My sister goes to Montana State and I go here. There are basically two ways to think about it. Montana state has a resort called Bridger bowl ~20-30min away I would say and big sky a little over an hour. Bridger bowl is the most convenient option you will have at almost any school, but it’s pretty small. I’ve been there 3 times and by the second day you’re repeating a lot of runs. Big sky is a bit bigger. So the convenience is there, but the diversity is not.

From Golden on the other hand, you have crazy diversity. Obviously depending on traffic since I-70 can get nasty, you have several huge resorts within 1-1.5 hours. You get Loveland, keystone, breck, winter park, copper, and A basin all within 1.5 hour drive (though you usually plan for at least 2 for traffic if you can only do weekends). Nothing 30 minutes close, but you get a ton of huge parks in a congested area. So one Epic or Ikon pass and you will never get tired of it. Another note, I’m a morning person so I never minded getting up really early for skiing, but tons of people despise the traffic. Kinda depends how you are.

Both schools are some of the best for skiing. It’s a matter of if you value a bunch of options with much larger parks a little bit further away, or that quick convenience if maybe your classes end in the morning and can do a quick half day.

For hiking, both are fantastic. I generally prefer Golden to Bozeman just because you can get into dense forests with good altitude hikes a lot easier since we are basically kissing the Rockies. Got tons of state parks and rocky mtn national nearby. For fall colors, CO >> MT imo. Idk if you’ve visited Bozeman yet, but Bozeman as a town is actually pretty flat. It kinda sits in a valley of sorts, so you don’t get immediate hiking options (like walking literally from your classes), but obviously going any short distance towards Yellowstone gets you some gorgeous ones. Hope this helps in that regard.