Thinking of transferring to MSU Bozeman! (mortgage, credit, house)

[yellingtuna]

Hi people, as you can tell from my subject above, I am interested in transferring to Montana State. I am currently a political science major with a focus on international relations. My main two questions for you guys are: what is it like at MSU?, are the professors good at there jobs?, are the people generally freindly?... and even more importantly how do you think an outsider would get treated in the bozeman area?

A little background on myself:

I am a 19yr old male, born and raised in the country, spent most of my childhood in a rural area of Wisconsin (...roughly 3,000 people,...however Madison "pop 250K" was only 1,1/2 hours away.) My fathers job was transfered to San Diego about 2 years ago and this is where Ive been since. I can't stand the population density, pollution, and complete lack of space between my neighbors. But heck, at least housing is cheap here.....sarcasm

My main concern was that people might see me as a rich Californian (which it seems the whole country has a dislike for) even though Ive only lived here for a brief amount of my life.

If I like it in MT, I was considering buying some acreage and building my own house (piece by piece), until I had my own relatively nice home. After all, I have been doing construction with my father all of my life.

[bigtrees]

Don't worry about being from out of state at college, lots of people are from out of state. You don't really have to worry about the townsfolk, and the college kids won't care where you are from.

As a 19 year old, I wouldn't worry about where you'll be living or what kind of house you'll be living in after college. Right now - you're a college student and you have several great years in front of you before you need to worry much about jobs or mortgage payements. (Acerage, especially around the Bozeman area, is out of reach for most people until they are 40 or 50. It's really, really expensive there. But as a college kid, you get to live on acerage, i.e., campus, for very little cost)

I think MSU is a great place to go to college, I graduated with an engineering degree (2003) and I liked it a lot. But, professors are stodgy old professors there like most other colleges. You'll like some and not so much others.

One of the big things is money is relatively tight in Montana. I was a student manager at University Food Service (one of the easier places to work on campus) and got paid $6.15 an hour. It might have gone up a little, but I highly doubt it. I live in Washington now and money is a lot easier to come by, even for college kids. You'll want to figure out if you can afford out-of-state tuition, it's very expensive. A lot of students get residency but you have to take 6 or fewer credits for two semesters before you can get that.

Anyways, if you have any other questions, feel free to post them.

[bob446]

Welcome to Montana... it's a very good school.. I have 2 boys there, we are from Walker Mn. pop: 987 I would rate it one of the best schools west of cambridge Ma.
Nice folks, great town. jobs at school start at $7.50 go up from there....

[grizzfan]

If Poly Sci is your major you should consider THE University of Montana, a liberal arts university that is much more diverse and progressive than MOO-U at Bozeman. You should check out UM before you make a fatal mistake.

Good Luck

[elliottmew]

I would also suggest checking out The University of Montana in additoin to Montana State. I attended both schools and was much happier with UM than I was with MSU.