2010-2011 Colorado Mountain College

KENDOZER

Member
I'm goin to Colorado Mountain College next year for school and I wanted to know if any othe midwest skiers are lookin into it
 
You'll get nothing done school related. All it is is a cover up to make your parents thing you're going to get some education done. Don't waste their money or yours there, cause chances are you'll end up skiing so much that you won't go to class. Just move to Breck and ski for a semester or two, then start school after that if you want to.
 
Well....
I went there for half a semester. And realized I was paying way to much for no edumication. Stopped and now realizing i'm not getting any schooling in. So i'm going back next semester...
It's nice if you want easy classes. Nice teachers and night classes.

 
Its real for real. You get to ski and take classes that transfer to most other colleges. Also they are in the works of getting a bachelors degree.. So yea CMC is basically the shit and its blowin upp!!
 
I'm thinkin of goin to the Steamboat Springs location cause they have dorms, but idk i might look into something else now after what I hear lol
 
i go to the summit campus.

take your classes at night which is what i do so i can ski all day.

they are going to be offering 4 year bachelors degress for many of the programs starting next year from what ive heard from other students and teachers.

take like 3-4 classes a semester untill you get your residency, then tuition it dirt cheap.

some of the classes are really well tought, and you learn something from them, at least the ones im taking. and some are more like highschool classes. but they still go towards some sort of degree in one way or another.
 
Don't waste your time. If you're doing the "ski program" it's pointless....you could get a job learning what they teach you and get paid for it instead of wasting your money. Go to a real school like UC Boulder or Utah. Most people who enroll at CMC drop out by second semester because they realize that it's a joke and waste of their money. Also, Steamboat is not that great. Go to Breck.
 
I work for vail resorts now and its def true that what they teach you in the mtn opps classes at cmc you don't need! Vail resorts(Key, Breck, Abay, Vail, and Beaver Creek) will pretty much hire any1, and they much rather teach you themselves then have CMC teach you and you get payed for training!!

Next yr around mid Sept. check out skijob1.com and you can come out and live the dream!!!

Cheap living and a super kick ass job

Don't Go to CMC waste of time!
 
she is right I got hired at vail so easy. I went to a Job fair in Chicago the year i was going to move out west which i interviewed with people from Vail, Beaver creek, and Breck. then a couple weeks later Vail called and beaver creek offering jobs grooming. which I already had experience. but they did hire a bunch of people with no experience and they turned out to be good
 
Like I was saying get out here and jobs will open up its who u know in CO not your EDU

if you wanta please the parents, I wish I would of found this college when i was in High School back in IL

But its called the Sierra Nevada College its a 2 yr out in lake taho it isn't that pricey and it has 5 resorts all with in 15mtns of the college I've heard nothing but good things about it out here from the CO locals the campus is super beautiful and yeah it has a ski resort mang. class and everything else u would ever need and want for moving out to the WEST!!!

 
That program is part of the SAM (ski area management) program at NMU, in Marquette. Basically, a waste of time. You'd be better off getting a normal business management degree, and then working for a resort to get your experience. You spend 3 years in Marquette and one year in Gogebic I believe, when I had originally looked into it.

At Gogebic you actually take classes on snowmaking and cat driving... I mean... isn't that labor? haha

CMC seems like it sort of works... but a lot of kids do two years there (or less), and then.... stop college all together. You gotta be driven for sure to actually finish with a legit degree that'll get you somewhere.
 
I was thinking about going to CMC this last year. I went and viewed the college and totally realized its a joke. Like everyone is saying, its a waste of money. I'm from Wisconsin and now im going to school in Utah. I have classes Tuesday and Thursday, while still taking 14-15 credits. So basically I get to ski from Friday-Monday everyweek and the resorts arent far away from any college really unless you go to a southern college.
 
