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Denver, CO
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259 reviews



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5.0 star rating
1/27/2007 First to Review
This is a holistic psych university (bachelors/ masters) based on Buddhist principles. Buddhism is a philosophy and a way of life, and not a religion. After 10+ years in an all girls private catholic school, I really appreciate Buddhism.

I have to admit that I have never attended this university as a student. However, I've been blown away by almost everyone I've met who has studied here. They seem more happy, grounded, peaceful, and positive. Sure, there is an occasional trust fund pot head, but it's Boulder, what do you expect?

Their curriculum includes subjects like meditation for stress reduction, transforming your relationship with money, re-visioning your future, couple power, writing from the heart, yoga, listening to our bodies, and aikido. Real world skills. They don't spend time memorizing battle dates! There needs to be more institutions of learning like this. Erudite, content people don't wage war!



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Thighmaster M.

Thighmaster M.
Ward, CO
18 friends
396 reviews



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4.0 star rating
4/17/2008
Basically the world is lucky to have Naropa. Thanks Rinpoche. During many years' involvement with Naropa's faculty and students, I was deeply touched and my heart peeled open (thanks again Rinpoche).

My main criticism which I have given personally to admissions is that they should maintain a level of academic rigorousness - there are times when they take whomever can pay the cost of tuition, regardless of readiness to work seriously at the college level. Also, they have occasionally taken students into the therapist degree programs whom clearly needed to do more of their own pesonal work first, which in my opinion was doing harm to the student(s) they allowed to restart over and over (without a refund I might add). I would like the counseling programs to consider using the same admission criteria as western-based programs. If you have ever applied to CU, Columbia, Regis, you know what I mean - very simple, sane expectations for the applicant.



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Jessica S.

Jessica S.
Boulder, CO
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81 reviews



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1.0 star rating
3/4/2010
I definitely enjoy my Naropa education and I definitely have to say that there are always a lot of fun events happening at Naropa throughout the school year. In fact, it is what drew me to move to Colorado in November of 2007. This is my first semester so I am getting the feel for Naropa still.

Personally, there are a few practices, such as those with financial aid and registration that are weird but that's likely because there are less students and therefore, they can spend more time speaking with me about my degree plans and intended programme.

Also, Bataan Faigo, the chair of the Traditional Eastern Arts (my intended major) is a very fun man to talk with. Naropa has a lot of very qualified, very capable and very interesting instructors.

(Read the update)



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Nicole T.

Nicole T.
Newton, MA
76 friends
2 reviews



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5.0 star rating
9/24/2011
Going to Naropa was one of the single most valuable and important decisions of my life. I studied Transpersonal Psychology & Music Therapy there - and my education was extraordinary. I am now the owner and director of an Integral Life Practice Center (Samadhi) located outside of Boston with a full private practice and a thriving business. Naropa not only gave me the skills I needed to create an amazing career, but it gave me heart, community and a platform for my spiritual practice.



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Leah D.

Leah D.
Long Beach, CA
Elite ’14
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479 reviews



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5.0 star rating
8/14/2011
Listed in Denver & Boulder

This is part of what makes Boulder, Boulder. Not a school that will give you resume-building skills or any of that, but one that will allow you to engage in topics of Buddhist philosophy and related disciplines. It's pricey, and good luck getting anything like financial aid for it, but if you have the time and money and interest, why not? You only live once (at least until you re-incarnate).



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Penelope W.

Penelope W.
San Francisco, CA
64 friends
385 reviews



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5.0 star rating
2/4/2007
Listed in Why I Stay in Coly

Naropa University is an excellent choice for holistic new age hippy stylies. Students are free from the constraints of a traditional learning environment and sure to flourish among fresh thoughts and ideas of super new-age caliber. Naropa prides itself on a learning environment combined from the best of eastern and western learning traditions--"Greece and India" in one. The Uni strives to integrate self-awareness and understanding with a traditional study of the "outside" world. Therefore, meditation, yoga and other spiritual methods are incorporated in curriculum. Interestingly, Naropa is the only "fully accredited Buddhist-inspired University in the United States". Naropa University has a lot of Boulder charm or Boulder has a lot of Naropa charm. Either way, if you are from Colorado, you will understand my description that Naropa is "very Boulder."

