University of Denver

Responses from the Student Interview

From a student  who identifies as Major: Finance
Minors: Business Analytics and Psychology double minor
Student Self Identifies as: White Straight Female

Summary

I’m part of a service fraternity, and I’ve been doing an internship for the past year.

Background

Gender Identity: Female
Race/Ethnicity: White
Sexual Orientation: Straight

High School Experience: Public high school in Evergreen, Colorado with a graduating class of about 250 students. There was a culture of going to college
First-Generation College Student: No
Major: Finance
Minors: Business Analytics and Psychology double minor

Extracurricular Activities: I’m part of a service fraternity, and I’ve been doing an internship for the past year.
Did any of your extracurricular activities have a particularly big impact on your experience?
The service fraternity definitely turned my experience around a lot. I met people that had a lot of similar values.

Academic Experience

Can you describe your weekly coursework for your major?
There is usually weekly online math homework, but you get unlimited tries and it’s just for practice. Then, we have three tests a quarter, one or two projects, and individual assignments for practice each week.
Is there anything you feel that your major’s department does especially well or poorly?
They have an academic advisor specifically for Finance majors since it’s the most popular business major. That helped me in getting my internship and staying on top of things. They also have a career services center just for business students instead of the whole school. They make you meet checkpoints to keep you on track.
How would you describe the learning environment? Do you think it’s particularly competitive or collaborative?
It’s pretty collaborative. The business school does a lot of group projects to prepare you for business after college. It can be competitive, but it just depends on who you’re hanging out with.
How accessible are your professors?
Most of them are pretty easy going. If you email them about a question, they can figure out a time you can meet with them or they can answer it over email. We don’t have TAs in the [upper-level classes, so if I have a problem] I mostly go to office hours or email the professor to set up a different meeting time.
Why did you choose your major? Are you happy with your choice?
I wanted to do accounting and decided junior year while studying abroad. I came back and realized I couldn’t graduate on time if I did that, so I’ve always heard finance is kind of close to that. Looking back, I’m a lot happier I did finance instead of having to get a master’s degree in accounting.
What has been your favorite part of DU academically?
I really like how small the classes are. You get a lot more one on one time with the professor and a lot more attention from them in general. I think you feel a lot more valued.
What has DU done to prepare you for the real world?
We have to do Daniel’s Professional Development Program (DPDP) where you have to go to certain to graduate on time. You have to create a LinkedIn profile, go to career services events, and job fairs. It’s made me reach out and prepare for that, and the coursework is so collaborative that it prepares you to work in teams when you graduate.
How does the quarter system impact your academic experience?
Now it’s all I know, but at first, it was hard getting used to it because all my friends from high school would be done for summer and I’d still be in school. Now I love it a lot more. I love being free during breaks and not having to worry about coming back from Thanksgiving and spring break and doing finals. I like how it’s very split up.

Reasons to Attend

1) The study abroad opportunities.
2) The business school is pretty well-defined. There’s a lot of one-on-one help with the class sizes being small.

Reasons Not to Attend

1) If you want to go into a more technical or science field, you may not want to at DU because it’s more science and business-focused.

Around Campus

Where have you lived on and around campus?
Freshman: Centennial Hall in a double
Sophomore: Nelson Hall in a single with four other suitemates
Junior: Studied abroad – After coming back I lived in a house with four roommates
Senior: Apartment with one roommate
How do you like going to school near your hometown?
It was definitely good freshman and sophomore year. I was dealing with a lot and was able to go home when I needed to. Now it’s great too because I can tell my parents to come if they needed to, but otherwise, I have my own space and can be on my own. I like having them around in case of emergencies.
Can you describe the level of safety you’ve experienced on and around campus?
It feels pretty safe and now they’re doing a lot more to prevent gender-based violence because an Instagram page came up that anonymously talked about everyone’s gender-based experiences, so now they’re doing a lot to combat that.

