Anyone know things about Fort Collins? Decent place to live? What type of people live there? Or by any chance know someone hiring for a girl recently graduated with a microbiology degree and 4 years of lab research experience?

tia.

Its College Station in Colorado.

I have no idea of the job market, but you may want to check with Colorado State University about jobs that may be up there.

Thank you; the info is for my sister. CSU is where she's been looking most. She might start her grad work there, as she's already been accepted to a program. That makes me feel better about her moving there knowing it's a College Station type town. She is also interested in doing research for an oil company, but I think her ultimate goal is working for the CDC or DIA, so she may continue in her education.

cool town. Close to Denver and RMNP. Good weather. Nice people. Been there a bunch for work.

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Its College Station in Colorado.

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I don't know that I'd call it quite that. It's a mini-California with equal amounts of liberalism and nanny-state. You're not going to find many purple mohawks in CS, and I saw 3 this past Saturday afternoon in about a mile stretch of College Ave near Prospect.

That said, it's got some very cool characteristics, and I'm fond of the Old Town area. I'm also a fan of all the breweries in the area. Daytime and night time are quite different. A friend of ours here in Laramie has quite a few friends who work in the bars and clubs. The clientele completely transforms in the matter of a few hours come dark.

As has been said, it's close enough to Denver and Estes to make it ideal for stuff to do and find work.

Keep in mind, legal pot sales in the state go into effect Jan 1, and it's already easy enough to get around FoCo. Not an issue for me, but might be for some.

Great town...and New Belgium gives probably one of the best (free) brewery tours anywhere.

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It's a mini-California with equal amounts of liberalism and nanny-state.

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I've only been to Fort Collins a couple times, but it's a slow-paced college town. I'm not sure how you can compare it to California.

I disagree on the comment comparing it to California. Try Boulder for that. Fort Collins definitely compares to College Station. That's the first thing I thought the first time I went there. Very laid back feel to it. Hell, it's got a very comparable type of school there in CSU. Definitely a spot in CO I'd live in (Colorado springs being at the top, of course). She'll have fun there.

I just moved here 4 months ago and so far I love it. The town is very comparable to College Station but there is a lot more to do in around the area. Denver is roughly a hour drive, depending on traffic, and if you drive two hours you can be at most of the ski resorts. If you are interested in beer you will be in love here with the 10+ breweries in Fort Collins alone.

If your daughter is looking for a job I would recommend looking at jobs at CSU as they are always looking to higher recent graduates. I also know that the CDC has a office here in Fort Collins so that might be worth a shot too. Other big companies that are here include HP, Intel, AMD, and otterbox. If you want to know anything else just let me know!

I've been here since summer 2010 and having had three jobs, one semester of grad school, two hospital trips, visits to many churches, and many new friends here, hopefully I can help comment.

To say Ft. Collins is like College Station in Colorado is accurate in that it is the more conservative, agricultural, veterinary university town in the state, as compared with Boulder. It has about 140,000 people and is close enough to Denver, just as CS is a smaller city and is close enough to Houston for when you need an international airport and a Pottery Barn. We are, still, in Colorado, however, which tips the scale in many different directions culturally. More tattoos, less littering, more active lifestyles, more bike lanes and walking paths, more high-brow beer, more pot, and more claim to a diverse culture (even though Ft. Collins is 80% white). My husband and I have found a niche here, with many friends and a church family, but it wasn't without effort on our part to ignore a lot of Texas-bashing that occurs, especially within the university.

The weather and economy are awesome in this town. It's sunny something like 350 days/year, and it almost never hits 100. And even when it's 90+, it's dry, and there aren't bugs! Jobs are great---we have large campuses for HP, Intel, and LSI, and then the university employs thousands obviously. There's also a large junior college in town. The housing market continues to rise and moves homes quickly; we bought a house last August that has already gained in value. Homes are definitely more expensive than what we were used to in Texas, though.

City services does a really good job, too. Everything is clean and landscaped all the time, and they shovel snow so quickly we don't even need all-wheel drive, just some sandbags in the back of the truck during the winter months.

The university itself is similar to A&M, but is smaller than A&M. Picture A&M/CS without West Campus and no development on the other side of Highway 6. There's a lot of great nightlife and social stuff happening downtown, all within walking distance of the university.

Hopefully this helps your transition!

Allison
Fightin' Texas Aggie Class of 2008