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8/4/2013

I attended Naropa for a Master's degree. Loved the coursework and their approach to learning which is 'contemplative'. It was small and intimate and I learned a lot and felt happy there while I was there. The teachers were adequate but not great. Some of them were just previous students with master's degrees that they got there, so not sure why they don't get PhD level teachers, but maybe it's because it's not an accredited school. I didn't realize this until it was too late. Their website says it's a regionally accredited school, but upon further reflection after I graduated, I know that means nothing in the world of professional counseling.
I have recently tried to obtain my professional license to practice as a professional counselor in Colorado and was denied. I was told that Naropa is not accredited by the standard required to get licensed in the state of Colorado. I was instructed to submit all the courses I took to another agency to see if my classes taken at Naropa would be acceptable. For this I have to pay $500 to proove the program I enrolled in and completed is good enough to be considered for a professional license. I can appreciate the high standards that Colorado has for licensure, but the fact that I paid $80,000 for my graduate degree, took out student loans to pay for this, and not find that I cannot get licensed to practice and make a living as a professional counselor after three years of study, is just so horrific. I feel that I was duped and that this school misrepresents the program they offer. And of course I may not have been saavy enough to read the fine print somewhere, but I trusted this institution and thought I was preparing for a career as a psychotherapist and was doing the right thing. Naropa has gotten my tuition money in total and I sacrificed alot to go to this school and to live in Boulder, which is by far one of the most expensive little towns to live in anywhere in this country. I put my heart and soul into this program and now have a hefty loan to repay but can't get a professional license to support that. My dream has been shattered and I've been ripped off.

If you're looking for a good graduate program in Psychology or Counseling in Colorado, consider Regis University or Univ of Northern Colorado. They are both accredited adequately and you won't end up like me.









Sarah R.

Sarah R.
Boulder, CO
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1.0 star rating
2/6/2013
When I came to Naropa, I was excited about an open-minded, quality education in an environment where students didn't act like anyone but themselves and wanted to connect. I had already had experience with college classes in a large, public university, but I craved the opposite - a close student body and genuine, connected teachers. What I experienced at Naropa during my one semester there was both wonderful and disappointing.

The students are an interesting crowd of folks...they are some of the nicest, most accepting, most creative, and most progressive people that I have ever met. I am still quite close with some of my friends from there. The teachers care about you, are compassionate, and want you to do well. You have small classes, so everyone is encouraged to talk. If you miss too many classes, they may help you to not fail by meeting with you outside of class. If you call in sick, they'll personally tell you they hope you get better soon. Maybe your advisor will make you tea if you're freaking out about classes. All good, eh?

Here's the other side of that coin. This I'm sure is not true for all classes, but it was true in most of mine. If you don't turn in homework on time, its pretty much fine. If you don't turn in homework until the end of the semester, and some of its wrong, ehhhh its okay because at least you participated and tried. I think Naropa takes the Buddhism a bit to far with being so peaceful about their academic standards. These standards create a lackadaisical feeling in the student body because everyone gets away with slacking. So...you get away with many absences and missed assignments without failing. Therefore, you know you don't have to try very hard so you become...laaazy.

While you are becoming lazy with your assignments and participation, you may experience so-called "stress" along with the rest of your classmates. All of a sudden it is the end of the semester and its time for your ONLY in class exam (the rest are easy take home tests). This is called the "Warrior's Exam". Let us be clear, you are given the questions a week before so that you can come up with your answers during the test. The Warrior's Exam is a 5-minute or less exam in which two students face each other in the center of a circle and ask each other one question each. The responding student has about 5 minutes to orally answer the question. That's it! Basically if you participate and do your best, you will pass this stressful, intense final exam....uhhh WHAT?

Having taken other college courses with more tests, no late homework allowed, hardly any absences allowed, and rigorous, fast-paced classes, when I compare the two I cannot say that Naropa is at all up to the standard of normal college level classes. The one exception may be the psych department, but that still is questionable. Naropa provides what I would call a "soft" education. It does not challenge the student to grow to her/his full potential, it does not leave much room for failure and the lessons that come from that, it does not require students to read the wide variety of in-depth literature required in other college level classes, it does not make students work very hard to earn a degree.

Naropa seems to be too kind to its students to challenge them. With so much love, kindness, and basic goodness floating around the campus, academic integrity has been lost. Naropa is too afraid to raise its standards because maybe it would draw fewer students. However, Naropa MUST raise its standards in order to be seen as a legitimate university and retain its student body. 53% OF STUDENTS DO NOT RETURN FOR SOPHOMORE YEAR (College Board). Take a hint, Naropa! When I told people where I went to school, they asked if Naropa was even an accredited, legitimate university. I told them it was, but inside I felt weird because it didn't feel legitimate. While the quality of the education remains sub-par, the alumni of this university will have a hard time finding many types of jobs especially outside the Boulder area. When you have to explain to an employer that your school is actually a real university, trust me, it sucks!

