Guest Post written by Michelle Aspelin

Hello! We’ve got parent tips for Colorado Mesa University families and students. Our daughter graduated from CMU in 2022. We are sharing things we learned from discovering the university, doing our research, two campus tours, early orientation, communication with CMU, and tips for lodging and more around Grand Junction.

If you have questions about Grand Junction and the surrounding community, please reach out to Paul Aspelin. We’d be happy to share more parent tips with you or meet up to answer your questions.

Discovering Colorado Mesa University

Colorado Mesa University sent representatives to our daughter’s Minnesota high school to participate in a College Fair. She wanted to go to college near the mountains. After visiting with several school representatives from other states, we had a better idea of what questions to ask. We stopped by the CMU booth on the way out and couldn’t believe what we were hearing. They talked about the University, of course, its size, the majors offered, dorm options, etc. but when they mentioned “Outdoor Program” (OP) our eyes got big. What was that? The rest of the time we spent learning about Grand Junction and what the students can do within a few hours or a day’s drive from campus. Organized, supervised trips every weekend and the OP has gear and ridiculously low fees that students can rent. Camping, hiking, biking, canyoneering, canoeing and more. That was it, she was hooked. Oh, and you can rent a bike from the OP for the school year for very little.

Tip: Remember that your child will be a student at the University but also a member of the community and there is so much to see and do in this area off-campus.

Researching and Comparing CMU to other schools

Excited to learn more, we went home and spent hours on the internet researching CMU and comparing it to other schools. I wish we had one document or guide with parent tips for Colorado Mesa University families at that time. We used the niche.com website to compare the school to other similar schools. That site was very useful. It gives the school “grades” on things like academics, diversity, value, dorms, student life, etc. It gives you a good idea and makes it easy when you can compare all schools with the same metrics.

Tip: You can’t always trust everything you read. You won’t really know until you experience it for yourself.

We did other research and considered those sources as well. Grand Junction is a small community with urban and rural features. We thought crime was high compared to other areas so during one of our campus tours I asked about it. They said the most common crime is bikes getting stolen. And we later found out that crime within the surrounding community was overreported. For example, if there was an incident and 5 people called it in to the police department, it got counted 5 times vs only as one incident.

Colorado Mesa University is one of the least expensive universities in Colorado and if our daughter wanted a chance to go to school near the mountains, this was it. So, we decided to take a family vacation and tour CMU and the University of Wyoming at Laramie. We flew into Denver and drove to Grand Junction. Did the tour and left after that for Wyoming.

Tip: When you come to visit the school, give yourself 2-3 days to tour around the area as well as the campus. See Paul’s post that includes a two-day itinerary of what to see and do in Grand Junction. We exited I-70 at the Clifton exit so we didn’t even know there was an airport or a super cute downtown area.

Two Campus Tours

We did the standard 2-Hour campus tour the summer before our daughter’s Junior year of college. She started looking early. It was the first college campus we visited. We asked a lot of questions, seeking parent tips for Colorado Mesa Universities families ourselves! After looking at 3-4 more she chose CMU. We flew to Colorado from Minnesota in March to do the extended tour called The Mesa Experience. It’s a full day event where you tour the building that would have most of your classes for a particular major. And there was an informal reception the night before. THAT was a fantastic experience and a great way to really get to know the school. That confirmed her choice. She applied and got a merit scholarship to help cover the costs of the out-of-state tuition. Because of her scholarship, the cost was about the same as if she attended a MN state school.

Tip: If your student is considering CMU from outside of Colorado, be sure to apply early and consider a merit scholarship to reduce the cost of tuition. It can save you up to $7500 annually for each year of attendance.

Tip: If you live in Colorado, look up The CMU Promise. “CMU promises an opportunity for a better life through education. If your family earns $70,000 or less the cost of your classes is covered and we will teach you how to think, not what to believe.”

Early Start Option called FYI

This was so worth it! Because we lived out of state, our daughter didn’t attend the standard Orientation the summer before she started at CMU. Therefore, we brought her a week early to participate in FYI (Freshman Year Initiative). That was one of the best decisions. She got to move in early when it wasn’t so crowded and learn more about the campus before all of the students arrived. She went to class and earned 2 elective credit hours that week. She met most of her roommates as they came early too. She became friends with others in her class that have become live-long friends. She even met her future husband during that time!

