About the University

History: CSU was founded as the Agricultural College of Colorado in 1870. It opened to the first students in 1879. In 1935 the school became the Colorado State College of Agriculture and Mechanical Arts, or Colorado A&M. It became Colorado State University in 1957.

Location: Fort Collins is a midsize city of approximately 126,000 located in northern Colorado at the base of the Rocky Mountains, 60 miles north of Denver. Fort Collins was named Best Small Town in the West by Money magazine.

The Oval

Campus: The 669-acre main campus in Fort Collins includes 103 acres for the Veterinary Teaching Hospital. Along the foothills is a 1,715-acre campus and northeast of Fort Collins is an 891-acre agricultural campus. In the mountains is the 1,177-acre Pingree Park campus. The university also has 3,999 acres of land for research centers and Colorado State Forest Service stations located outside of Larimer County.

Character: Colorado State University is a land-grant institution and a Carnegie Doctoral/Research University-Extensive. CSU consists of eight colleges and 55 academic departments.

• College of Agricultural Sciences
• College of Applied Human Sciences
• College of Business
• College of Engineering
• College of Liberal Arts
• College of Natural Resources
• College of Natural Sciences
• College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences

Faculty: CSU has 1,520 faculty members, 960 of whom are on regular tenure-track appointments. Of these tenure-track faculty, 99% hold terminal degrees. The ratio of students to faculty is 17 to 1.

Other Employees: In addition to faculty, CSU employs 1,775 administrative professionals, 2,200 state-classified employees, 1,560 graduate assistants, and 180 postdoctorates, making CSU the city of Fort Collins' largest employer.

Enrollment: CSU enrolls approximately 24,700 regular, on-campus students representing every state and 89 foreign countries. Colorado residents comprise 78% of all students. About 12% of U. S. students are ethnic minorities. The entering freshman class totals 3,830 students. On average, entering freshmen rank in the 74th percentile, bring a 3.49 grade-point average, and have an average composite score of 24.2 or an SAT combined score of 1,107.

Lory Student Center

Degrees: In the 2002 - 2003 school year, 3,977 bachelor's degrees were awarded in 66 fields, 1,027 master's degrees were awarded in 62 fields, 182 doctoral awards awarded in 40 fields and 132 professional degrees awarded in Veterinary Medicine.

Accreditation & Rankings: Accredited by the Higher Learning Commission and a member of the North Central Association and numerous other accrediting organizations. CSU is ranked as a prestigious "Tier 2" university in the U.S. News & World Report rankings of "America's Best Colleges and Universities." The Professional Veterinary Medicine program is ranked second in the nation by the U.S. News & World Report and is ranked first in the country in federal research dollars.

Research: Total research expenditures in FY03 were $199 million. Of this $60 million is from nonfederal sources, $139 million from federal sources.

Libraries: The CSU Libraries holdings include more than two million books, bound journals and government docutments. There are more than 300 public terminals available to access specialized indexes and web-based sources. The Libraries maintains 8000 journal subscriptions and more than 1800 subscription-based electronic resources available on site or by remote access.

• 1 Templeton Prize
• 4 National Academy of Science Members
• 3 National Academy of Engineering Members
• 3 Guggenheim Fellows
• 23 Fulbright Scholars
• 8 Sloan Research Fellows
• 11 Alexander von Humboldt Fellows
• 5 NIH Fogarty Senior International Fellows
• 24 NSF Presidential Young Investigator/Career Development Awards
• 4 NIH MERIT/Career Development Awards
• 1 Howard Hughes Medical Foundation Fellow
• 3 Ford Foundation Fellows
• 1 Carnegie Foundation Fellow
• 2 NSF Presidential Faculty Fellows

• Biotechnology and Biosciences
• Animal Reproduction and Biotechnology Laboratory
• Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
• Molecular, Cellular, and Integrative Neurosciences Program
• Human and Animal Health
• Program in Infectious Diseases
• Department of Occupational Therapy
• Radiological Health Sciences and Cancer Research Program
• Environmental and Ecological Sciences
• Department of Atmospheric Science
• Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory
• Center for Environmental Toxicology and Technology
• Social Sciences
• Tri-Ethnic Center for Prevention Research
• Center for Research on Writing and Communication Technologies
• Physical and Engineering Sciences
• Department of Chemistry
• Optoelectronic Computing Systems Center
• Water Management Science and Technology Program

International Programs: CSU has more than 1,100 foreign students and scholars engaged in academic work on campus. CSU is consistently one of the top-ranking universities in the nation for the recruitment of Peace Corps volunteers.

University Honors Program: CSU provides an optional living and learning community for its 920 honors program participants in an on-campus residence hall.

Student Life: Three hundred student organizations that focus on academic, social and athletic interests and 27 honor societies are available to CSU students. About 60% of the student population participates in intramural sports while 8% joins one of 21 fraternities or 15 soroities.

Athletics: Colorado State University is a member of the National Collegiate Athlectic Association (NCAA) at the Division 1 level - Mountain West Conference (MWC). The university sponsors 15 intercollegiate sports programs. Facilities include Sonny Lubick Field at Hughest Stadium (capacity 30,000) and Moby Arena (capacity 8,745). In the 2002-2003 season CSU won MWC championships in football, volleyball, men's basketball and softball.

Residence Life: The Fort Collins campus has 10 residence halls that house about 4,500 students along with 718 apartment units for students with families and 190 apartments for older or graduate students.

The Arts: Students, faculty, staff and the Fort Collins community enjoy more than 300 performances, exhibits and other art events annually. Facilites include the Hatton Gallery, the Curfman Gallery, the Music Recital Hall, the Lory Student Center Theater, and the Johnson Hall Main Stage.

Outreach: CSU maintains Cooperative Extension offices in 59 of 64 Colorado counties to deliver research-based information and educational programs to Coloradoans. The Colorado State Forest Service has 18 district offices statewide to provide information and programs on forest management, wildfire protection, community forestry, and conservation education. Eight Colorado Agricultural Experiment Station research centers conduct site-specific research on agriculture and related issues important to the state's social and economic well being. Continuing Education offers a wide range of credit and non-credit educational opportunities available on-campus and off-campus in various distance education formats.