Located in the Rocky Mountains at an elevation of about 2,350 meters above sea level in Gunnison, Colorado, Western Colorado University was founded in 1901 as State Teachers College and renamed to its current name in 2019. The university has approximately 3,500 undergraduate students and offers more than 100 undergraduate and master's programs in the fields of arts and sciences, engineering, biology, business, environment, and education. The campus is unique in that it allows students to participate in field studies of biology, geology and the environment, and to experience the “mountain as classroom” model of education. Small class sizes (averaging 17 students in a classroom) emphasize hands-on learning and student-faculty interaction, and graduates have excellent salary and employment rates. In addition, the school's athletic team, the Mountaineers, competes in NCAA Division II with 11 teams in skiing, soccer, and football.
#183 in Best Colleges for Sports Management in America
#6 79 in Colleges with the Best Professors in America
#196 in Best Colleges for Environmental Science in America
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