Naropa sounds great on the website. It has such wonderful ideas bringing in holistic and eastern influences such as yoga, tai chi, meditation, herbal medicine, etc. But in order to really be able to call itself a university, Naropa has to become slightly more "western" in its standards and rigor. That doesn't mean it has to loose the nice teachers, the tea, the connectedness, the yoga...it just means it has to act like a real university with a responsibility to give its students an education that is equal to other universities. Naropa must hold its students to high standards while simultaneously teaching them to be compassionate and open-minded. Then and only then will the university will be reputable. In the meantime, its a huge ripoff at $26,000 a semester.

I left because I knew I would not be proud of the degree I would earn from Narop









Wanderlust V.

Wanderlust V.
Boulder, CO
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1 review





1.0 star rating
1/28/2012
This school is a joke! Unless you come from an extremely privledged family and want to attend a "college" that throws you a useless degree just to say you have one then by all means go for it. I really hope a lot of you read these reviews before applying because I'm saving you a bunch of trouble. I was a student there so let me start by explaining what really goes on this school. First off when it's all said and done your paying about 160 grand when you graduate. The credits DO NOT transfer to any other school because of how their BS classes are set up, so you better plan on attending all four years. There is stability at that school, the staff literally changes every week. And some of their classes are not even taught by real professors but students in the graduate school program! Now lets touch base on the required first year housing. Yes, even if your a grown middle aged adult and you have less than the required number of credit hours you have to live in a dorm with a bunch of kids with ridiculous rules. Oh and let's not forget that the dorm price is a little more than 2500$ a month, and you don't even get your own room! I was drawn to the school by the spiritual foundation it seemed to describe on the web site and the tour but really its filled with a bunch of pretentious kids doing acid and burning through their trust fund. My second day of classes we meditated for THREE HOURS!...really naropa, so that is what my 40 grand a year is going to huh? This school is full of s*** and if you want a second opinion ask any CU student, they will just laugh at you. Please let this review spare you! Naropa needs to be shut down because our money is being throwed away to this so called college.









Mari G.

Mari G.
Boulder, CO
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1 review





4.0 star rating
11/1/2011
There have been many reviews on this site describing Naropa as a hippie-centric, Buddhist school. To an extent that's true, but it's a small portion of what's offered, so here's a more rounded overview. I studied for 2 years at a regular college, and I am familiar with the "typical" college experience. Here are the Pros/Cons of my experience in the Naropa undergrad psychology program:

Pros:

Naropa has small classes, which means that you can always ask for clarification, discuss confusing topics, and work with your instructors for difficult topics/assignments. In my opinion, this is one of the best things about Naropa classes.

The style of education provided at Naropa is based on the principle that information needs to be learned experientially as well as intellectually. This means that you are often asked to back up your research with examples from your own experiences, and you will get the chance to apply new areas of study to your life while you're still in school, instead of only after you've graduated.

If you are interested in Naropa because you want to be a therapist, it provides you with something that (as far as I've discovered) no other accredited school does. While other schools can teach you how to diagnose a client, utilize various modalities, and answer test questions in ways that institutions like, they cannot teach you how not to burn out. I was recently told that as many as 3/4 of individuals who graduate with a degree in psychology are working in an unrelated field within 5 years. One reason for this is that working with others' emotional difficulties is incredibly draining, and most schools just don't know how to train you to work with that.

There is a lot of emphasis on yourself. While most psychology programs only teach you about other people and their "problems", Naropa recognizes that we all have psychological issues, and that as therapists, we will need to know how to deal with our own issues so that we don't project them onto our clients. Aside from the regular classes (Developmental Psych, Statistics and Research Methods, Personality Theories, etc.), there is an entire series of classes designed to teach you how to work with your own emotional and psychological issues in an active and effective way.

Cons:

Naropa is expensive. Last I checked, the undergraduate program is about 24,000 per year. You can apply for federal financial aid (FAFSA), since the school is accredited, but the federal grants and school scholarships will probably only cover about half of the tuition at best. Boulder is also very expensive. When I moved here, I shared a cramped, poorly maintained 2 bedroom apt with two other people that was 3 miles away from the school, and it cost $1200 total. Closer to the school, one bedroom apts may be as much as $1500-$2000 per month. Restaurant's and stores are more expensive here too. Minimum wage, as of 2011, is only $7.35, and it can be hard to find well-paying jobs if you're not a professional, because there are so many college students that will work for nothing in this town. Prepare to rack up student loans if you don't have anyone else paying for this stuff.

Naropa's undergraduate program will seem less academic than regular schools; and in a way, it is. You won't have as much memorization to do, and there aren't as many tests. A lot of the exams aren't traditional, and might be easier than exams in other schools. There is still a lot of learning that goes on, but a lot of it isn't quantitative. You can only measure things in numbers until your system for measuring is no longer applicable to what you're measuring. If you need stringent academia, you'll have difficulty here.

