I'm starting to look at colleges right now. What colleges in the U.S. have mountain bike programs (downhill preferably) or downhilling close by? I'm on the east coast (Virginia) but if its necessary I will travel long distances. Thanks
college
- Thread starter metalMTB
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I believe Fort Lewis in Colorado has a bike program that includes DH.
UVM is pretty good if you want east coast and like to ski. CU if you want rockies and like to ski. Ft lewis has a great bike program, but can't match the academics of either of the other 2 mentioned.
I was thinking more towards the southern virgnia, western north carolina, eastern tennennesse, west virginia area and the southeast (s. colorado, ARIZONA) and the oregon area. I would like it to be fairly warm or at least be able to ride year around and hopefully a resort or two pretty close by and have a biking scene.
U of Arizona has a good cycling club, there are three DH riders on it right now. I have contact info if you need it.
Also Ft. Lewis in Durango as said above has a good program.
Also Ft. Lewis in Durango as said above has a good program.
Cal Poly SLO and UCSB don't necessarily have DH clubs, but great riding and riding communities in the area. Besides, everyone knows the west coast is the best coast.
University of Colorado
Fort Lewis College
Mesa State
Colorado State
University of Vermont
Lindsey Wilson College
Lees McCray College
Cal Poly SLO
University of Wyoming
University of New Mexico
Nevada
Chico State
That's pretty much everybody who shows up at collegiate nationals every year. I may have missed a few. No one other than CU (University of Colorado) and Fort Lewis has ever won the national title, in fact no one else has ever gotten better than 3rd. The Cal schools dont have much in the way of organized teams but there is lots of riding to be done almost 365 days a year. Colorado doesnt have quite the riding season Cal does but we were downhilling 2 days ago in shorts and T-shirts, so it certainly beats the hell out of the east coast. We also have resorts that actaully let you ride in the summer. If you can handle riding in the cold sometimes you could still probably ride 300+ days a year, in general both Durango and Boulder recieve very little snowfall despite the common perception that colorado is just buried in snow all the time. I am from Maryland and currently at CU, and it is generally far more mild here in the winter. The mountain states conference is definately the place to be, not only as far as the most competitive teams but also the most races to be done. One of our collegiate races this year was actually on the world cup course at angelfire, and Nationals is being held there for 06. Hopefully that helps, good luck with the college hunt and if you have any questions about CU or how much Fort Lewis sucks
, feel free to PM me.
Fort Lewis College
Mesa State
Colorado State
University of Vermont
Lindsey Wilson College
Lees McCray College
Cal Poly SLO
University of Wyoming
University of New Mexico
Nevada
Chico State
That's pretty much everybody who shows up at collegiate nationals every year. I may have missed a few. No one other than CU (University of Colorado) and Fort Lewis has ever won the national title, in fact no one else has ever gotten better than 3rd. The Cal schools dont have much in the way of organized teams but there is lots of riding to be done almost 365 days a year. Colorado doesnt have quite the riding season Cal does but we were downhilling 2 days ago in shorts and T-shirts, so it certainly beats the hell out of the east coast. We also have resorts that actaully let you ride in the summer. If you can handle riding in the cold sometimes you could still probably ride 300+ days a year, in general both Durango and Boulder recieve very little snowfall despite the common perception that colorado is just buried in snow all the time. I am from Maryland and currently at CU, and it is generally far more mild here in the winter. The mountain states conference is definately the place to be, not only as far as the most competitive teams but also the most races to be done. One of our collegiate races this year was actually on the world cup course at angelfire, and Nationals is being held there for 06. Hopefully that helps, good luck with the college hunt and if you have any questions about CU or how much Fort Lewis sucks
, feel free to PM me.
http://usacycling.org/ncca/ That'll get you started. The collegiate cycling conference is a great way to combine college with bike riding. Keep in mind the school year includes the winter, so you probably want to go to a place with some good weather. Try a search, every couple months someone asks the same question, and check out the threads on the collegiate national championships in Seven Springs, PA.
What are you interested in studying? I know this is a mountain biking website, but you shouldn't base your choice on what school has the best mountain biking team. I go to Lehigh University and while our team isn't very good, I'm still happy with my decision. You're paying alot of money for an education, so you should try to get the most out of it. My friend goes to fort leisure and I don't think he's too impressed with the academics, but at least he's having a great time.
Let me know if you have any questions about schools in the ECCC (eastern collegiate cycling conference), I go to most of the races in the ECCC series as well as nationals.
