I ETS out of the Army in ten months and will be using my GI bill to go to school. Since I am from Youngstown OH I have no desire to stay there. I am looking in to UC, NTU in Denton, Texas and A few other places in the West, South-West region. I was wonder about the traffic and cost of living. Looking at craigslist renting a room doesn't seem too bad as The BAH rate is $1500. but what about food, utilities , fuel and stuff like that. Would it be better to look to one of the smaller towns like Gunbarrel or Louisville and commute?

Think of Lafayette, Louisville, Superior, Gunbarrel as outlying suburbs of Boulder(though not actually true in the technical sense they are in terms of a commute into Boulder), Some parts more expensive than others.  I could not reasonably describe housing cost as I have not been in the market.  Depening on your willingness to drive The North west Side of Broomfield and Westminster wouldn't add too much onto that commute.
 

Shit just learned that the VA stop paying BAH for simester breaks and the summer.

I am a senior at CU and it is a great school and a fun, but very liberal city. I like in superior for about 800 a month compared to living in boulder and paying upwards of 1000, and I  commute to boulder every day which takes about 15 min. You would love everything about boulder except their pov and getting parking tickets. Great restaurants everywhere in superior, Brookfield, Louisville and boulder, and you would be about 20 min from Denver.

That's a good thing.

Off topic: How is it?

I lived in Boulder for years, went to CU... left just a few months ago actually.  I loved it, but I had plenty of like-minded friends to go shooting, yell at hippies, do stuff with.

It is super-lib, and I kinda got used to it.  At first it was tough to be around so many idiotic people, but I stopped letting myself get upset.  It's a beautiful city, close to the slopes, close to Denver, tons of great local breweries, good bar scene with lots of... scenery

88-93 and 75spill are right.  For a year I lived in Broomfield and did the commute to school - it was nice to go home outside Boulder, and be closer to Denver.  That would also be good if you don't want to be inundated with hippies and liberalism right off the bat.

In terms of food, fuel, utilities, Boulder compares very closely with surrounding areas.  The only things to consider about living outside Boulder and commuting vs inside Boulder are:
- Rent
- Commuting costs (time+money) [there are some good bus routes]
- Psychological cost of living inside the People's Republic of Boulder

So, depending on how many people you know inside Boulder, I would certainly recommend a bit of a commute.