The options are limited. It's a liberal arts school, but you can't major in philosophy, or all-inclusive religious studies. The only foreign languages offered are Tibetan and Sanskrit. I transferred 60 credits (the maximum number allowed), and barely had enough elective credits left for a minor. You also won't be able to overlap classes and get two majors. You'll need to use all of your electives (assuming you have enough) to take the required classes for a different major.

You will have to deal with the other Naropa students...which is fine if your parents pay for everything. If you support yourself or have significant obligations (children, a mortgage, etc.), it'll be hard to listen to all of the youngsters discussing their summers building houses for the poor in Thailand. You will also have difficulty with your classmates who are inexplicably oblivious to issues of race, discrimination, poverty, and the other things that come with being a working class citizen.

Overall, I recommend Naropa. It offers a style of education that no other school does. It offers to give you the training you'll need to effectively help people instead of just teaching you to slap a label on them and pass them along. And you'll grow as a person, whether you want to or not.









Diana H.

Diana H.
Phoenix, AZ
0 friends
1 review





5.0 star rating
7/2/2013
An expensive program if you can afford it, but for me I say it was the best money I ever spent. I did the Master's Buddhist Studies program and now work as an adjunct Religious Studies Professor in AZ. This program definitely prepared me as it presented me with intellectual challenges as well as real life encounters with Religious masters in the field. I also happened to be there during Sept 11th and taking a graduate seminar in Islam- even for a super liberal campus you saw serious conflict there, which looking back I am grateful. Naropa also provided the safe emotional space for real exploration of both deeply held cultural and personal beliefs. I still to this day believe it was best three years of my life. It is the only university in the country that really makes you examine your life and helps you transform into a better person. Intellectualism should not only be a conceptual, dry pursuit. It should really help you evolve as a human being. Sadly this is not our ethos in the world. But Naropa thankfully gives a serious dose of needed sanity. Much love.

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Naropa University is a very small four-year, private not-for-profit school with 1,020 students enrolled. This college is one of the 5 colleges located in Boulder, Colorado.
Academic Offerings




Majors
Offered

18
1-year certificate, bachelor's degree, and master's degree are available at Naropa University.

Naropa University follows a semester-based curriculum calendar system and has 18 majors. The most popular concentrations are Psychology, English and Literature, Education, Theology and Religion, and Natural Resources and Environment. Read the details about Majors offered at this college and see prorgam Ratings against other colleges.

It is worthwhile to know student retention and graduation rates before you apply to a school to get your diploma or to engage in a long-term study; high retention and graduation rates are usually a good sign. Nevertheless, if you are planning to transfer or take non-credit coursework, these metrics are not important.

Student Retention

51%
The student retention rate at Naropa University is low at 51% (way below Colorado average). Considering this statistic, apparently students somewhat enjoy their stay at this school.

(By contrast, student retention rate at the University of Denver is 86%
[www.american-school-search.com])

The graduation rate at Naropa University is low - 46%. Nearly 14% of the school's undergraduate students transfer to other colleges.

Student to faculty ratio at Naropa University is good -- 11:1. Find out more on faculty at this college in the Faculty & Salaries report.
Tuition and Loans




Tuition and fees per year


$27,800
Average tuition costs are very high - around $27,600 per academic year. The additional fees at Naropa University (not included in tuition costs) are nearly $200; this totals $27,800 per academic year.

Read the details about Naropa University additional charges as well as availability of loans and likelyhood of repayning them upon graduation in the Tuition & Loans report for this college.
Admissions Information

Acceptance
Rate

83%
As reported in recent data, 93 applications were submitted and 77 were accepted; so it is easy to become a student at this school.

This college might accept dual credits and advanced placement credits (college-level courses taught in high school) at entry.

Dual Credits
Accepted


Yes
The undergraduate application fee at Naropa University is $50.00. The graduate application fee is $60.00. The first-professional application fee is also 60 dollars.

To request the most accurate and up-to-date information about enrolling to Naropa University and a program that best suits your goals and budget, call this school's general information office at (303) 444-0202 or check Naropa University Website.
Opportunities and Services

Dormatory
Annual Price

$5,500
Naropa University provides a distance learning option and study abroad programs.

There are options for on-campus part-time employment at Naropa University, which allows students to cover some of the tuition expenses. Additionally, this school helps students to evaluate their career options and to find a full-time job upon graduation.

Safety
Grade

C+
Naropa University offers on-campus housing. Dormitory capacity at this college accommodates around 200 students, which offers a viable on-campus housing option. The room price is reasonable, roughly $5,500 per year.

Based on the college crime information, Naropa University appears to be a relatively safe school. Read the details in the Campus Crime report for this college.