By the way if you're interested in engineering and you want to race DH, we have lots of great riding here Lehigh, the school owns South Mountain and so we build lots of trails. The locals have even been trail building all winter. Our team is Division 2 and I managed 7th at Nats. in DH and other riders from here managed 3rd and 4th in XC
Let me know if you have any questions about schools in the ECCC (eastern collegiate cycling conference), I go to most of the races in the ECCC series as well as nationals.
By the way if you're interested in engineering and you want to race DH, we have lots of great riding here Lehigh, the school owns South Mountain and so we build lots of trails. The locals have even been trail building all winter. Our team is Division 2 and I managed 7th at Nats. in DH and other riders from here managed 3rd and 4th in XC
I'm interested in engineering, probably mechanical. I actually have been thinking about Vermont, just a little unsure about how I'll like the weather. Don't ask me why but the weather is a big factor in my life.
western washington University has a club team and is close to the shore and whistler. dh, xc and road, www.wwucycling.com/ , riding all year round but iit is a bit wet this time of year.
I had a scholarship to vermont and really liked the school but turned it down to come to CU, simply because Burlington is retardedly cold. A friend of a friend died there my freshman year by freezing to death while stumbling home from a party. There's nothing worse that sitting in your room all day working and not being able to go and ride to blow off steam. CU's engineering program is pretty well ranked and the school is well equipped. You cant go wrong with Cal-Poly, but your grades better be pretty amazing if you want to get in there.metalMTB said:
UCSB or SLO, like I said. Awesome mechanical engineering programs at each (though SLO has a slight edge), pristine weather year round, and trails good enough to keep you occupied no matter what your skill level.
Edit: I got into both schools when I was applying in HS. My grades certainely weren't spectacular (~3.1 unweighted GPA) but my test scores were high enough to get me into either. The req's say they want you to meet or exceed all the standards they list. I didn't meet the GPA or class rank standards for either but got into both. If you think you're slightly below the level a certain school is expecting, apply anyway, you'll probably be surprised.
Edit: I got into both schools when I was applying in HS. My grades certainely weren't spectacular (~3.1 unweighted GPA) but my test scores were high enough to get me into either. The req's say they want you to meet or exceed all the standards they list. I didn't meet the GPA or class rank standards for either but got into both. If you think you're slightly below the level a certain school is expecting, apply anyway, you'll probably be surprised.
Teh university of yootah, of course!!!
I don't think we have a cycling team...but the riding is killer...and if you want to be a doctor or lawyer, coming here is a good idea.
I don't think we have a cycling team...but the riding is killer...and if you want to be a doctor or lawyer, coming here is a good idea.
University of northern arizona has some good riding, and lift access year round for all sorts of sh!t 17mins away
Where's the lift access at?
I don't think I have the grades for virginia tech. I would like to go there though. 
One of my buddies goes to Cal Poly SLO. i know that they do compete and they have a very solid riding community there. Here at SDSU there is a cycling team but i'm not sure how serious they are about DH. i do know they have one pro rider so they must be kinda serious.
northeastern in boston has a pretty good cycling program. even though its not extremely close to dh stuff, its one of the better choices for an engineering school with a good cycling program.
ETSU has a DS course on campus 
We had Sanjay, 'nuff said; we win. 
another vote for Virginia Tech - great engineering school - growing DH/FR/everything club (around 23 active members right now)
check out www.freeride.org.vt.edu plenty of pics on the media gallery
-Mike T
check out www.freeride.org.vt.edu plenty of pics on the media gallery
-Mike T
My opinion on schools with good MTB programs and engineering
In Colorado:
University of Colorado
Colorado State University
Colorado School of Mines
California:
Cal Poly
East Coast:
University of Vermont
Virginia Tech
I go to CU, and there isn't another school I would want to be at. Probably the best balance of school, riding, skiing, and partying. In that order of course.
I've ridden almost everyday for the past month, including one day of DH shuttling. The rest are DJ sessions at a bunch of different spots. This is probably the best place for me, unless I could make a million without going to college and move to Whistler.
Don't base your decision on MTB program either. You'll spend about 4 years in school, during the mtb "offseason," and your career choice is gonna effect you for the rest of your life. Unless you're in the top 20 in the world in DH, you can't race your bike if you don't have a job to make money.
In Colorado:
University of Colorado
Colorado State University
Colorado School of Mines
California:
Cal Poly
East Coast:
University of Vermont
Virginia Tech
I go to CU, and there isn't another school I would want to be at. Probably the best balance of school, riding, skiing, and partying. In that order of course.
