University of Colorado

Academics

The University of Colorado is divided into several colleges and schools. While the College of Arts and Sciences is by far the largest, the university also consists of the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, the schools of Architecture and Planning, Education, Journalism and Mass Communication, Music, Law, and the Leeds School of Business. Most, if not all, of these colleges and schools also incorporate masters and doctorate level degree programs. At the University, there are currently approximately 3400 courses available in over 150 disciplines comprising 85 majors ranging from Accounting to Women's Studies.

University of Colorado School of Law is the smallest and most selective of the colleges. The Wolf Law Building, the new home of the Law School, was dedicated on September 8, 2006, by United States Supreme Court justice Stephen Breyer.

The Leeds School of Business has an enrollment of 3,300 students including undergraduates, master's candidates, and Ph.D. candidates. The Ph.D. entrepreneurship program ranks first in the nation. The undergraduate program ranks 39th in the country and the undergraduate entrepreneurship program ranks 14th in the nation. The MBA program ranks 26th among all public universities. The faculty are ranked 38th in the nation according to the Academy of Management Journal.

CU-Boulder adopted a honor code in 2000 following growing concerns about academic dishonesty on campus in the late 1990s.  A copy of the code stating "On my honor, as a University of Colorado at Boulder student, I have neither given nor received unauthorized assistance on this work" is engraved on a metal plate and posted in every classroom on campus.

Undergraduates who seek an academic challenge may participate in CU's Honors Program]. Begun in the 1920s, the Honors Program currently consists of the top ten percent of incoming freshmen and participating undergraduates with a 3.3 GPA or greater (on a 4.0 scale). The program offers over 40 honors classes each semester taught by tenured or tenure-track professors and limited to class sizes of 15 students. Honors students also have the opportunity to graduate with honors, high honors, and highest honors, by writing and defending a thesis during their senior year. The program extends into the residence halls through the Kittredge Honors Program. The Presidents Leadership Class is a program for top scholars at the University of Colorado. Scholars participate in a four-year leadership development program. The program provides great opportunities to the top fifty students at CU from every major and discipline.

One option for students (mostly freshman and sophomores) living on campus is to join a residential academic program (RAP). Each RAPs focuses on a curricular theme, and offer courses in the residence hall itself. The programs also include educational activities.

Campus organizations

The Buff Bus

The Buff Bus is a student shuttle that runs between off-campus housing and the main campus. The buses serve students with two routes through campus. The route from The Williams Village Dormitories and Bear Creek Apartments runs all day and brings passengers to campus from the remote dormitories and the apartment complex. The College Inn route runs for two hours in the morning and again in the evening and circulates through campus to and from that dormitory. The Buff Bus can also be chartered for special events and trips.

The Buff Bus runs from 7:00 am to midnight on weekdays, until 2:55 am on Fridays, and until 3:00 am on Saturday. It is a primary mode of transportation by many students living in off-campus housing. Many Buff Bus drivers are students, with a few exceptions.

The fleet includes buses manufactured by NovaBus, Gillig, Neoplan, Thomas Built Buses, Navistar International Corporation, Blue Bird Corporation, and ElDorado National. Some of the buses in the fleet are powered by biodiesel manufactured from fryer grease. The idea started as a class project for CU Environmental Engineering student Andrew Azman and four other students after hearing a talk from biodiesel pioneer, Joshua Tickell. The conversion of the Buff Buses to biodiesel was supported by a student referendum. Used fryer grease from the dining halls around campus is now processed into fuel for the Buff buses, leading some to comment that the bus exhaust smells like french fries.

Hiking Club

Founded in May 1919, the Hiking Club is the longest running student organization at the University of Colorado at Boulder.  It is a non-profit, student-run organization for university students and affiliates interested in hiking and outdoors activities, with hundreds of active members on campus.

The club organizes member-led trips every weekend, and travels throughout the Rocky Mountain Region during breaks to wilderness areas in New Mexico, Wyoming, and Utah.   Depending on the outing, a variety of activities are featured such as climbing, mountain biking, hot-springing, and backpacking. Examples of frequent trip destinations include the nearby Indian Peaks Wilderness, ascents of Colorado's fourteeners, and day-hikes among the picturesque Flatirons.

The club motto, "half mile more," dates back to the 1940s of the club's tradition-rich history. A slide show of the club's activities is shown on campus during semi-annual new member meetings and the alumni association meets annually.

Boulder Freeride

Boulder Freeride is the ski and snowboard club at the University of Colorado at Boulder. It was started in 1933, and has thrived on the CU campus as a student run, nonprofit organization. It was designed to promote skiing, and later, snowboarding at the University of Colorado, Boulder campus. Boulder Freeride is the largest student group on campus, as well as the largest collegiate ski and snowboard club in the nation.

Boulder Freeride is active year-round. Fall activities include a camping trip, BBQs, popular ski and snowboard movie premieres, and one of the year’s biggest events, Welcome Freeriders.

Boulder Freeride organizes a number of ski trips each year. Past trips have included a Thanksgiving trip to Steamboat Springs, CO, an annual trip to Aspen, CO to see the X Games, spring break trips to Innsbruck, Austria, Whistler, BC and Chamonix, France, and summer surf trips to South America.