DU

[Lura]

I wanted to jump in here with some of our experiences at DU.  My oldest is a Game Design major there, which means that she is taking a whole lot of computer science classes and a whole lot of art classes.  All of the classes that she has had have had 50 students or less in them, and the Professors have taught all of her classes (no TA's, no 300 student classes, so far anyway).  I have to say that she is really liking it.  She likes her roommates in the dorms, she likes her Professors, and she has enjoyed the classes, especially the art classes.  There is a smaller feel to DU that makes it feel like the Professors care about her, and she is able to see her major advisor whenever she wants.

One drawback to a small school like DU, that we're finding, is that my daughter's options are limited on a number of things.  For instance, I went to school at UCLA, and you could buy anything for any of your classes in the bookstore.  That's not the case at DU.  Also, your food choices are somewhat limited.  There aren't a plethora of restaurants close by that are easy walking distance, and, besides the dorm cafeterias, there's only a couple of places to eat on campus. 

One thing that I didn't realize about most private schools is that they offer money off on the tuition, kind of a scholarship, for students that they want to have come to their university.  You don't have to apply for it, they just offer it.  In our case, we were lucky to have a very generous scholarship that put the price of DU to just a little above what we would have paid at CU.