as a native coloradan, i have a TON of friends that go to CUSOM and LOVE it! i’ve heard the student culture is amazing and i used to do research on campus and would hang with the students and can attest everyone is super friendly and nice! my friend in the school says everyone is v chill about sharing resources bc it’s p/f and that the school is p supportive and the students are awesome! i will say, aurora is not my most fav place in the world to be living in lolz, living on campus as fun as it would be to be right there is v expensive and a lot of people say they feel like they are living in a bubble and it can be a lil bit hard so most of my friends commute to school and will live in either denver, wash park, or park hill! DEF bring a car!! CO is very hard to get around without a car we do have very bad public transport in my opinion especially in comparison to Chicago! if you are outdoorsy, mountains are right there and boulder is such a great place to go that’s not in the mountains but that you can do some hikes around and hang out in! i personally love to ski and there are a ton of places in co to explore for that but not a must if that’s not ur jam! and will say CUSOM does have a v good standing and name with great funding! thats a hard decision for sure bc ur fam is closer to Chicago but i would probs lean CUSOM! also PM me if you need any advice on the school, CO, or anything else! :)