope of getting outside without a full day off, which is why I didn't include them. I mean, shouldn't quality of life be included? Riverside and Cal State Northridge are very close to bouldering areas that are "outside," but I think most climbers prefer some nature. Besides, you could replicate these areas in any town with a gym. Just park your cars at the exits with the engines running, pointing the exhaust pipes into the room. Then take that bottle of beer you're drinking and smash it against the bouldering wall you're about to climb on. Fire up a smoke and start sending.
I forgot about Air Force, maybe because they keep you too busy to get to go climbing, even though it's right out your door.
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