Missoula ranked in top ten US college towns

[NativeGriz]

Honest, direct and humble is a great way to go through life

Thanks Alpha, you always find a way to make people laugh.

 

[ALPHAGRIZ1]

I wish I could say the same..............

 

[Iowagriz]

Quote from the article "The American Institute for Economic Research recently ranked the country’s top college towns for 2014-2015, based on student life, economic health, culture and opportunity."

So nothing about the educational component.

As a parent searching with my girls for colleges, I really wish that UM would rise anywhere near the top. They have always liked the campus and were raised to be a Griz, but the academics are not near what they are expecting. Yes is was nice education for me, but I didn't know better at the time (first time college student for my family) and out of state was not in my price range.

Several of the others mentioned are near the top for several of their majors. In my opinion, the U has a long ways to go to get back to what it once was.

 

[ALPHAGRIZ1]

In my opinion, the U has a long ways to go to get back to what it once was.

Same can be said for PlayaRApe

 

[grizcountry420]

Quote from the article "The American Institute for Economic Research recently ranked the country’s top college towns for 2014-2015, based on student life, economic health, culture and opportunity."

So nothing about the educational component.

As a parent searching with my girls for colleges, I really wish that UM would rise anywhere near the top. They have always liked the campus and were raised to be a Griz, but the academics are not near what they are expecting. Yes is was nice education for me, but I didn't know better at the time (first time college student for my family) and out of state was not in my price range.

Several of the others mentioned are near the top for several of their majors. In my opinion, the U has a long ways to go to get back to what it once was.

The university will never be towards the top when i comes to majors. Most students either major in Liberal Arts or Business. Those are a dime a dozen.. I myself went the Computer Science route cause i didn't want to waste my money on a useless degree.

 

[EverettGriz]

and opportunity."

So nothing about the educational component.

Doesn't opportunity tie directly to the quality of education? I know a great number of UM alums who are doing VERY well in their careers (assuming one believes that's the purpose of a college education).

 

[UMGriz75]

Some UM Business Grads do quite well.

John Connors, a specialist in enterprise software and services, was an investor in big data company Splunk, one of the hot IPOs of 2012. Splunk soared 109% on its first day of trading and was recently trading at a market cap of about $4 billion. He also invested in Heroku, which Salesforce.com acquired in 2010 for $212 million, and XenSource, which was acquired by Citrix in 2007. Other current investments include Parse, Motif Investing, Datasphere and Opscode. Connors was previously at Microsoft for 16 years, holding a number of executive positions including chief financial officer from 2000 to 2005. Connors' firm Ignition Partners recently reformed as a smaller team with three general partners. He's on the boards of Nike, FiREapps, Scout Analytics, Datasphere, Motif, Splunk, Opscode, Parse and Tier 3. Connors relaxes by working cattle on his ranch near his hometown in Southeastern Montana

Also, the "Montana Mafia." http://archive.umt.edu/montanan/f08/mafia.php" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

 

[Htowngriz]

Some UM Business Grads do quite well.

John Connors, a specialist in enterprise software and services, was an investor in big data company Splunk, one of the hot IPOs of 2012. Splunk soared 109% on its first day of trading and was recently trading at a market cap of about $4 billion. He also invested in Heroku, which Salesforce.com acquired in 2010 for $212 million, and XenSource, which was acquired by Citrix in 2007. Other current investments include Parse, Motif Investing, Datasphere and Opscode. Connors was previously at Microsoft for 16 years, holding a number of executive positions including chief financial officer from 2000 to 2005. Connors' firm Ignition Partners recently reformed as a smaller team with three general partners. He's on the boards of Nike, FiREapps, Scout Analytics, Datasphere, Motif, Splunk, Opscode, Parse and Tier 3. Connors relaxes by working cattle on his ranch near his hometown in Southeastern Montana

Also, the "Montana Mafia." http://archive.umt.edu/montanan/f08/mafia.php" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Yeah, I guess 420 is too busy taking bong rips and eating Cheetos to take a peek at the alumni magazine. Lots of UM grads in all disciplines doing great things.