I've ridden almost everyday for the past month, including one day of DH shuttling. The rest are DJ sessions at a bunch of different spots. This is probably the best place for me, unless I could make a million without going to college and move to Whistler. Don't base your decision on MTB program either. You'll spend about 4 years in school, during the mtb "offseason," and your career choice is gonna effect you for the rest of your life. Unless you're in the top 20 in the world in DH, you can't race your bike if you don't have a job to make money.
From an overall standpoint, on the east coast the "best" team is UVM as far as results...we almost always host the easters, cause we win it.
I happen to go there and love it. Our team is really big, if not one of the biggest...There are almost 20+ downhillers (several of them semi pro/pro) and tons of xc/road people too. We are super lucky that our school gives us tons of support as far as vans, hotels, jerseys, sponsors, etc. We have it pretty damn good, considering a lot of the school we race against make jerseys out of spraypainted t-shirts, and a lot if not most of the teams pay out of their own pockets for most of the stuff. UVM has for sure one of the best if not the best programs on the east coast just by a budget standpoint im sure.
For the winter...we are just getting into it but its not bad. There are a couple good to decent skateparks within 5 to 10 minutes of our school, one of them indoor. I still ride skatepark several times a week...plus there is killer snowboarding everywhere close.\
its weird the correlation between cycling and engineering..because im not joking that about 70-80 percent of our dh kids are engineering and a ton of xc kids too. Im one of the few who isnt so I cant really comment on how good it is, but its pretty popular and ive heard its a good program here. If you come here for engineering and you ride bikes you pretty much instantly know about 40 people through the cycling team.
as for other schools, northeastern does pretty well too and their school seems to help them out, and they have a good amount of kids too. Im sure youll be happy wherever. If you want to know anything else feel free to AIM me .
as for closeness to downhilling, we have bolton valley less then 30 minutes away, and bromont is an hour and a half away. Bolton has a fun 4x course, 20 foot table, and great trails. Never been to bromont yet, but ive heard its amazing. When there isnt a race, there is usually always kids going there on weekends. Burlington in general has an awesome scene with so many riders concentrated here. With ebbett and smutok around the riding scene has exploded and there are just a ton of riders.
I happen to go there and love it. Our team is really big, if not one of the biggest...There are almost 20+ downhillers (several of them semi pro/pro) and tons of xc/road people too. We are super lucky that our school gives us tons of support as far as vans, hotels, jerseys, sponsors, etc. We have it pretty damn good, considering a lot of the school we race against make jerseys out of spraypainted t-shirts, and a lot if not most of the teams pay out of their own pockets for most of the stuff. UVM has for sure one of the best if not the best programs on the east coast just by a budget standpoint im sure.
For the winter...we are just getting into it but its not bad. There are a couple good to decent skateparks within 5 to 10 minutes of our school, one of them indoor. I still ride skatepark several times a week...plus there is killer snowboarding everywhere close.\
its weird the correlation between cycling and engineering..because im not joking that about 70-80 percent of our dh kids are engineering and a ton of xc kids too. Im one of the few who isnt so I cant really comment on how good it is, but its pretty popular and ive heard its a good program here. If you come here for engineering and you ride bikes you pretty much instantly know about 40 people through the cycling team.
as for other schools, northeastern does pretty well too and their school seems to help them out, and they have a good amount of kids too. Im sure youll be happy wherever. If you want to know anything else feel free to AIM me .
as for closeness to downhilling, we have bolton valley less then 30 minutes away, and bromont is an hour and a half away. Bolton has a fun 4x course, 20 foot table, and great trails. Never been to bromont yet, but ive heard its amazing. When there isnt a race, there is usually always kids going there on weekends. Burlington in general has an awesome scene with so many riders concentrated here. With ebbett and smutok around the riding scene has exploded and there are just a ton of riders.
we dont have a team but we have some of the best riding around in mt, plus the party scene blows boulders out of the water
Colorado School of Mines, hands down.metalMTB said:
move to nc where we can ride!
TEAM SKY HIGH MI NEAGER
TEAM SKY HIGH MI NEAGER
yeauh, what resorts are in north carolina near you? or even what colleges? lol
I also am starting to look into colleges now and I am pretty unsure where i want to go. Needs to be somewhere with access to good skiing and mtbing plus going home in the summer to moto. Not sure. Of course the academic portion is the most important factor as well