BY MEGAN MCCOY
For m any students, com m unity college is just a
stop along the journey of their college career. Many
transfer to a four-year university for their major.
With application and scholarship deadlines quickly
approaching, I decided now would be a good time to
tour one of the schools I’m potentially transferring
to for fall 2016, Boise State University.
I w ent to one of their events for new students
called “ Blue and Orange Saturday” on Nov. 7. My
parents, my two sisters and I all made the drive out
there on Friday. With three short stops for coffee
and bathroom breaks, it took about eight hours to
get to our hotel. Luckily, there was nothing on the
road, and it was a very pleasant, sunny day for driving.
Although, they are expected to get snow this week,
so we went just in time.
My family and I got to Blue and Orange Saturday
just in time for check-in and to find our seats before
Allyanna Wintermote, a BSU alumna and enrollment
counselor, started her presentation. She talked
about the scholarship opportunities and application
deadlines.
As a transfer student from out of state, I can apply
for the “ GEM” scholarship, which waives the full
time non-resident portion of tuition, which would
save me about $14,000 for the year. I fust have to have
a GPA of 3.75 to be eligible. The other scholarship
I could apply for is the “ WUE” or “ W estern
Undergraduate Exchange.” This scholarship requires
a GPA of 3.5 to be eligible and could save me about
$10,500 for the year. The early enrollment deadline
and scholarship deadlines are on the same day: Dec.
15,2015.
Wintermote also emphasized all the fun things you
can do on and off campus in Boise. She said there are
more than 200 student organizations, such as the
Greek system, academic clubs and sports clubs. One
club she mentioned was a small club where people get
together to make s’mores. A bigger, competitive club
plays the Harry Potter inspired game of Quidditch.
She said they run around with the brooms between
their legs, and they actually travel to compete.
Off-campus activities are all around BSU. Students
can go hiking, mountain biking, skiing, kayaking,
rafting and more.
At the end of the presentation, I was already feeling
pretty good about BSU. The scholarship opportunities
looked great. I could be spending $6,876-$io,6i2 per
year on tuition, and the on and off campus activities
looked like tons of fun. Now, it was tim e for the
campus tour.
Our tour guide was a very friendly and energetic
BSU senior, Amber Knop. She seemed very passionate
about the school, so I was happy that she was giving
our tour.
We didn’t go into every building, but all the ones
we went into and all the buildings from the outside
looked really nice and new. The whole campus was
really clean.
I also liked that, although everything surrounding
the campus was brown and dead looking, the grass
on campus was green and there were a lot of trees.
They also sfeemed to be a fairly “ green” campus,
where they used alternative forms o f energy in a lot
of different places. At least a couple buildings ran
off of geothermal energy, and they had one solar-
powered bench w ith plug-ins for laptops, phone
chargers or whatever students may need to plug in.
Aside from the looks of the campus, it didn’t feel
too big to me. Knop described it as a “ large-scale
school with a sm all-school atmosphere.” I like that
about the campus. It made me feel a little more at if
home.
When we went into a writing classroom, Knop also
mentioned that the average class size is about 29
students. Not too far off from Clackamas Community
College, so I think I would really enjoy that.
Both Wintermote and Knop talked about campus
safety. According to them, BSU is in the top 10 safest
schools in the nation. Knop, who is originally from
California, mentioned that her brother is attending
a school there and he gets alerts on his phone saying
things like “ three people shot, proceed with caution.”
The alerts students get at BSU are more like “ girls
arm was touched on the green b elt.” Knop was)
exaggerating, o f course, but it seemed believable
that the school is a very safe place to be.
At the end of the tour, I felt really good about BSU.'
Although I would be moving eight hours away from ,
my friends and family, it seems like the school has a
lot to offer and it seems like it would be a worthwhile
sacrifice.
Off campus activities
5 minutes away from downtown entertainment
10 minutes away from mountain biking trails
20 minutes away from hiking or floating the river
30 minutes away from skiing and snowboarding
50 minutes away from kayaking and rafting
Other fo u r-y e a r u n iversity p riority en ro llm en t
deadlines for transfer students. (Can apply after
these dates.)
Portland State University - December 1
University of Portland - December 1
Oregon State University - February 1
University of Oregon - March 15
Grab a bite in Boise
As suggested by our tour guide, my family and I went
to Guido’s Pizza for lunch, Fanci Freez for a snack and
Reef for dinner. Each place Was awesome. It seems
to me that you can’t really go wrong with any of the
restaurants in downtown Boise.
Guido’ s Pizza: This is a New York style pizza place
with really good prices. Each slice is really big and
they’re cheap. It costed $13 for five slices. I got the
vegetarian slice and it was delicious, especially for
the price. I can see w hy Guido’ s is popular among
college students.
Fanci Freez: This is a really cute, vintage-looking
American food place. Knop recommended this place
for the m ilkshakes, so I tried the peanut butter
Oreo flavor. It was a great treat. It was on thè more
expensive side: about $4 for the extra small size (10
oz). This is definitely a good place to go if you’ re
craving a good milkshake, though.
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Reef: This is a nice place to eat downtown with a
large menu of tropical themed drinks and entrees.
Knop mentioned the coconut prawns and the jerk
chicken as being good options. The special of the day
just so happened to be the jerk chicken with grilled
vegetables and mashed potatoes so I decided to give
it a try. I’m really glad I did. It was fantastic and
unique. As a college student, I don’t think I could go
there all the time because my meal was about $16,
but if I wanted to splurge I would definitely go back
to Reef for their jerk chicken.
Other Recommendations: My friend, Hana Watari,
who used to attend BSU, suggested going to Boise
Fry Company, Pie Hole and Goldy’ s. There was just
too much good food and too little time to try it all
this time.
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