CMU describes FYI as a chance for students to ease into the transition from high school to college. We knew our daughter was prepared academically, this helped her in other ways, and she loved it.

Tip: It was a wonderful experience for us parents too. Getting to know the other parents on move-in day and discovering more about the campus in a less crowded environment.

CMU Communication

Our daughter started fall of 2019. She completed one “regular” semester, then covid hit in March 2020. They were forced to move out and finish their semesters at home. The current CMU President, John Marshall, was the Vice President at that time and he lead a wonderful team with a health major professor to keep us parents informed during covid. They did group phone calls were we could ask questions. They held Facebook Live chats where they kept us informed and we could ask questions. They communicated frequently via email.

The following fall the were able to accommodate all students coming back to campus and having a mix of in-person and online classes when most larger universities only offered online classes. They are so committed to serving their students. I remember raving to my friends what a great job they did communicating and my friends with kids at other colleges were jealous.

Their website is a great resource, lots of information and easy to search.  They have a Resource section for Parents and Families. You can follow them on social media, there is a Facebook group for parents. And once your student is accepted, they send frequent emails explaining the process and the opportunities. As a parent of an alumni, I still get some emails from John Marshall when he has news to share and I love it.

Lodging for CMU College Visit

We stayed at the Holiday Inn Express near the Mesa Mall on our first visit. When we came for The Mesa Experience, we stayed downtown at the Fairfield Inn & Suites. For visits over her attendance at CMU we stayed at the La Quinta near the airport. All were great. I recommend staying downtown on at least one visit to immerse yourself in the downtown area. It’s a real gem. Shops, dining, entertainment, artwork, and now there’s a CMU store on Main Street!

Hotel Maverick opened after she graduated. We have dined there but have not stayed. I think that would be a great immersive experience as well. Their food is fantastic as well as the roof-top views.

It’s very easy to get around Grand Junction. If you fly here, check out Paul’s post called The Grand Junction Airport Experience. Our 6-gate airport with rental cars on site is very impressive!

Get an REI Membership

One more tip. If you don’t have one already, walk into the local REI store, ask for Josh Kolb (our son-in-law) and get signed up for REI Membership, and maybe the REI credit card. When we dropped our daughter off, we went to REI and bought her a mountain bike and a heavy-duty lock. She had a sleeping bag and water bottle and that was about it. She made many trips to REI while she was in school and took advantage of their sales and their generous return policy. They take back used items if they don’t work out for you and resell them in the “garage sale” section of the store. The store is a great asset to the community because there are so many opportunities for outdoor adventures around here.

Overall CMU Experience

We hope you have enjoyed the parent tips for Colorado Mesa University families. Overall, it was a wonderful experience as a parent to have our child attend CMU. She absolutely loved it, especially weekend trips with her friends to so many great places. Lots of laughs and life-long friendships.

Why we moved to Grand Junction

I’ll never forget Parents Weekend the first year. We came in October for a short visit. On the day we left, we met our daughter at the library on campus and got bagels and coffee. We watched her walk off to class and we sat outside to eat our breakfast. The sun was warm on our faces, it was in the 70’s and we were captivated with the area and the warmth. We said to each other that we could see ourselves retiring here someday. That was 2019.

We kept that thought in the back of our minds until after our second daughter went to Arizona for her college experience. They both said they weren’t coming back to Minnesota. So, we put our plan in motion and moved to Grand Junction in 2023. No regrets whatsoever. We created this website a few months later and have been so thankful to be here and discover everything around here. It’s been one of the best decisions we have ever made. You can read Paul’s post about what we learned in the first 3 months of living here and other posts about our transition and the move across-country.

And if you want to look at any houses while you are here on a visit, connect with Paul. He’d be happy to show you properties currently on the market or about to be listed. Read more about his real estate experience on the About Paul Aspelin page.

P.S. One more tip, read our post about Retiring in Grand Junction because CMU also offers classes for those 60+ at a discounted rate using their CMU Golden Scholars Program!

Written by Michelle Aspelin

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