 

[MrTitleist]

Some UM Business Grads do quite well.

John Connors, a specialist in enterprise software and services, was an investor in big data company Splunk, one of the hot IPOs of 2012. Splunk soared 109% on its first day of trading and was recently trading at a market cap of about $4 billion. He also invested in Heroku, which Salesforce.com acquired in 2010 for $212 million, and XenSource, which was acquired by Citrix in 2007. Other current investments include Parse, Motif Investing, Datasphere and Opscode. Connors was previously at Microsoft for 16 years, holding a number of executive positions including chief financial officer from 2000 to 2005. Connors' firm Ignition Partners recently reformed as a smaller team with three general partners. He's on the boards of Nike, FiREapps, Scout Analytics, Datasphere, Motif, Splunk, Opscode, Parse and Tier 3. Connors relaxes by working cattle on his ranch near his hometown in Southeastern Montana

Also, the "Montana Mafia." http://archive.umt.edu/montanan/f08/mafia.php" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Splunk is the bane of my existence.

 

[grizcountry420]

Some UM Business Grads do quite well.

John Connors, a specialist in enterprise software and services, was an investor in big data company Splunk, one of the hot IPOs of 2012. Splunk soared 109% on its first day of trading and was recently trading at a market cap of about $4 billion. He also invested in Heroku, which Salesforce.com acquired in 2010 for $212 million, and XenSource, which was acquired by Citrix in 2007. Other current investments include Parse, Motif Investing, Datasphere and Opscode. Connors was previously at Microsoft for 16 years, holding a number of executive positions including chief financial officer from 2000 to 2005. Connors' firm Ignition Partners recently reformed as a smaller team with three general partners. He's on the boards of Nike, FiREapps, Scout Analytics, Datasphere, Motif, Splunk, Opscode, Parse and Tier 3. Connors relaxes by working cattle on his ranch near his hometown in Southeastern Montana

Also, the "Montana Mafia." http://archive.umt.edu/montanan/f08/mafia.php" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Yeah, I guess 420 is too busy taking bong rips and eating Cheetos to take a peek at the alumni magazine. Lots of UM grads in all disciplines doing great things.

Cool story bro! You can say that about any university..

 

[grizcountry420]

Some UM Business Grads do quite well.

John Connors, a specialist in enterprise software and services, was an investor in big data company Splunk, one of the hot IPOs of 2012. Splunk soared 109% on its first day of trading and was recently trading at a market cap of about $4 billion. He also invested in Heroku, which Salesforce.com acquired in 2010 for $212 million, and XenSource, which was acquired by Citrix in 2007. Other current investments include Parse, Motif Investing, Datasphere and Opscode. Connors was previously at Microsoft for 16 years, holding a number of executive positions including chief financial officer from 2000 to 2005. Connors' firm Ignition Partners recently reformed as a smaller team with three general partners. He's on the boards of Nike, FiREapps, Scout Analytics, Datasphere, Motif, Splunk, Opscode, Parse and Tier 3. Connors relaxes by working cattle on his ranch near his hometown in Southeastern Montana

Also, the "Montana Mafia." http://archive.umt.edu/montanan/f08/mafia.php" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Splunk is the bane of my existence.

we use that software too..

 

[GottaluvGriz]

Some UM Business Grads do quite well.

