Name: A Journey to Ram Country: Academics and Adventure at Colorado State With Nick Jurney
Uploaded: 2026-01-16T17:41:49.000Z
Duration: 16 min 42 s
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Welcome back to another episode of Breaking Boundaries, the world's premier podcast for international students, or at least in the top 800.

I'm John Clark with the TOEFL program, and

I'm joined here today by Nick Journey with Colorado State University.

Nick, thank you for coming on the podcast.

Now, Nick, I was looking at some data before our conversation, and

I saw that There are nearly 10,000 international students in the state of Colorado.

So Colorado has an enormous amount of folks from overseas.

I noted, too, that about a quarter of these students in the state of Colorado are from India.

So the best way I can describe Colorado State is that it's nestled in the shadow of the Rocky Mountains, which are kind of America's Himalayas.

That's completely fair, and that's definitely one of our draws, Colorado.

Sometimes for international students, it can be hard to know geographically, you know, where.

What is that square state in the middle of the country.

And Colorado is definitely kind of a destination state because we do have the Rocky Mountains.

Our campus is an hour away from some of the most beautiful scenery that you can see, certainly in the United States.

And I would posit, even in the world, just phenomenal views, great hikes, skiing, biking, wildlife, some really fun things to do in the.

I grew up in Oklahoma, which is even more square and even more in the middle of the country.

And we would go to Colorado every summer for family vacations.

And the common sentiment among Coloradans was, oh, gosh, here come the Texans and the Californians.

So it's fair to say that folks in areas of the US which may be more popular and famous, are.

Some peak tourist seasons around ski time.

So it's ski season right now, and we see a lot of.

A lot of folks coming in from out of state.

And again, a lot of outdoor activities, whether you're into to again, like biking, hiking, all of that.

It's a really, really pleasant place year round.

We like to boast that we get all four seasons, which is.

We get springtime with wildflowers blooming.

And then the winter, you get to experience that famous Colorado snow.

Now let's dive in a little bit more to the university itself.

Colorado State is a very large public university, and

it's been growing over the past few decades as more Americans go to Colorado.

What types of support services are available for students from overseas?

I'll start by making a plug for my own office.

So it kind of starts before international students even arrive on campus.

We are the international enrollment center.

So we're dedicated solely to helping students through the application process, helping them submit their materials, helping them get their i20 document.

All of that happens within the walls that I'm sitting in right now.

So a very, a very supportive office from the start.

Once you arrive on campus, the Office of International Programs, specifically International Student and Scholar Services team, is here to help students from the point of orientation through graduation and beyond.

So students have access to programming, so events to help them integrate with the campus community, the culture, the United States immigration, advising on, on call all the time to help with, with those visas.

You have, you know, dedicated tutoring support on campus.

You have an on campus health network that is phenomenal.

So access to health services, whether that's physical health, mental health, really robust safety resources.

If a student doesn't necessarily want to walk late at night from the library, they're studying late, they want to go back to their dorm, it's late, they don't feel comfortable, call campus safewalk.

Somebody will meet you at the library and walk with you to your dorm.

So again, these are just a tip of the iceberg of the services and support that are here on campus.

We are the Colorado State University Rams, so we really take care of one another here at csu.

And international students will have no shortage of support.

I appreciate the distinction because in nature, the picture I have of Rams is that of butting heads.

In fact, we have a living Ram on campus who makes frequent appearances.

He makes frequent appearances at campus events, sporting events, those kinds of things.

So students can even take a picture with the friendliest Ram that they'll ever meet.

It dawns on me this may be unique to the American college sports culture, but I love this.

Now, going back to the beginning of the process, since you're an admissions Expert, I'd like to drill down a little bit further on this on admissions.

Do you have any advice for international students with respect to what Colorado State is looking for in an applicant?

So we really try to make it as easy as possible to apply to Colorado State University.

What that means is we're committed to access.

Our university was founded in 1852, I believe, so we've been around for a really long time.

We're the state's land grant institution, so we want as many students as possible to have access to a high quality education for international students.

What that means, we want to see that you have, you know, you, you graduated a secondary school, so your high school, or you're in progress of obtaining those, that certification, or if you're a master's student, we want to see that you've completed a bachelor's degree or the equivalent, and

we want to see that you were successful in that program.

We like to say a 3.0 GPA equivalent and our team will help convert that GPA if necessary.

So if your school grading system is a little different, we can help convert it into a US GPA, but

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A Journey to Ram Country: Academics and Adventure at Colorado State With Nick Jurney

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