[Austin Moore]: Hello, my name is Austin Moore, and I’m an admissions counselor here with the Boise State University admissions office. I’m really excited that you’re taking the time to learn more about Boise State University. As a proud alumni, I’m also excited to pull from my experiences and share more about what it’s like to be a student here on campus.
I love to start off all my information sessions just talking a little bit about where we’re located. We are in the capital city of Boise, Idaho, which is also the largest city here in the state. We are the largest public institution as well. When we look at our location, we’re pretty lucky to be right on the banks of the Boise River. Truly a 20 minute walk from our campus into our metropolitan city of downtown Boise.
A lot of our students take advantage of that location for recreational opportunities around the arts, or food scene, or music scene, but also to find a quiet study spot, maybe off-campus at a local coffee shop.
Being on the banks of the river also brings some pretty world-class outdoor opportunities, whether that’s floating the Boise River in the summertime to beat the heat, going on a local hike, or walking the green belt, which is over 25 miles through our city. It is a pretty unique location and we hear that a lot from students once we get them on campus to tour, that this is maybe not what they’re expecting, and we’d love to share more about it.
As we look at on-campus life and just kind of day-to-day life as a student, one thing that always comes up is housing. The opportunity to live in the residence halls, whether that’s your first year or all four years on campus. When we look at first year housing, we are able to offer 10 different residence halls for our students.
That can really range anywhere from a communal-style hall, where you share a room with another student who you get to choose as your roommate, or up to a suite style hall, where you get your own room, but you share a suite with maybe three other students or up to seven other students. It’s really what you’re looking for in the experience that you’re looking to get out of that first year.
Although we don’t require students to live on campus, we do highly encourage it and would love for students to live on campus whether that be, again, your freshman year all the way up through your senior year.
Something that goes hand in hand with living on campus, though, is also getting involved, finding opportunities outside of just going to class or just going back to your room, to build your community, to meet new people, to maybe try something new. We have students coming from all over the world and all over the U. S. And this is a really great opportunity, again, to meet some people outside of maybe just those who you’re living with or who you’re sharing a major with.
With Student Involvement, we have over 210 student-run clubs right now on campus that are anything from a hobby based club, maybe that’s our ski and snowboard club. Maybe it’s student government, wanting to hold more of a leadership role on campus, maybe it’s study abroad or finding an on-campus employment opportunity. We really encourage students again to find something outside of just going to class, to enhance their time at Boise State, and to again build their community.
Here at Boise State University, we have about 16,000 undergraduate students on our campus. However, our average class size is right around 30, giving you those opportunities of a big school with still some of the more small, hands-on approaches of getting to know your academic advisors, engaging with your professors, and knowing those people in your major.
When we start to look at academic areas of study, we offer over 200 areas of interest broken down into seven different academic colleges. So whether you know what you want to study from the time you apply, or maybe you’re still exploring, just know that undeclared is consistently one of our top programs for incoming students.
We will give you the tools and resources when you get to campus to help find that major that’s right for you. And just know whatever major you choose, we offer those hands-on learning opportunities through on-campus or out in the community internships, or through undergraduate research with your professors and your classmates.
So you’re ready to take your next steps. Our application process is straightforward. All that we need is your online application and your transcripts. Once we have those materials, you’ll get an admissions decision within about three to four weeks.
We also offer in-state and out-of-state automatic merit-based scholarships based on your GPA in that transcript that you sent, so make sure to keep up on our dates and deadlines to know what you might qualify for.
We have an incredible team here in the Boise State Admissions Office, and we are here to support you with any questions that you have. All of us admissions counselors offer opportunities tor text, phone call, or maybe even set up a virtual one-on-one appointment. We also offer great campus tours, and ways to visit campus and get to see for yourself if this is the next step for you. We offer Monday through Friday daily campus tours, and quite a few select Saturdays throughout the year as well, so be sure to check out our website and our calendars.
But with that, I really appreciate you taking the time to learn a little bit more about Boise State University. Please let us know how we can help, and as always, Go Broncos!