John Connors, a specialist in enterprise software and services, was an investor in big data company Splunk, one of the hot IPOs of 2012. Splunk soared 109% on its first day of trading and was recently trading at a market cap of about $4 billion. He also invested in Heroku, which Salesforce.com acquired in 2010 for $212 million, and XenSource, which was acquired by Citrix in 2007. Other current investments include Parse, Motif Investing, Datasphere and Opscode. Connors was previously at Microsoft for 16 years, holding a number of executive positions including chief financial officer from 2000 to 2005. Connors' firm Ignition Partners recently reformed as a smaller team with three general partners. He's on the boards of Nike, FiREapps, Scout Analytics, Datasphere, Motif, Splunk, Opscode, Parse and Tier 3. Connors relaxes by working cattle on his ranch near his hometown in Southeastern Montana

r

Also, the "Montana Mafia." http://archive.umt.edu/montanan/f08/mafia.php" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I grew up with John and actually played football and basketball for his dad Dan Connors. John and his entire family are wonderful people and all of them have done very well for themselves. (Granted, not many get to be CFO of Microsoft)
Go Griz!

 

[billingsgriz]

Yes, I strongly agree with '75 and Everett and disagree with Iowa: you can earn a great education at UM.

And not just John Connors from the UM business school: don't forget Ian Davidson, who grew DA Davidson into the largest regional brokerage firm west of the Mississippi and served as chairman of The NASD, and Brian Wesbury, Chief Economist at First Trust Advisors, a major American money-management firm, ranked the # 1 economic forecaster by The Wall Street Journal in 2001, received a similar honor from USA Today in 2004 as one of the country's top 10 forecasters, and was/is a frequent guest on CNBC, Bloomberg, and Fox Business News.

And don't forget my old classmate Jim Messina, former White House Deputy Chief of Staff, Obama Campaign Manager in 2012, former Chief of Staff for Max Baucus, and now running British PM David Cameron's re-election campaign.

And where did that Oscar-winning actor JK Simmons go to school ?

The last time I looked, UM was ranked by US News as one of the top 200 schools in the country--we were like # 195. We were gigged for accepting 95% of applicants. So if we want to see our rank fly up the list, we could simply reject 75-80% of applying high-school students, but rejecting 75-80% of applying students is not the mission of Montana's flagship public university. Making a great college education available and affordable to young Montanans and out-of-state and foreign students is UM's de facto academic mission.

 

[Grisly Fan]

Nope, no way. Missoula cannot possibly be a top ranked college town. That would suggest our self-loathing and constant self-flagellation over everything (large and small) is misplaced. No siree, keep our expectations low and we'll never be disappointed.

 

[AllWeatherFan]

No siree, keep our expectations low and we'll never be disappointed.

That's what I keep telling my wife! :lol:

 

[AllWeatherFan]

Some UM Business Grads do quite well.

John Connors, a specialist in enterprise software and services, was an investor in big data company Splunk, one of the hot IPOs of 2012. Splunk soared 109% on its first day of trading and was recently trading at a market cap of about $4 billion. He also invested in Heroku, which Salesforce.com acquired in 2010 for $212 million, and XenSource, which was acquired by Citrix in 2007. Other current investments include Parse, Motif Investing, Datasphere and Opscode. Connors was previously at Microsoft for 16 years, holding a number of executive positions including chief financial officer from 2000 to 2005. Connors' firm Ignition Partners recently reformed as a smaller team with three general partners. He's on the boards of Nike, FiREapps, Scout Analytics, Datasphere, Motif, Splunk, Opscode, Parse and Tier 3. Connors relaxes by working cattle on his ranch near his hometown in Southeastern Montana

Also, the "Montana Mafia." http://archive.umt.edu/montanan/f08/mafia.php" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Yeah, I guess 420 is too busy taking bong rips and eating Cheetos to take a peek at the alumni magazine. Lots of UM grads in all disciplines doing great things.

See if you can guess the common denominator in the above posts by '75 and Htown.

 

[IntuitiveGriz]

The Missoula area (including the Bitteroot) is definitly beautiful. In fact, I spent some time there this past weekend, as my Butte Central Lady Maroons softball team defeated Hamilton and Corvallis. I also spent time visiting family in Florence. Having gone to UM in the 90's, I can say that I agree with this high ranking.