i graduated from cmc in leadville last year. i got my associates in applied science in ski area operations degree. i was planning on becoming a lift mechanic. I worked as a liftie for two years while going there. a year at copper and a year at winter park. i skied 140 days the first year and 160 last year. basically skied every single day. but after learning a shit load about the industry as well as working, i thought id be such a good candidate for moving up to a lift mechanic position once i graduated. same thing goes for ski are management. you think youll be first in line for that next job. turns out you aren't. i took school at cmc very serious, unlike almost everyone i went to school with. most of the kids there are 18, straight out of high school and are ready to do as many drugs as they can get there hands on, as well as drink like your average freshman at college. sounds fun and all, sometimes it is, but out of state tuition there is not cheap, and being surrounded by that every single day fucking got to me. not my cup of tea. smokin bowls everyday is great, most of the ski area industry does, but cmc is more like kids doing acid, ex, and shrooms everyday. thats too much for me.

now back to the job thing. i found out that the degree didn't put me in that much better of a place than your average guy who worked his ass off at a resort for 2 or 3 years. i worked my ass off both years at the resort, supervisors and foremans like me, i et and knew upper management, i had connections up the ass. both at the end of the year, when i wanted to make that next step up, all i was offered was, some next step bullshit making 11$ an hour being a supervosir at best, instead of 10. fuck that. i went to school for two years for this shit, did everything your supposed to and above, and not to brag, but i have more knowledge than my foremans and supervisors do combined about the industry and lifts and thier mechanics. they wanted me to work a few, FEW, more years at liftie before i went to lift mechanic. fuck that. im not going to make 11-13$ an hour the next few years, living on my own, AND paying off student loans. its impossible or you have to work 70 hours a week.

the point is, if you want to make it in the industry, you can put yourself in the same place w/o going to cmc. there were guys who liftied for 3 or 4 years and then worked some random job in the summer who were in just as good of a position as i was, except they had been there 1-2 years longer, so they automatically had the upper hand on me....regardless of my knowledge and training.

sure cmc was a great learining experience and tons of fun. the professors there were some of the coolest old guys ive met. full of tons of knowledge and theh best connections you could possibly have in the ski industry. they're known throughout the country and world. but there are better and cheaper ways to get into the industry if your comitted.

after all this im back at school at the U of M, doing mechanical engineering and then hopefully using my cmc degree to get some sort of engineering job in the ski industry. its great i have those connections from cmc, and working at the resorts, but fuck man, those connections were expensive as shit.

sorry if this feels rantish, if you have any other questions, ask up
 
That's a bummer dude. I can't even imagine how frustrating all of that must have been. It's good to know that there are people out there like you though who truly do care and want to make the best of the industry. Props to you for working hard and taking advantage of your situation...it shows a LOT more integrity than most people. Best of luck!
 
Go to CU boulder, or a school in Denver, Boulder has some of the best degrees you can get, and statistically its the smartest city in the country. I go to school in Denver and I get 70 days a season and that's without a car, plus winter park sets up a bunch of rails and boxes in the city that you can use anytime for free. JamesC. is taking a year off just working in Boulder to get instate tuition and it sounds like a pretty good deal to me, Plus, Denver and Boulder are very fun cities, im glad I live near Denver, it provides a lot of entertainment.
 
I was looking into CU Boulder after I decided to not go to CMC and it was like 50 grand a year with not being a resident....so if you really want to spend a shit load look into CU
 
Word I'm transferring out to DU this coming quarter. Denver is a dope city with very nice weather year round, and you've got summit county a little over an hour away. Much better choice imo.
 
Boulder is super expensive for out of state, and so is DU. But you get what you pay for, both have INCREDIBLE campuses (Boulders is probably one of the nicest in the country accompanied by the hottest and coolest girls in the country), amazing faculty that will always help, great resources, and everything else college is good for, like parties, rich friends with condos or houses in the mountains, and anything else you can think of. You can literally stand on a street corner with ski stuff in the morning and find a ride to a mountain.

If your serious about getting a real education and progressing as a skier, sit down for a week and actually try to get some scholarships, you could probably get between 5 and 25 thousand relatively easy if you just sit down and try, college counselors are great for helping with that too. You wont regret it when your offered a $35,000 job after you graduate, then you'll be rolling in the paper.

As far as DU, R.Lee.Ermey hit me up if you wanna hang out or ski this quarter, I just got a house on high street and ill have a car this year. I've been studying abroad in Spain, and its awesome, but I absolutely cannot wait to get back to Denver (which also has hands down the best music scene in the country)

 
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