Social Opportunities

What kind of weekend activities or nightlife do you like to participate in?
On the weekends my friends and I will go for hikes, or stay around DU and go to coffee shops or Washington Park if it’s nice out. In the winter, we’ll ski. Now that we’re 21, we’ll go out downtown. There are lots of parties at the houses around campus. There’s always a party for some sports team, and on the same night there will be a random person’s party, but not a lot through fraternities or sororities.
What is the impact of Greek life on nightlife?
Coming into school I thought it was going to be a huge thing that I didn’t want to join Greek life. I’ve had no problems, and if I want to go out, I can go out. It’s not as big of a deal at DU because not a lot of people are involved in Greek life. [About 28% of women join sororities and 25% join fraternities.]
How happy are you with the weekend activities or nightlife at DU? Is there anything you would change if you could?
I have a car so it’s pretty good for me. If you don’t have a car it’s a lot harder to get out of the DU area, so I’d probably change something and have a shuttle that went to the mountains. I think there’s a train that takes you to Winter Park Resort, but it’s really long and you’re there all day. [See more information on Denver’s bus and train system here.]
What have been some of your favorite times at DU?
Normally the spring when you’re able to be outside and study, and hockey season because hockey is a big deal here.

Campus Culture

How did you meet your closest friends?
One of them was my freshman year roommate., but a lot of my friends I met through study abroad.
How would you describe the overall social scene at DU?
It’s less cliquey. Freshman and sophomore year there were lots of groups and people would just hang out with the people in their group. After junior year when everyone gets back from study abroad, everyone hangs out with everybody.
To what extent do people of different races and sexual orientations mix socially?
I think different races mix fine. It’s common to see diverse groups of friends around campus. [The undergraduate population is 68% White, 12% Hispanic, 4% Asian, and 2% Black.]
To what extent do people in Greek life and not in Greek life mix socially?
Sophomore year is more separated because everyone lives in the house if they’re in Greek life. Freshman year and after sophomore year it doesn’t matter, people mix pretty much all the time.
How would you describe the student body?
Something everyone has always thought is missing from DU is the school pride that lots of other schools have. We don’t have a football team or anything to really rally behind. There are lots of rich students because it’s a private university, but that’s not all you’ll find. [Socioeconomically, 65% of DU families come from the top 20%.]
How do you like the size of DU in terms of undergraduate enrollment? How has it impacted your experience? [There are about 6,000 undergraduate students at DU.]
I love the size of DU because all of my classes are thirty people or less. Coming in freshman year, I had no clue what I wanted to do, so I had a lot of chances to go sit in on or take a class that I wasn’t sure I wanted to major it. I could talk to the professors individually and get to know them a lot more to help figure out what I wanted to do. [90% of classes have less than 30 students in them.]
Do people generally seem happy with their choice of DU by senior year? Do people leave loving DU?
Yeah, definitely. The people who don’t love it transfer freshman year. By now, pretty much everyone loves it.

Careers

Has the alumni network helped you find internships or jobs?
There are lots of opportunities on our Pioneer Careers page, which is how I got my job for after graduation.
What have you used the career office for? How helpful have they been?
I used the career office when I was looking to switch into Finance as my major, then again when talking about internships. They helped me narrow down what section of finance I wanted to go into and what kind of job titles are out there.
Have you learned any computer programs or computer languages that will be helpful professionally?
My minor in Business Analytics is highly centered on that. I just got my Microsoft Excel certification, and through the minor, I’ve done VBA coding, SQL, Python, R, and Microsoft Access. [Business analytics] has pretty structured courses, so you’ll learn two programs at a time then move up as you go. My finance courses have used R and Excel, but that’s it.

Financial Aid

Have you used financial aid? If so, how accommodating was the office to your needs?
I’ve used financial aid and it’s gotten easier for me. During the fall quarter of my senior year, they reached out and said they found a scholarship I was eligible for and they just gave it to me. All I had to do was write a thank you letter to the person.