[Discostu]

I'm currently looking at schools for next year, I've got about 8 that are possibilities. I've been accepted at Union (Schenectady, NY), WPI (Worcester, MA), RPI (Schenectady, NY), Lehigh (Bethlehem, PA) and Trinity (Hartford, CT) and I've been wait listed at Bucknell, Cornell and Bowdoin. Currently Lehigh is my #1 choice, but I still haven't seen a few of the others.

Does anyone have any experience with the riding scene at any of these schools? I think Union, RPI and Lehigh are all about 1.5 hours from Plattekill, but I don't much of anything else about riding in these areas.

Thanks for your help.

 

[Jm_]

wow..such a wide variety.

 

[HTFR]

Originally posted by Jm_
wow..such a wide variety.

ya... smart kid, nice work.

 

[Inclag]

Well I'm at WPI and I will be straight up. In order to have a fun time at this school you need to have social skills first and foremost and a big help is being in a fraternity. And I'm not knocking on people who do computer program all day and play fight with foam swords.

Basically, it can be as fun as you want to make it, but it isn't going to be as easy as going to some big state University.

Also, the 7 week program here is pretty damn hard.

On another note, for our first year we have a USACycling affiliated club, so we have road/xc/dh race teams now. It looks like there are a few of freshman in this years class that are going to race DH with me next year, so I'm hoping there will be 6-7 people racing dh for the school.

As far as the DH scene goes, there is a shuttle run in Worcester that is not too well known that myself and a few other monkey's have been riding alot recently and we're planning on developing it and building new trails there as well. Any mountain is at least a 2hr. drive to get to.

Feel free to shoot me an IM @ dhdsfrpoon if you have any questions. I can also get you in contact with some peeps who are freshman too if you would like.

*edit

BTW, I'm not trying to knock on the school or discourage you, I'm having a blast here and love it. It's just that WPI isn't the best fit for everyone. More so than most colleges. The best advice I can give anyone is to go with where your instinct leads you, and hopefully it will be WPI because the more dh'ers the better.

late.

 

[Discostu]

Thanks for your advice inclag. Unfortunately, there is a very slim chance at this point that I will be going to WPI. WPI gave me a $50,000 scholarship which seems like a lot, but others schools gave me over $125,000 (over 4 years) so it doesn't make a lot of financial sense to go to WPI.

 

[Kornphlake]

doesn't make sense to take less scholarship money unless the actual cost of tuition is less, at BYU $50,000 would have paid for tuition, books and rent and I'd have plenty of money left at the end of each semester. Of course tuition and books came in at around $2000 and rent for a single guy started at about $260 off campus.

I'd say if you really want to ride while you're at school you need to be looking at the west coast. The mountains out here are so much bigger and there's so many more. That said you can still have fun on smaller mountains but you have to ask yourself "am I willing to drive 2 hours 3 times a week to ride?" I used to ride my bike 2 miles each way to and from campus 2-3 times a day, sometimes my 2 miles would turn into an hour and a half long ride along the foothill trails, or sometimes I'd ditch my books in a temporary locker in the library and ride the local fireroad climb to singletrack descent between class and work. On the other hand urban riding seems to be more popular on the east coast which could even the score a bit.

 

[Jm_]

Originally posted by Kornphlake
and rent for a single guy started at about $260 off campus.

In mexico?

Damn, I wish we could get some of that cheap-rent action here...

 

[derekbob]

You do need social skills to have fun in a social situation, thats some great advice, but Im not so sure about the frat part.

 

[JRogers]

Originally posted by Kornphlake

I'd say if you really want to ride while you're at school you need to be looking at the west coast. The mountains out here are so much bigger and there's so many more. That said you can still have fun on smaller mountains but you have to ask yourself "am I willing to drive 2 hours 3 times a week to ride?" I used to ride my bike 2 miles each way to and from campus 2-3 times a day, sometimes my 2 miles would turn into an hour and a half long ride along the foothill trails, or sometimes I'd ditch my books in a temporary locker in the library and ride the local fireroad climb to singletrack descent between class and work. On the other hand urban riding seems to be more popular on the east coast which could even the score a bit.

Do you envision the east coast as some sort of vast paved metropolis surrounded by low foothills? From the sound of it (and I could be really wrong here) you've never been or ridden on the east coast.

Case in point: I never urban ride, I have maybe 30 miles of trails in the town I go to school at (Middlebury, VT) and a bunch of trails at home in NJ. I rarely drive to trails. In both places, I am less than an hour from lift serviced DH, Mountain Creek in NJ and Killington, Gore and Whiteface in VT are all close with more a bit farther (West, DHD race series, more minor resorts and Plattekill). Here and in NJ I can drive 15 minutes to trails that are challenging on a DH bike.

You seem to suggest that living in the east means that trails are far away. Well, not true. There are many trails close to urban areas and, simply, many people (like me) do not live in urban areas. Also, the fact that the mountains are bigger and that there are "so many more" does not always make the riding better.

The advantage of the west over east in the schools being looked at is the weather, not the riding.

 

[Kornphlake]

Originally posted by Jm_
In mexico?

Damn, I wish we could get some of that cheap-rent action here...

Shared rent, usually 4-6 guys in an apartment. If you want to live alone for some reason, or if you're married housing cost was about $650/mo.

 

[Toshi]

Originally posted by JRogers
Do you envision the east coast as some sort of vast paved metropolis surrounded by low foothills? From the sound of it (and I could be really wrong here) you've never been or ridden on the east coast.

vt and nj may well be exceptional. boston proper suffers from a lack of trails -- i know i sure rode a lot more urban than trails when i was in school. boston + lack of car == ride the fells a whole bunch.

 

[Kornphlake]

Originally posted by JRogers
Do you envision the east coast as some sort of vast paved metropolis surrounded by low foothills? From the sound of it (and I could be really wrong here) you've never been or ridden on the east coast.

I envison generally more densly populated cities spaced closer together with less rural and wilderness space within a reasonable distance from the larger cities. I didn't mean to imply that there's not any riding on the east coast except urban. I just have the impression that most of the cities are larger and the mountains are smaller so the building of cities tends to go over the mountains rather than stop at the foothills.

I know there's plenty of good riding along the east cost but I'm not convinced that the same level of riding is as readily accessible as is generally the case with the west coast. IE people who live in a downtown area may dirve farther to get across town to the mountains on the east coast than those who live downtown in a city on the west coast. Of course there will be exceptions to that generalization where people such as yourself are only 15 minutes from the best trails the east coast has to offer.

 

[Jm_]

my only beef is, "why limit yourself to east-coast colleges within a 100nm radius"???

 

[Discostu]

Originally posted by Jm_
my only beef is, "why limit yourself to east-coast colleges within a 100nm radius"???

transportation costs mainly, I can't really afford to fly to school, so I have to stay within about a 6 hour drive

 

[Jm_]

So you are not up to buying more than 1 tank of gas? Wierd. I didn't fly across the country to get to my school, although it's about 700 miles away from where I grew up....

 

[Spunger]

I am seeing more and more people comming or posting from Vermont. My parents were both born and raised there (Montpilier and northfield). I have cousin's and family all over the place in Vermont. Mainly Russell's and Trombly's if ya know them

I'd go back there to visit relitives and had to say there's a lot of country. There's ALOT of it. I know of many places I could have built my own trails to ride. No one would have cared or said a word. Mind you this is out in the country. Not many people/places around.

I agree that Urban in Boston is probably where it's at. There may be hills but not a lot of trails. I know the Ski Resorts at some of the places offer riding in the summer time but the weather can be sucky. It's either super hot or super cold.

I live on the west coast. I am maybe 15 minutes max from our DH trails (all 3 of them) and there's more around. I consider myself lucky

 

[Discostu]

Originally posted by Jm_
So you are not up to buying more than 1 tank of gas? Wierd. I didn't fly across the country to get to my school, although it's about 700 miles away from where I grew up....

I don't have a car, so I have to get a ride from my parents. If it is more than a one day drive there and back then they have to take more days off work. Sure, once I get settled in at the school, I might make some connections and get rides from someone else, but that won't always work out. At this point its useless to argue about this, because I am already past the application stage, and I am deciding among the schools i've been accepted to.